Upload
hexanotes
View
218
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
8/10/2019 Engaging Ideas Chap 5
1/26
Engaging Ideas
The Professor's Guide
to Integrating Writing,
Critical Thinking,
nd Active Learning
n the Classroolll
: : JO
SSY B
ASS PUB
LISHE
S
S
an
Francisco
-
8/10/2019 Engaging Ideas Chap 5
2/26
Published
by
-I
JOSS
EY- BAS S
.
A
Wiley
Company
350 Sansome St.
San
Francisco
, CA
94104
1 wv.lw.)osseybass.com I
o p y r i g h
2001
by
John Wiley & Sons, Inc
Jossey -Bass ts a regtstered uademark of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
o part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a rerrieval sys tem,
or
rransmitted n any
form or by any means, electronic, me chanical, pho )copying, recording, scanntng. or o
rherw15e
except
as
penmltted under Sections
1
07 or
108
of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, withour
either the prior written permission of the Publlsher o r authorization through payment of the
appropriare per-copy fee to rhe Copyrig
ht
Clearance Cemer, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danver.;,
MA
01923,
978 )
750-8400,
fax 978)
750-4744 Requests to rhe Publtsherfor permission should be
add
ressed
to
the
Pem1issions
Department, John
Wiley
& Sons, inc., 605 Third Avenue, New
Yotk, NY
1
01 58-0012
,
212
) 850601 ,
fax 212) 850-6008
,
e-mail [email protected].
Jossey-Bass
books and productS are available through most bookstores. To contact
Jossey
Bass directly, call (888) 378-2537, fax to 800) 605-2665, or
v i,
our website at
www.josseybass.com.
u b ~ r a n [ i a l di..scounts on bulk quantities of Jossey,Bass books (lIe available
to
corporarions,
pro
fe5.
ion(l1
assoc iario
ns,
and other
or
galllzations. F
or
de(ails and discount tnformation,
contact the special les depanmenr at e y ~ B a s
We
at
J o s s e y ~ R a s s strive
to
use the mosr environmentally sensinve paper stocks avallable to us.
Our publtcanons are printed on acid-free recycled stock whenever
possible,
and out paper always
meets or excee
ds
mmimum GPO and
EPA
reqUIrements.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bean, John C
Engaging ldeas: the professor s guide
to
integrating wri ting,
critical thinkmg, and active learning in the classroom
John C
Bean. - 1st ed.
p.
cm.- (The Jossey-Bass higher and adult education
se
ries
Includes bibliographical references and ind x.
ISB
N 0-7879-0203-9
1.
English
language-Metoric-Stud),
and teaching 2. Critical
thinking Stud) and teaching
l l i t l
e n Se ries.
PE1404 B35
1996
808
042
dc20 95-36265
FIRST ED m O N
PB
Prinhng 10 9 8 7
http:///reader/full/wv.lw.)osseybass.comhttp:///reader/full/wv.lw.)osseybass.comhttp:///reader/full/wv.lw.)osseybass.comhttp:///reader/full/wv.lw.)osseybass.comhttp:///reader/full/wv.lw.)osseybass.commailto:[email protected]:///reader/full/www.josseybass.comhttp:///reader/full/wv.lw.)osseybass.commailto:[email protected]:///reader/full/www.josseybass.com8/10/2019 Engaging Ideas Chap 5
3/26
CH PTER
5
Forlllal Writing
A
ssignlllen
ts
P
ar
t T
wo
of thi s
book
focuses on th e design of problem -based
assignments to promote critical thinking and active engagemen t
wi th
cour
se subject matter. The presen t chapter concerns the
des.ign of fo
rm
a l
woting
assignmen ts,
whic
h call s for finished
p rose Formdl writing usually requires multiple drafts and is
thus
di
tin
g
uish
ed
from e
qua
lly
important
inf
or
mal,
exploratory
w
nt
ing
ai
med a t genera
ti
ng , de velopin
g
and ex
tendin
g thinking on a
subject
(How to use i
nform
al explora tory vvriting in your courses
is
the subject of
Chap
ter Six )
Formal wr i ting can
rang
e
from
lengthy
research papers
to
short
(on e- or
two-paragraph)
micro themes, The
chapt
er's
initial
focus is
on
th esis-gov
erned
academic wri ting, bu t the cone ud ing
sec tion su rveys
alterna
tive kinds of assignments that let stud ents
wr
ite
in
d more personal voice
in
c varie ty of m
odes
and s ty les
Th
e Tr
ad
itio
na
l et
ho
d of
s
signing
Writi
ng
In Am er ican uni ve rsities, the
traditi
onal way to a ign writing
goes
som
e thing like
thlcc
There w ill be a term paper due at the
end of th e semester, The term paper can be on any aspec t of the
co ur se
tl
l a t
interes
ts yo u , but I
hav
e to
approve
your tOpiC in
ad vance," Abou t lv lfway thro ugh the term, s tud
en t
s subm it pro
po sals for
tl
Tics-us ually stated as a topic area ra ther than as d
Iesearch
ques
tion or tentative thes is. The ins tructor either approves
7
8/10/2019 Engaging Ideas Chap 5
4/26
7
ngaging Ideas
the topic or ad vises that it be narrowed , som
etim
es giving prelimi
nary advice for bibliogr aphic items In
man;'
ca ses,
no
fur ther con
tact be tween teacher a
nd st
uden t occurs . At the end of the term,
the teacher collects
and grades
the peipers Some teachers
mark
the
pap
ers copiously; others make onl y cryptic end comments Much
to teachers d isa
pp
ointment, many
students
never pick up
their
papers from the te
ac
her s offic
e.
lte rnative pproaches
to
ssign ing Writing _
As one of many alte rna tive approaches, consider the method used
by fin anc e professor Dean Drenk (Dren k, 1986; Bean, Drenk, and
Lee ,
19
86), who re
quires
a ser ies of short
essays
, ea ch of w
hich
must
support either the positiv e or the negative side of a thesis on
a controversial question in finan ce. Th e tl,eses , ' ' ' 'hich Dr enk
sequences from easy to d ifficult, ar e co
nstruct
ed to cover var i
ou
s
key issues in the field such as the follovving
Th e mark et is/is not efficient in st rong
-form
, random-walk
terms.
Bonds are / are not more risky inves tme
nt
s than stocks.
Random diversification is/is
not
m ore reliable
than
selective
di versifica bon.
Each thesis support assignmen t re
quires
s tudents to unde
rs t
and
and us e key course conce
pts
while s
imultan
e01Jsiy practicin g
th
e
methods of inquiry, research, and argumentation in fin ance. Stu
de
nts
must use library research skills to find relev
ant
data on their
assigned issues, analyze th e
data
, devel
op
reas oned positio
ns
,
and
p roduce empiricall y supported
argum
ents
Dr
en k requires stu
de
nts to me et minimal s tanda rds on ea ch thes is support essay
before progressing to the next a
nd encourag
es
stud
ent s to r
ew
rite
their essays for higher grades, tllUS stimulating revision. He pro
vides fe edb ack
through an
evaluati\ e chec ksheet fo cusmg on the
q uality of critica l thinkin
g,
the clarity of writing,
an
d the
adequacy
of empirical support
Traditi onal and lte rnative Methods Com pared _
The first of these methods-
th
e trAditional one- can be excelle
nt
for skilled upper-di ision students wllo hav e alr
eady
learned the
conventions of inquiry
an
d argulllentation in a
di
scip llne At some
point
in the ir undE I t;raduate care, ; s, we want to
turn
students
8/10/2019 Engaging Ideas Chap 5
5/26
Forma l Writing ssignments
7
loose
and
say, Okay, now talk
and
w rite like a n w m
em
ber of this
discipline Go find you r ow n top ic a
nd
do something interes ting
with
[Jut for many co
ll
ege wri ters, such freed
om is de
bilita ting. Not
ye t at home wi th academic wri ting or with th e disco urse conven
tions of a new discipline, these students are
ap
t to produce wander-
ing
aU
a
bout
papers ra ther than arg
ument
s or quasi-plagiari
zed
data dum ps with long, pOintless
quotations
and thinly
disguised
pa rap
hrases Even
worse,
s
tud
ents may res
or
t to ou tright plagia
rism . Because
th
e tradition
al
t
erm paper
assignment
does not
g
uid
e students toward f
orm
ula tin g a prob lem and developing a
thesis, it o
ften does not s
timu
la te the complex thin
kin
g (and
hen
ce
the
need
for
multiple
drafts) that teac hers de si
re.
