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Good Classroom Activities
1. Circle the first words and the verb in every sentence. What trends do you notice?
Often writers will find that they use pronouns and articles a lot to begin their sentences. They will also notice that they use “state of being” verbs frequently. This exercise provides a good visual for starting work on style and varying sentence structure.
2. Count the words in each sentence.
Notice if they are all the same length. This means your writing sounds choppy. Varying sentence length can be just as important as varying sentence structure. If you made a graph of your sentences, a page should resemble a “W” or an “M.” If all your sentences are the same length, the graph would be a straight line.3. Read a paper aloud, and focus on only one area.
Focus on reader response rather than “fixing” the paper for the writer. For example, you could mark any plot summary with a “*”, mark areas that are confusing with a “?”, or mark any areas where you are left wanting more details or explanation with a “+.”
4. Evaluating secondary research: Paraphrasing vs. quoting
I use this exercise when it seems that writers have “plopped” quotations into a paper without introducing them or discussing their significance to the argument. Often, students insert quotations just to make it seem that they have done their research; I try to steer students away from saying “I found this great quote” and instead encourage them to conduct more of a dialogue with a few scholars. Students also quote when they should paraphrase and vice-versa, so this exercise encourages them to look at every citation and assess which technique is more appropriate.
Quotations: When you quote, you are reproducing another writer's words exactly as they appear on the page.
What should you look for when reading?
1. Pay attention to the format of the article. Are there passages italicized, bolded, placed directly under a heading or sub-heading, or otherwise set apart from the rest of the text?
2. Is there a passage in which the writer develops a major theme in the text or introduces a new concept or term?
3. Is there a passage in which the writer says something surprising?
4. Does the author use familiar terms in a new or different way?
5. Are there particular examples that the writer draws on that are thought-provoking?
6. Are there passages you disagree with?
7. Are there passages you can develop further? Can you offer a twist or new perspective?
When do you quote?1. Quote if you can't say it any better, and the phrase is particularly brilliant, witty, or edgy.
2. Quote if you are using some particularly authoritative source and you need his or her expertise to back up your point.
3. Quote if you are analyzing diction, tone, or a writer's use of a specific term.
4. Quote if you are taking a position that relies on the reader's understanding exactly what another writer says about the topic.
How do you discuss the significance of a quotation?
Like all pieces of evidence, a quotation can't speak for itself. If you end a paragraph with a quotation, then that's a sure sign that you have neglected to discuss the importance of the quotation in terms of your argument. You want to avoid “plop quotations,” that is, quotations that are just dropped into your paper without any introduction or discussion.You can ask yourself the following questions about the quotation in order to facilitate your discussion of the significance:
Why is this important in terms of my thesis?
What do the particular words in this quotation mean?
What's the tone of this passage?
What can I tell about a character or person from this quotation?
Why?
So what?
Are there any hidden meanings or irony in the quotation?
What are the larger implications?
What does the quotation prove?
Paraphrasing: When you paraphrase, you take a specific section of a text and put it into your own words.
When do you paraphrase?
1. Paraphrase when you want to introduce a writer's position, but the words themselves aren't special enough to quote.
2. Paraphrase when you are supporting a particular point and need to draw on one place in another text that supports your point.
3. Paraphrase when you want to present a writer's view on a topic that differs from your position or that of another writer; then, you can refute the specific points in your own words after you paraphrase.
4. Paraphrase when you want to comment on a particular example that another writer uses.
5. Paraphrase when you need to present information that's unlikely to be questioned.
5. Beefing up evidence and analysis
A. Make a Chart
Making a chart can help you generate evidence for your argument and analyze that evidence. For instance, if you were writing a critical essay about a pop music video, you could make two columns on the page. Write specific details about the video on the left side of the paper (lighting, dance, what the people look like including their ethnicity, appearance, expressions, postures, setting, text, pacing, the storyline itself, lyrics, color, etc). All of these details count as evidence. Then write what you think these details mean in the right column. The following questions might help you figure out what to write in the right column: Why is this important? Why? How? Can I explain this? What's at stake? What are the implications of this? Why did the video-producer make this decision and not another? What's the underlying message (about race, class, gender, sexuality, for example?) Why does my audience need to know this? What does this show about our culture? What are they selling me (besides a music album)? Your answers to these questions count as analysis of the evidence. Of course, there are many types of papers, and you may never be asked to write a paper about a pop music video, but this column technique is adaptable to a number of papers in which generating evidence for an argument and analysis of that evidence is required.
B. Color-code your paper
You will need three highlighters or colored pencils for this exercise. Use one color to highlight general assertions. These will typically be your topic sentences in your paper. Next, use another color to highlight specific evidence (including quotations, paraphrased or summarized material, statistics, examples, and your own ideas). Lastly, use another color to highlight analysis of your evidence (i.e. discussion of the significance or implications of the evidence; analysis answers “so what? about the evidence).
This exercise is usually more effective when you are color-coding another writer's paper. Then, after you finish, you can ask him or her questions to help beef up the analysis. For example…
What else would I like to know here?
What questions do I have about this piece of evidence?
What are the implications?
What are the consequences of thinking this way or looking at a situation/behavior in this way?
Why?
Why is this important/why does it matter?
What's the relation to the driving questions or overarching goal of the assignment?
For a quotation: what do the words mean? What is the tone? What is the underlying message?
What difference does it make that you are making this argument? Are there gendered, sexual, socioeconomic, racial implications for what you are saying?
C. Make a reverse outline
A reverse outline is a good technique for helping you figure out how each paragraph contributes to proving your thesis. The reverse outline is helpful in at least three ways. First, it lets you see where you have dealt with too many topics in one paragraph or if your paragraphs are just too long. Second, the reverse outline is a nice visual of where you need more evidence to prove your point and more analysis of that evidence. Third, the reverse outline can help you write your topic sentences because once you have decided what you want each paragraph to be about, you can write topic sentences that explain the topics of the paragraphs and state the relationship of each topic to the thesis of the paper.
Here's how to make a reverse outline: On a separate piece of paper, write Roman numerals for each individual paragraph topic or claim that you are making. Then use capital letters for your major pieces of evidence. Designate numbers and lower case letters for analysis of the evidence or elaboration upon the evidence. Once you finish, look for areas where you don't have many capital letters or numbers beneath the Roman numerals; this means you need more support. Also each Roman numeral should correspond to your topic sentences. If each paragraph explores some angle of your thesis and includes evidence that helps prove the thesis, then you need topic sentences that explain the relationship between the subject of each paragraph and the thesis.
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