Critical reading and writing working group: meeting six

Kelly Peake (), Jim Donohue ()

  1. Catch up - what strategies have you tried? How did they work?
  1. Using subject-specific language

Some questions –

  1. do the students perceive that there are problems with their writing?
  2. If not – getting them to notice that there is something wrong/something that could be better; and then
  3. If so, identifying what that problem is; and then
  4. Addressing the problem
  1. Lack of clarity where there are problems with grammar/punctuation/syntax etc – are these a result of writing too fast without enough care? Would the students would know how to fix them if they took the time or do they need to be shown?

Some ideas…

  1. Using models? If yes how?
  2. Contrastive models – different versions of same text, discussion of what’s going on in each version?
  3. Building a text together, looking at the implication of different choices
  4. Work from a weak example to a better one – “sometimes struggles to word things correctly”, “needs to be able to use more advanced vocabulary”
  5. To tackle building coherent sentences rather than putting down unconnected facts or responses to prompts - ask for a list of facts (individually or shared) – then ask for single sentence or two sentences using a limited number of those facts and a claim – share and review
  6. Pair writing to a series of prompts – one group writes the ‘because answers’ (starting with because) the other group has to match the answers to the subject? Or create the subject?
  7. Question – think – read – remember – tell/write without the textbook or notes
  8. “It/this/that” – finding all the ‘dummy’ words and replacing them
  9. Tracing antecedents to show topic development or deviation from a topic
  1. Next focus? Individual collaborations? Next date to meet?

Worked example from Language and Literature (AZ)

Typically we’re trying to get from:

‘Some words have negative meanings which introduces a dark tone’

To

‘Grammatically, some verb choices help to suggest themes. For example, in ‘crouching behind a crumbling mud wall, peeking into the alley near the frozen creek,’ the continuous verbs ‘crouching’ and ‘peeking’ suggest a theme of secrecy, especially as this come so early in the first chapter. The syntactic parallelism and omission of a coordinating conjunction strengthen this mood by tying these two clauses together. The adjectives ‘crumbling’ and ‘frozen’ both have negative connotations, perhaps foreshadowing the horrific events that follow.’

‘Grammatically, some verb choices help to suggest themes. / Statement/claim – what level is appropriate? General/text specific etc
For example, in ‘crouching behind a crumbling mud wall, peeking into the alley near the frozen creek,’ / Broad example/context
the continuous verbs ‘crouching’ and ‘peeking’ / Specifics from the example/context
suggest a theme of secrecy, / Do what? (claim)
especially as this comes so early in the first chapter. / Modifier? Additional judgement? (why/how?)
The syntactic parallelism and omission of a coordinating conjunction / Identify the process/theory/etc – using the terminology
strengthen this mood / Do what (claim)? Referring back to your previous claim
by tying these two clauses together. / How?
The adjectives ‘crumbling’ and ‘frozen’ both have negative connotations, / Claim
perhaps foreshadowing the horrific events that follow.’ / Analysis/hypothesis/suggestion
  • Seems that evidence is used as part of a claim about a particular language examples, extended to a claim about the role these examples play in the bigger text
  • So – this interplay between local and the larger is important in this task/discipline?
  • What’s important in other subjects? (science history, business studies?
  • Need to determine what is foregrounded – what is the focus of discussion – a theory? An experiment/set of data/a case study? a text? (as in Language and Lit example) and what is used as the evidence to illustrate and extend that focus of discussion.

Thinking Writing, QMUL

January 2015