In
additi
on, tra
ditional
t
erm papers
oft
en do
little to
enhance
le
arning
of co
ur
se
con tent. They
supplement
a
cour
se b
ut
d o
not
foc us s tu
de
nts '
mental
ene
rgies on th e
most
important or most difficult cou rse
concepts or
issues.
In
co
ntrast, Drenk's thesis support assignments focus di rec tly
on course concepts and teach thesis-governed argum entation
in
the
discipline. In investigating a series of issues in finance , s
tudents
see
that
knowledge
in this discipline is
not
a co
ll
ec tion of i
ner
t princi
ples and data
but
rather
an
aren
a for
inquiry
and
ar
gu ment. More
over, because Drenk's thesis sup port essays are s
hort (one
to t
wo
pages), s
tudent
s can re work them through
multipl
e re visions and
transfer what they hav e learned from
on
e essay to the nex
t.
Fur
thermore,
D
renk
's
em
p
ha
sis
on
s
tand
a
rd
s,
combined
w
it
h
his
allowi ng of rewr ites, o
ften
leads to a surprisingly high leveJ of stu
dent work.
Although
doubts al
wa
ys accompany teaching, Drcn k
says, I
know that
I am successful as a teacher when student s con
fes
s that they
learned
more through my writing assignm
en
ts than
t
hro
u
gh
any o ther academic activit
y
(Drenk, 1986, p. 55
The ffect of Slig
ht
Va riat
ion
s
in
ss ignment
Desi
gn _
When
de
sig
nin
g formal
wri
ting as sig
nm
en ts,
ins
tructor s sh
oul
d
consider
carefully the kin
d
of
w
ritin
g t
he
y
ho p
e for
and
th
e
pr
oce sses
th
ey wa
nt students
to f
ollow
Sometimes s
ligh
t
var
ia
tions in the wayan ins
tru
ctor d esigns a w riting task can cause sig-
nificant
differences both in
students '
writing
and
think
in g
processes a
nd
in their fina l
produ
cts. Consider my infor mal experi
ment with faculty in wri ting-acros s-the-curr ic
ulum
workshops at
three different insti tutions . Prior to each
wo
rkshop, I wanted par
ticipan ts to rea d
and
react to an article on expressi ve writin g
by
Ran d all Fre isinger
of
Mi ch ig an Techno log ical Uni ve rsi ty (see
8/10/2019 Engaging Ideas Chap 5
6/26
7
Engaging Idea s
Freisinger, 1980 ). I asked facu lty to writ
e,
as
hom
ework, an essay in
re
sp
onse to anyone of
th
e fo llm'v ing fo
ur
opt ions:
pt ion 1 W
rite
a tw o- to three-p
ag
e critica l
rev
iew of th e
Freisin ger article. Here is your c
han
ce to w rite an essay illus
b'atin g wh at professors really want when they ask s
tud
ents
to do an article or book review
ption 2.'
Wri te a two - to three -p age
criti
cal review
of
th e
Freisin
ger
article, but structure it in the follov.ring wa y p a
rt
on e sh ould be a two
-hund
re d- wo rd ab s tract that simply
surrun ari zes Freisinger s essay
with
o
ut
inj
ectm
g a ny of your
own ideas or opinions Part t"vo s
hould
answ er the fo llow
ing gues tion: "What d o you consid er to be the strengths and
we
Glkn
esses of Freising
er
' s \' iews
7
"
p
ti
on
3 . One d ay you receive the following letter:
Dear Professor X:
am in the p rocess o f collecting a nd repr inting major
articles that ha ve influenced the w riting-a cross-the-cur
ric
ulum
mo
vem
e
nt
in
th
e p as t two decad e
s.
Yo
ur nam
e
h
JS
been recommended to
me
because of your pa rticipa
tion in a recent writing-across -th e-cur riculum workshop.
One of the ar ticles that has
be
en nominated for my
co llec tion is Rand all Fre isinger s "Cross -Disciplinary
Writing Workshops: The
or
y
and
Pra ctice. " Since you were
ask ed to rea d this articl e for one of vour workshop s, am
very in teres ted in y
ou
r reaction to i t Did you
think
it was
an
imp
or
tant ar ticle
7
WhGlt imp act did it ha ve
on ), 01l
7
W
ould
yo u recommend th a t o ther pe ople inte res ted in
wri ting across the curriculum read this article
7
Any infor
mati on you could give me on yo ur reactions to
thi
s a rticle
wo
uld be most appr ec
iat
ed .
Sincere
ly,
Snav ely Snodgrass
Write a letter to Snavely resp onding to hi s gu es
ti
ons.
pt
io
4
.
Write a mini-play
in
whicll two or m
or
e facult y mem
bers get in an arg
um
ent over Freisinger 's ar ticle. Choose an y
setting vou w o uld like for yo
ur
p la y, su ch as a faculty
lo un ge or a loc al ta
ve
rn . f yo u \ ant, yo u ca n h a ve
Freisinger himself make a ca
me
o a
pp e
arance in y
our
play.
Yo
ur goal here is to ha ve at least one person who enthusias
ticGl
ll
y suppo
rt
s Fr
ei
s
inger
's vi e\
8/10/2019 Engaging Ideas Chap 5
7/26
.1
ormal Writi ng Assignments
whe reas nearly ha lf chose
option 2.
Pe
rhaps
su
rp
risingly the
more
p re scr
iptive
of the
hrst
tw o
assignments
was
the more
popular.
Appare ntly a large proport ion of faculty as welJ as of stud en ts,
prefer assign ments with some gu iding c
on
straints.
[ he o the r fr
eq
uently chosen op tion-ab ollt 40 percent of facul
ty-
wa
s option
3,
the informal letter. But the difference in process
between writers of option :2 and ootion 3
is
re vealing. Option 2 peo
ple reported spending t
wo
or three hours on the assignment and
w ri ting at least tw o dr afts. Thev also reported a careful rereading of
the Freis inger article in ord er to compose the ab stract. Option 3
people, however, usually repo rted spending less than an ho
ur
on
the assignment. (In fact , many say they chose op tion 3 because it
seemed to require less
wo
rk.) Most option 3 writers composed their
letter in one sitting
fe
w rep orted revising their letters or rereading
the Freisin ge r article pr ior to writing . Despite less time on task,
however, the option 3 people often wrote more lively, provocative,
and interestin g pieces than the option 2 peop le
What is the lesson here? I hypothesize that an option 2 assign
ment encourages ca reful planning (including, in this CdC e, rereading of
the article)
and
formal to
p-d
o
wn
organizing. An option 3 assignment
encourages more personality, voice, ene r
gy,
and spontaneity.
IlL
my
own courses, I hy to give students opportunities for both kinds of wri t-
ing.
My
experiment with option 3 has led to the occasional thought
letters I often require of my students as part of their ex ploratory w rit
in
r
for my CO
UIses
s
ee Chapter
Si;x).
But I use assignments like option
2 to encourage
th
oughtful study of difficult material and to teach struc
tured, analytical reading and response
The las t assi
gnmen
t t e mini-pl ay- was chosen by onl y a
handful of workshop particip an ts, but the ir engagement w
ith
tb e
assignm ent wa s intense . They got into it, often reporting six or
seven hours of wor
k.
In several instances, th
ei
r pla ys evolved into
humorous sa tires of their own institutions. Whereas the other w rit
ers wrote out of dut y, the op tion 4 people' wrote for their own plea
sure
(In the ja rg on of
composition sp e
cialists, th e assi gnment
became self-sp onsored. ) The task become a crea tive project like
writing
the script for a banquet roast. Proud of their work op tion 1:
people wanted to go public, and at one institution they even in sist-
ed on performing their playas a wo rkshop finale .
rvly p o int is
that
instructo rs can influ ence the th in
kin
g
and
w riting processes of th eir students by vary ing
such
aspec ts of th e
ass ignmen t as th e aud ience, the rhetorical context, the w ri ter 's
assum ed role, the purpose
or
the forma
t. When planning
assign
ments
therefor
e, te
achers need to co
nsider
not only the lea
rning
goals the y have set for th eir courses
but ell
so the thinking and writ
ing processes that thev want to invoke in their students as
leJ.
rners
8/10/2019 Engaging Ideas Chap 5
8/26
ngaging
Ideas
8
TIle
remaining
sec tions of this
chapter
focus
on
issues of
plan
ning, designing, and gi\'ing formal w riting assignments
Revi
ew o
Cou rseGoals
as
Prepar
at
ion
or DesigningA
ss
ignments _
_
Des
igning
critical thinking tas ks works
best
if teachers focus their
assignments
on
their main tea chi ng goals for the course. Prior to
des igning ass ignm
en
ts, teachers can
inventory
their
course
goals
conSidering answers to the follow ing questions:
1 What
ar
e the main units
or
modules in my course? (For
exampl
e,
two weeks on
X,
four days on Y, and another
tw
o
weeks on Z )
2. Wha tare m.y main Jearning objecti ves for each of the
se
modules and
for the
whole cour
se?
What
ar
e
the
chief con
cepts and
principles
that I want s
tude
nts to It'am in each
unit or module?
3.
What thinking skills am I trying to develop within each
uni
t or module and througho ut the
whole
cllur se? (Such
skills
includ
e \Nays of observing,
habits
of
mind
,
que
s tion
ing strategies, use of
evidence-wha
tever thinking process
es are important in your cour se or discipline To put
it
another way,
what
wa ys of thinking characterize a histori
an, an accountant, a chemist, a nurse,
an
d so fortll?)
4. Ba sed
on
pr evious students ' exp erience, what are the most
difficult aspects of m y
cour
se for s
tudents
?
5.
Jf
I could ch ange my s
tudents'
stud y habits, what
wo
uld
I
most like to change?
6
\t
Vh at difference do I want m y
course
to make in my stu
dents ' live
in their
sense
of self, their va lu es, their "vays
of thinking?
What
is
my
unique
stamp
on this course? Ten
years later, "",hat do I want th em to remember most about
m v course?
Of course, it is imp
ossi
bl e to d esig n. assignments th at have
an
impact on every
bc
et of a cour se. But
te
achers can
put
together a
combination
of form a I
and
informa
I
vn i
ting ass
ignm
e
nt
s
and
other
kinds of critic
8/10/2019 Engaging Ideas Chap 5
9/26
9
.
,
-c
1/
r
Formal
Wr i
t i l Assignments
ments teachers have numerous options. We
turn first
to shor t
w assignments focusi ng on specific course concepts
or
thinking
skills.
Desig
nin
g Short Writeto
Learn ssig
n
me nt
s
_ _
Although
wr iting
to ie a
rn
is
often associated
w
ith informal
exploratory writing such as journals or lea rning logs (the
su
bject
of
Chapt
er
Six),
teachers can also
design
formal assignme
nts
th
at
help
s tudents leorn imp o rtant concepts
in
a course. In the
following
cases,
consider how
a
physics professor and
a
psychology
prafes-
sur developed assig
nment
s focu sing on key course concepts The
physir S professor
identified
accelera tion
an
d
velocity
as
difficult
concepts
for
beginning physics students w hile the psy ch ology
profl::ssor
identified operant conditioning. Ha
v
ing
identifi
ed
the
se
concepts, the professors then developed the following v
vrit
e
-to
lei1fll assignments (the
physics
a
ssignmen
t is
drawll
largely from
B
ean
Drenk,
and
Lee, 1986, p. 35).
Yo
u are Dr. Science. the
question-and-answer
person for a
popular
mag azi
ne
-
called ractical
Science
Readers of your magazine are invited
to submit
letters
to Dr. Science, who ans wers them
in
Dear Abby style in a special section of
the magJz ine. One day you recei ve the fo
llowing
letter:
Dear Dr. Science:
You've got
to
help me settle this
argument
I am
having
with my
girl
f
ri
end.
We
w ere watching a baseball game several weeks ago when this
guy hit
a
high pop-up
straight
over
the catcher's head. When it finally
came down, the catcher
caught
it
standing
on home plate. Well,
my
gir
l-
friend
told
me
that when
the ball
stopped in midair
Just
before it
started
back
down
, its v
elocity
was
zero
,
but
its acceleration was
not
zero. I said
she was
stupid. If something isn 't mov ing at all ,
how
could it have any
acceleration
7
Ever since then , she has been making a big deal out of this
and
won't le
me kiss her. I love her, but I
don't
think we can
get
back
together unti
l we setle this
argument. We
checked some phYSics
books,
but they
weren't
very clear.
We
agreed that I
would
w rite to you and l
et
you sett le the
argument
. But , Dr. Science,
don't
ju st te ll
us
the anSWN.
You've
got
to
explain
it
so
we
both
understand
because
my
girlfriend
is
really dogmatic.
he
said she
wouldn't
ev
en
trus t Einstein unless he could
explain
himse lf clearly.
Sincerely,
Baseball Blues
Can this
relationship
be saved
7
Your task
is to
w rite an
answer to
Basebal l
Blues. Because space in yo
ur
magazine
is limited
, restr
ic
t your
answer to what
can be
put
on a Single
fi
ve-
by
eight-inch card.
Don't
confuse Baseball and his
8/10/2019 Engaging Ideas Chap 5
10/26
8
Engaging
Ideas
gir l friend
by
using any special physics
terms
unless you explain clearly what
they
mean.
Here's the
psychology
assignment.
-
Consider
the follovving
problem:
.
- -
n
the
morning when
Professor Cat love opens a
new
can
of
cat
food
his
cats run I
nto
the kitchen
purring
and
meowing
and
rubbing
the
ir
backs
against hi s legs . What
examples if
any,
of
classical
conditioning ope
rant
condi tioning
, and soc ial
learning
are at work in
this brie
f scene
7
Note
that
both
the cats
and
the professor
might
be exhibiting cond itioned
behav ior here.
You and some
fellow
classmates have been
discussing
this
problem over
cof-
fee, and you are convinced
that
the
other members of your group
are confused
about the concepts. Write a one
to two-page
essay
that
sets
them straight.
These ass ignments
require
students to apply the target con
cepts to
new
situations
and
to articulate their
thinking
processes
clearly to a new l
earn
er
Assignments like these can prompt intense,
purposeful
rereading of textbooks and class notes while stimulating
out-of-class
discussions
among students. Furthermore , students
report that
the act of
writing
often alerts
them
to
gaps
in their
understanding. In the operant conditioning problem, for example,
studen ts reported in interviews
with
me that it
was
easier
to
ex
plain
how the
professor conditioned
the cats
than
how the cats condi
tioned the professor, yet it was in their contemplation of the latter
c se
that the concept of a le
arned
behavior became most clear.
rom a teacher's perspective,
these
assignments-because
they are short
-have
the
additional
benefit of being easy to g
rade
They use what
we might
call the principle of leverage: a small
amount of writing preceded by a grea t amoun t of thinking. Such
short
assignments, or micro themes,
can
be
very
effective at maxi
mizing learning
while
minimizing
a
teacher's grading
time. For a
discussion of
how
to grade micro themes using models feedback
rather than
writing
comments on the essays, see Chapter Thirteen,
page 236.)
Using Short Write to Learn
Ass
ignments
for Formati
ve Ass essme
nt
_
In designing vvrite-to-learn
assignments,
we obviously hope that
they
will help students
learn the desired concepts. Often-to our
disappo
intment
and
chagrin-this
is
not
the case.
What
many stu
dents' reveal in their microthemes is
the depressing variety
of
8/10/2019 Engaging Ideas Chap 5
11/26
8
.-. \
-
-
:J
orma
l
Wr
i t
ing
s signments
ways that they can misunderstand the very concep
ts Vve hoped
tbev would learn.
N
v
rthele i
i
,
students
errors, mistakes,
and
n:lisunderstand
ings can gi ve us valuable insights into t
beir
thinking pro esses
and
provide d ues about how to redesign
and
sequence instruction. As
recent
work in formative assessment has demonstrated
(Angelo
and Cross,
1993) , teachers vvho regularly
assess
their students
und, rstanding of
concepts as
a course p
rogresses
can
adjust
instruction to improve the quality of learning For assessing stu
dents learn ing, short write-to-learn
assignments
are
particularly
etfective
because
they provide
direct
windows into students
think
ing
processes
Consider
three student
responses to the
physics microtheme
on
acceleration
versu
c
velocity
The
teacher graded
the
micro
themes
on a 1 (lowest) through 6 (highest) scale using the grading
rubric
sho'Vvn in Chapter Fifteen
(page
263). Tbe
following
micro
theme received
a
top
score of 6:
Ask your girlfriend's forgiverless because she is absolul
y
right. An
ever day definition of acceleration means speeding up But the sci
en tific meaning is more precise It .neans the rJte Jt which spc ' or
direcl iOl
changes over a certain period of time two things rea
lly.
Thus
it
is indeed possible for the L J ~ l l
to
still be accelerating even
when it has zero velocity
I i
the baseball
haa
no acceleration when
it
stopped in mid air,
it would
t10at in the air where
it
stopped forever.
A baseball can accelerate in either of two wavs. It CJn change
its speed or it can change its direction of traveL
If
it does either or
both of these things over period of time it has accelerated. As the
baseball
stopped
in midair its speed- or velOCity- became zero. Yet
the acceler,l tion was not zero because, like a stretched
out
spring,
8/10/2019 Engaging Ideas Chap 5
12/26
Engaging Ideas
acceleration soon
became
deceleration (a decrease in sp eed w ith
tim e) as the
downward
pull of the earth became strong enough
to
decrease
upward
acceleration to O This force
is
called
gravity and
by
definition accelerates a free falling
bod
y at 32
ft.
/ sec.'
in
the
down
ward direction. When the ball
paused
at the
peak
of its flight, before
beginning its descent, the upward acceleration and the downward
acceleration
were
equal, even
though
the ball was stationary.
Student s icrotheme
It makes me
sad
to hear that
you
have los t
your
girlfriend ove r such
a trivial
problem have some
good
news
for you,
though.
You are
right. An object cannot have 0 velocity and
have
acceleration too
hope
th
at with
the arguments lay for th in the
next
few
paragraphs
you
two
can reconciliate.
First, ve locity is defined as h
ow
far
an
object
moves during
a
certain tim
e.
If
an
object is
moving
then,
in
any
direction, it
ha s
velocity.
n airplane
is a
good
example of thi
s.
It flies
at
a certain
velocity such as 160 miles
per
hour, which means it covers 160
miles
every
hour
it is in the air. Nex t
we
need a definit ion of acceleration.
This is simply the change
in
velocity over a certain period of time. If
you have an object
that
is moving
at
a
constant
veloci
ty.
and covers
the sa me
amount
of distance during each time period, then it cannot
h ve any change in velocity and thus any acceleration. Going back
to the airplane we see
acceleration when
it speeds up or slows
do wn.
j\ow we can use these two above concepts to give an
answer
to
your question. If
you h ve
an object having no velocity it can
have
no
change
in
that
velocity,
thu
s it
cannot
be accelerating.
If
this is
still not clear
think
of the
airplane
si
tting
in its hangar. It
has no
velocity just sitting there, right? Therefore it
cannot
be accelerating
or it
would run
through the
side
of the building
l
TIle baseball
is
the
same
way.
hope
that
the
explanation above
w ill
help
your
girl
friend
to
see the light.
Student A's
microtheme
reveals a
problem-solving
s
trat
egy
commonly
encountered among
novices
to
any
discipline-what
one of
my
colleagues calls text-parroting .
Unsure
of the answer,
the student uses the textbook as a crutch,
attemptin
g to imitate its
authority by
creating a dense,
academic-sounding
style
complete
with impre
ssive technical
data
( This force is called
gravity
and
by
definition accelerates a free falling
body
at
32
ft / sec.
c
in the
down
ward direction ). To nonspecialist re
aders,
this strategy is often
succe ss ful what students
in
my
part
of
the
countr
y call a
snow
job When sho
wn
student
A's micr
othem
e,
beginning
physics
stud
ents
(and
many faculty
members
ou tside of science)
often give it a
top-ranking
score of 5 or 6. When it is pointed out
that student A never actually answers the question (is the girl
friend right
or
wrong?) , the
weakness
of this microtheme starts to
em
erge.
To h
el
p te xt-parroter s make progress on their
next
8/10/2019 Engaging Ideas Chap 5
13/26
Forma
l W
ri t ing
ssignments
8
micro theme i g n m e n t the inctructor tn urge them to replace
their
current
strategy ( When in
doubt/
so und like the textbook )
\\'ith a
more
productive
one
III
which
they
explain
the
answer
in
their own words.
To
S(: 12 how a history professor helps students
overcome text-parroting, see Walvoord and McCarthy, 1990, pp
97-143.)
In contrast, student B
writes
admirably in his own voice but is
led astray
by
his inability to transfer his own
private
analogy (the
airplane sitting in the hangar)
to
the problem of tbe baseball in
midair. The minot-herne's structure records the student's thinking
process as he proceeds
systematically from
what he
knows
to what
he is trying to learn Despite his misunderstanding
by
the
end
(the
middle
paragraph shows a correct understanding of ve locity and
accele rJtion when ap p lied to the simple examele of the
airplane
in
fligh t), tIle student may be only a few moments away from an
aha
l
experience. A few probing
questions from
the instructor
mi
gh
t make the
concept
snap in to place for the s tudent. By dis
cuss ing microthem es such as this one, the instructor
can
review the
concepts of acceleration and velocity while helping the cl 5S see
where
and
how analogies
can be helpful or break do w n.
My
point
here is that short write-to-Iearn
assignments, though
not guaranteeing student learning, nevertheless provide a window
into students ' thinking that allows the instructor to
monitor
stu
dent progress, to readjust
instruction,
and
to develop teachin g
strategies that
reach diffe
rent kinds
of
learners
. (For a detailed
account
of ho w a
mathematics
professor
analyz
es
and responds
to
learnmg problems revealed in student writing, see Keith, 1989, pp
141-146.)
The Proc
ess
of iving a Formal Wr iting s signment _
Whether
yo u
assign micr
o
themes, two-
to
three-page
essays, or
long research papers, how you present the assignment to the class
can aff 'ct yo ur students' success.
Prepari ng a Student
Handout for
a Formal
Writing
ssignment
Students
appreciate handouts explaining each
writing
assignment.
Although
some teac
her
s give theu w
riting assignments
orally
or
place general explanations in their course syllabi, putting assign
ments on separate hand outs has several
advantages:
1) it meets
the needs of sensing or concrete
learners
(as
Identified
by
person
ality
inventories
such as the i'Ayers-Briggs), who comprise, accord
ing to S
chroeder
(1993, p 22), perhaps 60 percent of our entering
8/10/2019 Engaging Ideas Chap 5
14/26
8
ngaging Ideas
students and who seem paralyzed by vague assi
gn
ments th at do
no
t specify
what
the teacher w
an
ts;
(2)
it gives all s
tudent
s some
thing to refer to late
at
night when their class n otes
no
lo
nger
se
em
so clear; (3 ) if your
institution
has a \ ifi ting ce
nt
er, it he lps writing
consultants
understand
vhat
th
e professor is looking for
prior
to a
tu t
or in g session;
and
(4)
most
imp
ortantly, it
helps
the
professor
identify
potential problems with the assignment an d
thu
s clarify
it s purp os e and focus. Explan a tions of as si
gn
ments for formal
essays s worded for stu den t s should
usuall
y include the fol
lowing elements:
Task
Explain what the student is s upposed to write about.
Th e instructor oft n presents the ta sk as a
problem
or a
question for the student to add ress , a the sis to supp or t,
or
a
rhetorical mode or
form
to follow.
Role and aud ience Generally, ask students to write f
rom
a
position
of power to audiences who know less about the
topic than the writer or w
hos
e views
on
the topic differ from
the wri
ter'
s (for e
xam
ple, A
dd r
ess
your
paper to students
who missed last week 's classes, or, In yo
ur arg
um
ent
on
old-growth forests , ad dress your essay to the group th a t
opposes your position-either the logging industry or Earth
First, or, Address
your
essay to peer-scholars in this disci
pline who are in terested in your proposed question and will
look forwa rd to reading your findin gs an d analy sis) Ask
ing students to address the
teacher
, who ty
pi
u
ly kn ows
more
abo ut the topic than the s tudent, places the writer in
an
unnatural rh
etorical position
Format Specify ex
pe
cted length, manuscript form , and
sim ilar details. Sometimes an ass ig nm en t also s
pe
ciJ ies a
certain organ izational pattern
P
lace
your
the sis statement
prominently near th e end of yo ur in troduction, or, Use
th e s tand
ar
d scientific
report
format.
Expectations about the process to be followed Specify a time
schedul e for comp letion of first
drafts
, peer
rev
iew
work
sho
ps
, revisions, and so forth. Ask s
tud
ents to save all
doo
dles, notes, out lin es, and draf ts and to submit these
along
wi th the final
essay
(This
requirement
e
ncour
ages students
to follow the recomm ended
pro
cess
and
effectively discour
ages plagiarism.)
Criteria for evalua tion Explain hol'v t
he
final product will
be gra ded Will y
ou
gr
ade
essays holistically with a single
letter grad
e?
If so, w
hat
arc the criteria for
an Or
will
you grad e analy tically by weig
hin
g d ifferent fe atures sepa
8/10/2019 Engaging Ideas Chap 5
15/26
1.\ -e i
//
Fo rmal Wri t ing
Assignments
rately
'
1f so
, how
much
w
eig
ht w ill be
gi
v
en
to il
JS '
To
ll
rg lO izJtl( )n and develu
pment?
To sentence
stvlc
and redd-
ab
ili ty? To
mechani
cs,
appea
rance
cHid manuscript f lT
n )
S
ee
Cli J p te r Fit teen for a
discussion ,I
f g ril
ding
)
Here is an example
of
an e
ff
e
ctive
as
signment hand
out for
an
upper
-di vision busine ... co ur se .
The
Situation
You have recen tly been hi red as a resea rch assistant to business consul i"nt
Wilbur Jones, who has j ust taken on a new consu lt ing project for
St
eamboat
Bee
r,
a gro wing reg ional firm that hopes to go na
tr
onal. One morning, Wilbur
sends you th e follow ing memo:
Before my meeting
next
week with the
Steamboat
people, I neeu ' [ 'Iorma
tion on beer companies that have
recently
1001 market share. I W
lnt
you
to ' ind au , wh,H went wrong with Pabst. Plb st Blue Ribbon was d majo r
company
when I was in college .
Now
you
hardly
even hear
about
It. Get
back to me w ith
an
ana lysis ASAP. What happened at Pabst and wh y?
You have he.Fd that Wilbl 'r likes his reports
SUCCinct
and to the point , w it h
mea nings
highlighted
up tront.
He
is a 'scan reader"
who
want s to get the gi st
of
report quickly.
Your Task
After
re
ad ing, studying, and
analyzing
the assigned case m a
ter
ials on the Pabst
Br
ew
ing Company, prepare
your
report for
W
ilbur.
Make sure th at it has two
part
s:
I)
a b l,ef chronolo gical narrative sho w ing w hat happened at Pab st , and
(2) an analysis o f what went
wrong.
Process Stages for
the Assignment
I.
Rea d the c se mat erials on Pabst.
2. Analyze case matenals In small groups (we'l l do this in class).
3. Write r
ough drafts; complete
out-of-class peer re v ie lNs.
4. Sub mit
"e
xecutive summaries
' to instructor.
S. Rewrite drafts after peer review and comm ent s on execut ive sum mar ie s
by IIlstructor.
6. Su
bmit final
product.
Crading Criteria
Quality
of
na rrative (brief
but
clear picture
of
w hat happened at Pabst) : 10
po ints
Qualit
y of causal anal ysis (clearl y stated causes, good support , pla usible
and conVincing argument based on da tLl ): 30 poin ts
Readabili
ty
(top-dow n organization, good use of headings. clear sentences
wit
h no
confusing
passages): 20 points
Gr mmar nd correctness: 10 points
8/10/2019 Engaging Ideas Chap 5
16/26
ngaging Ideas
Having a Colleague Criti que Your ssig nment Hand out
A
good way
to fine-tune an ass ignment is to ask a colleague to read
it and role-playa
student, trying
to predict ho w students would
react. Then discuss with your colleague questions such as the fol
lowing:
1.
Is the assignment clear? Might a student mis
read
the assign
ment and produce som
et
hing
not an tic
ipated
? Is its purpose
clear? Will a s
tuden
t see how it fits into
cour
se goals?
2.
D
oes the
assignmen t seem interesting
and
challenging?
From a student s perspective, how difficult is this assig
n-
ment? How
much
time w ill it require?
3. What
kinds
of students would thi s assignment
particularly
appeal to?
What kinds of students
might
not like this
assignment?
4. Does the
assigmnent sp
ecify
or imply
a suitable audience?
Ar
e the
grading
criteria clear?
5.
Are
the
mechanics
of the assignment clear
d
ue
dates,
expected length,
manuscript
form, other particulars)?
6. Is the process I want students to follow as explicit as possi
ble?
Should
I
build
checkpo
int
s into the assignm
ent
(sub
mi ssion of a
prospectus,
abstract, peer
review
dates, and
so forth)?
7.
How easy
or
difficult will this ass
ignm
en t be to coach and
grade?
Such discussions
with
colleagues
may
help you see "ways to revise
the
assignme
nt to
make
it both stron
ger
and clearer.
Givi ng the ssig nment in ass
When
giving the
assignment
in class, allow
plenty
of time for stu
dent questions N o matter how clearly yo u
think
yo u have
explained the assignment, students will ferret out
ambiguities
If
possible
, show students an A paper
from
a previous class on a
slig
htly
different but related topic.
Even better
, if
you
can afford
the class time,
pa
ss ou t a set of representative essays, stro
ng
a
nd
weak,
and
ask
students
to
grad
e
them
for
themsel
ves in
an
in-class
collaborative session. (See
Chapter
Nine ,
pp.
158-159, for a discus
sion of group
scor
ing
sessio
ns. ) You can then explain how
you
wo
uld gr
ade
the pape rs in o
rder
to clarify
your expe
ctati
ons
.
Be
prepared for a lively discussion
8/10/2019 Engaging Ideas Chap 5
17/26
8
ormal Writing Assignments
Designing Assign me ntsThat Lead
to
Top
-Down Thesis-Governed Writing _
Cha
pter
Two
and part
of
Chapter Three pro
vide a rationale for
top-down, th
es
is-governed
wri
t ing-the prototypical structure of
academic prose. Such wri ting begins with the
pre
sen tation of a
problem to be add ressed; near the
end
of the
introduction, after
the wri ter has presented the problem, the wri ter states his or
her
thesis, ot t
en
accompanied by a purpose s tatem
en
t or a b
lueprint
st
ateme
nt that gi
ves
the reader an overv
iew
of the whole essay.
The b
od
y of the
paper
then
supports
the thesis wi th
appropriate
arguments and evidence Bec ause thesi s-governed writing does
not come naturally to s
tudents,
teache rs need to
encourage
it.
They
Can
do
so
by
s tru
cturing
their assi
gnment
s
in
one of three
ways
.
1.
Pre
se nt a
Propo sition
(Thesis) That
St
udents
re
Supposed
to Defend or Refute
Using this method, the teacher asks students to de fend or attack a
controversial proposition
or
to
defend one
of
two opposing propo
sitions. The teacher
s
task is to develop arguable
propositions
that
cover major concepts in the course. W
hen student
s are
asked
to
sup por t
or
at tack an assigned thesis, their mental energies, from
the start, are
channeled
t
owar
d
analysis
and argument
a tion
and
away from chronological or all ab out writing.
This proposed bridge deSign does/ does
not
meet
th
e cri
ter
ia set forth
by
t
he
city in it s request for proposal.
Ci
v il engineering]
"The path
to
holiness lies
through questioning everything.
" Ag
ree
or
disagree.
(Reli
gio us
studies]
Based
on the attached
ca se,
the
nurse
supervis or should/should not honor the
hus ba
nd
s reque st
that
his
wife
a
str
oke vi
ctim)
be aSSigned a
new
nurse.
[Nurs ing]
Sch
izophrenia
is
a brain disease./Schizop hrenia is learned behavior.
[P
sychology]
Merc
ur
y amalgam
filling
s are/ are
not
sa fe. [Research
project for
a course in sci-
entific
arg ument]
Global
warming
is / is
not
a sign ifi
ca nt environmental
t
hr
eat at this time.
[En
vi-
ronmenta l b io
logy
course]
An
al
ternati
ve is to present a controversial thesis but to ask
stude
nts
to take a position or approa
ch
that you specify.
8/10/2019 Engaging Ideas Chap 5
18/26
Enga ging I
deas
Write a I n er to th e
editor
agai nst the sa le s tax on the grounds of it being a
--4 _-
re
gressive tax . Explicitly use ratio and proportion to explai n to the uninformed
th e meaning of
regressive
t x [Mat hematic s]
Upon arri v ing hom e for Ch ri st mas, you di scove r y
our
father w riting a letter to
his repres entati ve in
Cong
ress
urging
th
e passage
of
legis l
ation
limiting
beef
irn r orts fro m Arge nt i na . He arg ues
th
at such
imports
pu t ran che rs
out
of bu si-
ness, cau e U S. pack ing houses to clos
e, 2.nd
generally make this coun
tr
y poor
er. You , on the basIs of yo
ur brilliant performa
nc e in Economics 105 , engage
yo ur father in a spi rited d iscussion
(In
other words, a heated argument). Write
the ar
gu
ment that y
ou
use to convince him of the error of h
is
position. Your
fa th er does n't
understand economic
ja rgon, so an y Jargon you use must be
expl aine d.
[Ec
onomi c
s]
Thesis-S
llppor
t w riting,
as
exemplifi ed
in
these
assignments,
vorks best \,,'hen st
uden
ts
ar
e
ur
ge d to c
ons
ider
op p
osi
ng
views
,
nd
to sift
and
w
eigh
ev
idence
on all
sides.
Teac
hers
can he
lp
s tu
d '
nt
s con sid er o
pposin
g v iew s by sho ving
th
em
l lOW
to add an
althou
gh
clause
to a
th
esis
s t
at
ement
al
ong with appropria
te
qualifiers:
A
ltho
ugh
there is so
me e\
'id
enc
e to
sug
ges t
that
schi
zo
p hreniJ is a learne d
beha
v io r, the
pr
ep o nderanc e
of
curr e
nt
res earch f
avo
rs the theo ry
that
schizophrenia is a brain disease.
In
addition, teac hers can allow students to revise tIle
pro
vided
th
esis
to
repres
ent
th
eir own arg ument
s m ore
accur
atel y F
or fu
r
ther
exa
mples
of
th
esis s
upport
assign ments, see
Chapt
er Seven,
page
124; see also, in Chap ter J
Tine,
the beli ev ing / doubting strategy,
pcges l Sb- 1 7; and
the ev
id
ence-fi
nding
strategy,
pa ges
2. Give Stu
dents
a Problem or Question
That
D
em
ands a Thesis
Answer
A second way to encou rage thesis-governed vvriting is to gi\ e st u
de
n ts a
que
s tion calling for l th
c
is stateme
nt answer
Often
yo
u
will nee u to give bac kground information
and
prc)\'ide ,1 context
f
or tI
l e problem
The
key to this
kind
of ass
ignment
is to sum
up
the
pro
blem in a one-sentence guestion , teJling
studen
ts
that th
eir
thesis s tatem.ents should be one -se
ntenc
e ans'Vve rs to this question.
H ere
ar
e
so me
ex
anip l
es (in
eCl
ch case, th e ins tructor's focu si
ng
question is ital
ici1:E'd)
Writ e an
es
sa y
of
no mo
re than
two doub
le -spaced pages
answe
rin g th e fol
low
ing auestlon:
Is
a skilled trou t fish
er
m n on a v ri ble il terval or a v n ble
r
tio sc
hedu
le
of reln
forcement
7
Imagine
that y
ou
are
wri
ting to a classmate
wh
o has miss ed the la st week of lectures and f inds tne te xtbook explan il t ions
of ' variable intel'va l and
var
iab le ratio conf u5lng . [Psychology]
Gaus s's
law
relates
i
1e f i
el
d at the sLirface ta the charge 1 side the
su
r face. But
8/10/2019 Engaging Ideas Chap 5
19/26
Form al Writ
ing
Assignment s
9
sure
ly
the field at the surface IS affected by the ch arges out side the surfac e.
ow
o you resolve this
if f
iccilt y [Mull i
n,
1989, p. 20 7] [Physi cs)
Ch
oose a q
ue
stion that Plato a
ns wer
s In one way and A
ri
stotle
an
swer s
in
a di ffer
ent
wa
y (fo r e
xamp
le, How do things ch
nge?
).
Then, in the first part of y
our
paper, explain to you r re ader the di fferences in thes e tw o theorie s. In the sec ond
part of
you
r paper, evalu ate the two pO Sition
s,
arguing th at one pOSition is
stronger thJ. n the other. In this section , specifi cally answer the following questio
n:
Wha t situati on or thing do
es
one theory explain well that the other cannot explain
adequately? [Philos oph yl
N ote tha t some teachers, in an understan dable effor t to guide
stud
en ts' thi nking, prov ide a w hole ser ies of
int
cne la ted ques tions
instead of a single fo
cu
sing question. My experience sugges ts that
this practice confuses s tudents more than it helps
C
onfusing
In th e graveyard scene of H amlet, Sha kespeare alters h is sources by
adding the cl
ow
nish grave di ggp rs. How does th e presen ce of the
gravedi
gg
ers influen ce your in terpre tation of the scen e? Do you
think they
re
fun
ny?
Abs
ur
d?
Bla
sphemou s? How does H
amlet s
Mtitud e t
owa
rd the graved iggers affect the sce
ne
? Do you think it is
app rop ria te to sin g while diggi
ng
a grave? W
hat
about the jokes
they telP Do you think that Yor ic k was mo re like the grave di
gg
ers
or more
li
ke Hamle t? Do you think it is appropriate to ha ve a light
h
ea
rted m
om
ent like this in the m iddle of a
tr
agedy?
Is
the scene
really lighthear ted ?
Although the instructor probably thinks of these questions as help
ful pro bes, students often
fe
el overwhelmed by them. Because the
questions seem parallel rather than hiera rchical, students are apt to
pro
du
ce a se ri es of sh ort answe rs , ad dr essi
ng
each ques tion tn
turn, ra ther than a uni
fi
ed essay
etter
In th e graveya rd sce
ne
of H amlet, Shake
sp
ea re alters his so m e s by
addin g the clow nish graved iggers. H
ow
does the presence of the
gr
Jvediggers influen ce y
ou
r i
nte
rp reta
ti
on of the scene?
Ph ras
ed
as a single question, the assignment n
ow
forces
th
e stu
dent to fram e a single ans w
er
as a thesis statement for the essay.
3. sk Students to Follow an Organizational Structure
That
Req
ui res a Problem-Thesis Pattern
The most open-end t u way of assigning thesis-gove
rned
w riting is
to give s tudents complete choice of top ic but to req uire tha t they
follow a prob lem-t
he
sis s
tru
c tur
e
Such a gen er ic ass
ignm
e
nt
guid es stude
nt
s
with
surprising effectivene ss toward theS is-gov
ern ed writing.
8/10/2019 Engaging Ideas Chap 5
20/26
9
Engaging
Ideas
Write
an
essay of X pages on
any
topic related to this course. se the introduc-
tion
of
your
essay to engage
your
reader s interest in a prob lem
or
ques tion
that
you
would
like
to
address in
yo
ur essay. Show
your
reader
what
makes the
question both significant
and
problematic
The
body
of
your
essay
should
be
your
own
response to thi s question made as persuasive as possible
through
appropriate
analysis and
argumentation
,
including effective
use
of
evidence.
Midway through
the course, you
will submit to
the
instructor
a
prospectus that
describes the
problem or question
that you plan
to
address and shows
why
the
question is (1) problematic and (2)
significant
Using
the
generic
assignment ha s a number of advantages.
First, for teachers who like to give students as much freedom as
possible, the generic
assignment
permits free choice of topics
while
g Uiding students t
ow
ard
thesis-governed prose that
addresses a
real problem. y
requiring
that the
introduction
set forth a prob
lem, the aSSignment implies both an
audience
and a purpose, thus
helping
inexperienced
writers
overcome their tendency toward all
ab o
ut papers
,
a
nd
then narrativ
es, or
unfocused data dumps.
Second, in its focus on qu estion asking, the assignment encourages
teachers to discuss the process of inquiry in their disciplines. By
teaching question asking in a
discipline, teachers
help
students
become active learners. Finally- and this is an advantage not to be
taken
lightly-
lhe
assignment
is easy to coach. We
ll
before the
aSSignment due date, students can be
asked
to submit a prospectus
explaining and focusing the question to be addressed (the prospec
tus later serves as a
rough
draft of the introduction . In r sponding
to the prospectus, the instructor can guide the student tow ard an
appropriately delineated
qu
es tion and thesis.
For shorter assignments, an even
simpl
er m ethod of screening
is
pos
sible teach
ers
can ask
students
to
submit two
sentences
their introductory question
and
their thes is statement, which can
be quickly checked for focus
and
direction. Conceptual problems
noted at this stage can often be
solved through
indi\ 'idual or group
conferences or through referral of the student to a teaching assis
tant or writing center consultant. (See Chapter Thirteen for further
discussion of this screening technique.)
Th e G
en
eric ss ig
nme
nt da pted to Science
an
d Engi
ne
ering
The
Sci
entific Report _
The typical re search report in the
ph
ys ical and social sciences or
engineering
follows the
structure
of the generic assig
nment
in that
the body of the report addresses a ques tion or problem set forth in
the introduction. But the body itself has a
conventional
structure
8/10/2019 Engaging Ideas Chap 5
21/26
J.
Fo rm
al
Wr iting
As signments
9
that students need t learn The following explanation of the scien-
tific report serves as a generic ass ignment for the sciences
The Formal
Sc
ientific Re
se
ar
ch ep
ort
A formal
scientific
researc h
report
is a
piece of
profes s
ional writ ing
addressed to
other
professionals
who are
interested
in the inv
estigation
you
conducted. They
will want
to k
now
wh y you did the inve st igation ,
how
you
did it,
what
you found
out
, and
whether
your
findings were significant
and
usefu l. Research
reports usually
follow a standard
five-part format:
(I ) i
ntro
duction,
(2)
methods,
(
3)
results , (4)
discussion
of
results, and (5)
conclusions
and
recommendations.
IntroductIOn
Here you explain briefl y the purpose of y
our in
vestigation .
What problem did you address? Why did you address
it?
You
will need to prov ide
enough
background
to
enable the reader
to understand
the
problem being
in
vestigated. Sometimes the introduction also includes a literature review sum-
marizing
previous research addressing the same or a related problem.
In many
scientific disciplines, it is also conventional to present a hypothesis-a tentative
answer to the question that y
our in
ves
tigation
will confirm or di sconfirm.
Methods
This is a
cookboo
k section
detailing hovv
you
did your
invest i-
gation. It pro vides enough details so that
other
researchers could replicate y
our
investigation. Usually,
this
s
ection
i
ncludes the
fo l
lowing
s
ubsections: (a
)
rese arch design , (b) apparatus and materials, and (c) procedures followed.
Results
This section, sometimes headed Findings
,
presents the
empiri
cal
results
of your
investigation. Often,
your
findings are displayed in figures ,
tables,
gr
aphs, or charts that are referenced in the text. Even though the data
are displayed in v is
ua
l
s,
the
text
it s
elf
should
al
so describe the
most
si
gnificant
data.
(I
magine that the figures are display
ed
on a view graph and
that
you
are
ex plaining t hem ora l
ly
, us ing a pointer. Your written
te
xt shou ld transcr ibe
what
you
would
say orally .) Your figures and tables must have
sufficient
infor-
mation
to stand alone,
including
accurate titles and clear labels
for
all meaning-
carrying features.
Discussion of results
This
is
the main part of the report , the part that wi ll
be
read
with
the most care by
other
professionals. Here you explain the signifi-
cance
of your
findings by relating what you discovered to the
problem
you
set
out to investigate in your introduction . Did
your
investigation accomplish your
purpose?
Did it a
nswer
your
question
s? Did
it
confirm or
disconfirm
your
hypothe
sis? Are y
our re
sults useful? Why or
why not
7
Did you
disco
ver
informa
tion that
you
hadn't
anticip
ated?
Was
y
our
research des ign
appropriate
? Did
y
our
inv
estigation
raise
new
questions
? Are
there implic
a
tions from your
results
that
need
to
be
explored
? The key
to
success in this section
is
to
lin k
y
our
findings to the questions and
problems
raised
in
the
introduction.
Conclusions and recommendations In
this last section , you focus on the
main
things
you learned from the investigation and,
in
some cases, on the
pr
ac-
tical application s of
your
investigation.
If your
investigation was a pure research
proJect, this section can
be
a s
ummary
of
your most important
findings along
w ith recommendations for
further
research.
If
y
our
Investigation was aimed at
making
a pract ical deci
Sion
(for
example ,
an
engineering design decision), here
you recommend
appropriate
actions. What you say
in
this section depend s on
the context of
your
investigation and the expectations of
your
readers .
8/10/2019 Engaging Ideas Chap 5
22/26
9
Engaging
Id eas
More
Pe
rsonal Fo rm s: Al te rnatives to the
To
p-Down,
Thesis -Governed Essay _
Th e foregoing discussion has em phasized top- do
wn
,
the
sis-gov
erned wri.ting,
whi
ch typifies most academic discou rse in m os t dis
cipline
s. in
Ch
ap t
er
s Two a
nd
Three
,
I
discussed th
e be
nefit
s
of
as sign ing top-
dow
n , th esis-gove rn ed writing
while
also raising
so m
e theore tical and
pedagogical
objection s to it (see especia lly
pages 46-50).
For the
kin
ds of reasons discussed
in
Chapter Three, a teacher
may be
wary
of thesis-governed writing, or weary of it, or simply
mo re attract
ed
to more p ers
on
al forms of w riting that privilege the
su
bjective , creative, personal voice of the writer.
One
al ternative is a
s trong emphasis on journals
an
d other kinds of informal, explorato
ry writing (the subject of Chapter Six). But there are also m any wa ys
to assig n formal , fini shed-pr
od
uct wri ting that is
not
the sis
gov
erned
: expl
ora
tory es
say
s,
reflection
paper
s, p e
rsonal
narrati
ves,
myths, dialogues , letters, po em s
or
short stories, magaz ine-s tyle
articles for
popular
audiences, advertisements, sa tires, parodies, and
so forth. What
foDo,I\ s
are exa
mple
s of alternative aSSig
nments.
Formal E
xp
l
or
at
ory
Essays
An
academically or
iented
al
ternati
ve to th esis-based writing is
an
exploratory essa y,
which ve might
define as a the
sis
seeki
ng
essay
rather th
an
a thesis supporting essay (see Zeige r, 1985; Spellmeyer,
1989) . The
assignment
t
ypi
ca
Lly
asks s
tudent
s to propose a p rob
l
em and
then to vrite a
narrative
of their
own
thou
aht
processes in
trying
to
think
t
hrough
the
problem.
Here
is a
sample
assi
gn
m
en
t
h
an
d
ou
t, easily a
daptable
to
any
discipline.
Write a first-person,
chronologically organized
account of yo ur thinking process
=
-
as
yo u explo re
possible
solutions to a question
or
problem
related
to th i s
course. Begin
by
desc
ribing what
the
question is
and how and
why
yo u became
interested It. Th en as you co
ntemplate
the
problem
and
do
research, narrate
the evolVing process
of
yo ur
thinking.
Y
our
explorator y es say
should
inc lude
both
external det ai
ls
(what yo u read, ho w you found it, who you tal ked to and
internal
mental detai ls (w hat yo u were
thinking about,
ho w you r ideas we
re
evolVing . Fo r thi s
es
say, it doesn t matter wh ether you rea ch a final
position
or
so lve the
problem
; your reader is
interested
in your proce ss not
you
r final
product
.
Show
us,
for
e
xam
ple ,
yo
ur
frustration
w hen a p ro
mi
s
ing
so
urce
turned
out to be u
se
les
s.
Show us how ne w ideas
continua
lly led
yo
u to refor
mulate you r
problem through
expansion, narrowing ,
shifting of
foc us,
or
w hat
ever
. Make y our
ex plo ra t
o ry
essay
an interesting in tellectua l detective
sto y som ethin g yo ur readers wi ll enJoy.
I often a
ssign
a Im'
mal
exp lorat ory ess ay as an in termedia te
st
age
in
a research project lea ding ultimately to a t
hes
i
s-governed
8/10/2019 Engaging Ideas Chap 5
23/26
9ormal
Writing Assi gnments
term paper. To have content for the exploratory essa y, s
tudent
s
need
to rea d w idely,
confronting
the problem's co
mplexit
y by
w
res
tli
ng with
disagreements
among
th e
experts
an
d so
fo
r th.
Because the sub ject matter of the exploratory essay is the student s
th
inking
process the essay encourages and rewards critical thinking
while giving teachers wo nderful insights into the intellectual
li
ves
and s tudy hab its) of the ir s tudents.
Another version of the exploratory paper is
Llsed
by Berling
hoff (1989) in teaching mathematics. Berlinghoff asks each studen t
to w rite a paper focusing on the process
of so lving
a particular prob
lem
(p. 89, em
ph
as
is
in original). He begins the cour se by teaching
students a number of
pr
oblem -solving tactics such as check the
definitions,
r
es tate the
problem, d
raw a diagram, argue by
anal
ogy,
so
lve , similar problem,
an
d reason back
wa rd
from
the desired conclusion.
He
then gives
each
s tudent a challenging
mathematical
pr
oblem to try to so lve
and
asks the st
ud
en t to wr ite
a pap er about his or her process. The student is asked to describe,
Be rlinghoff explains,
how
he or
sh
e used these problem-solving
tac tics to att ack a particular question. Thus, there is alw ays some
thing to write about, regardless of wh ether or not the student can
'solve' the problem. Even a dead end is wo
rthwhile
, provided
th
e
path to it can be described. Moreover, by paying careful attention to
the problem-
so
lving tactics (bec ause they p rovide a g
uar an
teed
source of material for their papers), students often succeed
in
doing
a lot more mathematics than they think the y can (p 90).
efle
ti
on a
pe
rs
A po
pula
r assignment for ma
ny
teachers is a reflecti on
paper
,
somet imes called a
reader-
re
spo
nse pa per
or
a pe rso
nal
reac
tion paper.
Although
this ge
nr
e seems to va ry consi
derably
in its
meaning from teacher to teacher, in mos t cases it evokes w
ritin
g
tha t is
more
exploratory, tentative, and personal than the standard
top-do
wn
academic essay. Its essential
nature is
the exploration of
the connections bet
we
en co
ur
se
material and
a pers
on
's individu al
life
or
ps yche . Reflection papers are
often assigned
to elicit s
tu
dents
' r
esponses
to
complex,
difficul t , or troubling
readings
and
invite the writer to
sp
eak back to the
reading
in a
mu
sing, ques
ti
oni
ng
, and
probing
way. He re is h
ow
one
philosoph
y professor
assigns a reflection paper:
In
a t
wo-
to three-page reflection essay consider the fo llowing state
ment by
Aristotle Ethics
II 2 with
respec t to yo ur own life:
We are
not studying
in order to know
what
excellence is but
to
become
good
for o
therw
se there
wo
uld
be
no
pr
o
fit
in it. . .
[We must
the
re f
ore]
co
nsider the question
of
how we ought to act.
8/10/2019 Engaging Ideas Chap 5
24/26
9
Engaging
Ideas
Are you
studying
in
order
to become
good
Explain
what
you
think Aristotle is
getting at and then explore your own response.
(For further discussion of ways to encourage responses to
readings , s
Chapter
Eight, pages 143-146.)
A Potp
ou rri
of O
th
er
Kinds
of lternative
Formal ss
ignmen
ts
Many other variations remain. What follows, in no particular order,
is a potpourri of ten different kinds of alternative assignments.
1
A
ps
ychology professo r asks his students to
write
a
poem
from the perspective of a schi zo
phr
enic.
he teacher
claims that
students
learn a
great
deal about schizophrenia in
their
attempt to
walk
in
a
schizophrenic's
shoes.
The
bes t
poems are movillg
and
memorable
(Gorman, Gorman, and Young, 1986) .
2 A
religious
studies professor asks
s
tudents
to w
rite
a
dialogue.
Write a
dialogue
between a
believer
in God) and
an unbeliever, In which
the
main issues
that
we have raised in class are debated.
Each participant
will be a
spokesperson
for
a whole range of ideas and arguments, whatever serves to
advance his or
her basic
position.
s you
write
the dialogue,
draw on
the
strongest
ideas and
arguments
for
each side
that
we have seen
in
this course .
Wherever re
levant
, include your own responses or arguments. The point
of
this
dialogue is not to hav e a clear victory for one side
or
the other ; rather, the
point is
to engage the issues in
an
active and critical manner.
(For further examples of dialogue aSSignments, see Chap ter Seven ,
pages 129-130)
3
A
literature teacher
has students
rewrite
the
ending
to a
short
story
or to retell a story from the pe rspective of a different
narrator; a history teacher asks students to rewrite a historical nar-
rative from a different
point
of view.
4
A social psychologist requires students to interview some-
one
who
has a job, lifestyle, or worldview very differe
nt
from the
s tudent's and then to
write
a profile of the person interviewed.
The idea is for the s tudent to encounter an other \ hose sphere of
experience differs extensively from the s tudent 's .
5. A women's
studies
p ro
fessor
asks students to create
myths
or parables to ex
pres
s their
personal
understanding or
\'i s
ion
of
the
role of the feminine.
6 A mathematics profes
sor
asks students to 'write their own
math autobiography in which they reflect on their past math hi s
tory and experiences She
reports getting
vt'rv
useful
inSights into
the mathematical anxieties and
learning
problems of her students
(as well as the
causes
of
many
' of these problems).
8/10/2019 Engaging Ideas Chap 5
25/26
j
V
. -
Formal Wr
iting
ssignments
9
7. A h ii tory of
religions
professor asks students to write
eS:iays from the perspective of different persons- an exercise in
decen tering, seeing the
world
from a different context.
Wr
it
e a bdef letter back to aul , as i f you were a member of the Cori nthian com
munity, respondin g to his letter. You may choose any pOint
of
view you w l
sh
argu ing back from the point
of
view
of
a faction, repenting the error
of
your
ways , or any other option you
can
think of.
(For further examples of role-playing assignments, see
Chapter
Se ve
n
pages 127-128,)
8. A history
and
sociology teacher (Bateman,
1990)
asks stu
dent to do
an ethnographic paper on another
culture. The trick is
to find a local subculture where vievvs and language and beliefs
are
just
different enough to make their study fascinating (p
120).
Bateman 's solution?
To
have students explore subcultures right in
their micist the
subcultures
of paper carriers, kindergartners, Win
nebago grandpas, root beer drive-in carbops, cbeerleaders, formal
wear
distributors, and so on.
9. A mathematics teacher has students write their
own
story
problems
r
elating
mathemi:1tical concepts to real-world concerns.
According to Rose (1989, p 19), When students write their
own
problems, they often choose situations from their own experience
and
thus see
how
mathematics
applies
to their own lives, giving
them more confidence to read and olve word
problems
from the
textbook. In addition, writing
word
problems
demands
clear, spe
cific,