Class 4 Thoughts From Your Tutor Student Individuality One of the hardest yet most important lessons to learn is that it s okay to be yourself. Everyone is DIFFERENT. You will learn some things in this class really well, and other things you might not get. You ll do some tasks in this class really well, and others you ll struggle with. That can be hard enough to swallow on its own, but if you start comparing yourself to your classmates, your siblings, the perfect version of you in your head it ll be difficult to accept your progress as it is. None of us are skilled at every task. We all learn and progress at different rates. My classes are arranged by SKILLS WE WANT TO PRACTICE, not grade level or age level. Becoming a humble, curious, and active learner should be the goal of every student, when in fact most students simply want to get the work over with. I believe this attitude grows, in large part, from undue pressure to match our peers or a one-size-fits-all standard. We won t want to do our best if our best is never good enough! That s why I encourage you not to compare yourself to anyone. You know in your own heart whether you are putting forth your best effort to learn and practice and contribute. You will reap what you sow. Remember the term recursive learning? It s such a valuable way to look at yourself as a learner! There s much less pressure to perform perfectly when you know you ll get another chance. I myself still make mistakes in writing, and (hopefully!) learn from them, even though I ve studied it and practiced it and taught it for years. Taking the posture of a confident yet growing practitioner is the best way to achieve excellence in any skill. Audience Analysis - Imaginary Who is your actual audience? 1) Your teacher (your parent) 2) Your tutor 3) Your classmates Who is your Imaginary audience? 1) What you can imagine might be true of your readers You already know who you Actual audience is. You are learning to consider their POV when writing. Now, create an Imaginary audience. Choose 3-4 people who are DIFFERENT from you, your teacher, and your classmates. Think about what they struggle with, why they are reading your writing, and what they might know that you don t. Why is having an imaginary audience important? It reminds you to join a wider conversation. To think beyond your classroom, your laptop, your house. To write ideas that can survive past just this class. Try to make your imaginary audience as realistic as possible. For example, with this writing class with these teaching notes I KNOW that my real audience includes you (my students), and your parents. For my imaginary audience, though, I widen the lens to include more people: someone who has never formally studied writing, someone who gets bored easily, someone who has a Ph.D. in English and knows much more about this than I do. While these are imaginary characters, they could actually be real! Right? Maybe you have never formally studied writing. Maybe you get bored easily. Maybe your mom has a Ph.D. in English.
That s the trick. If you want to be an excellent writer, you need to consider your audience: not only your real audience (and what you really know about that audience), but also an imaginary audience (which encompasses what you can imagine might be true about your audience). So, as a writer, consider the possibilities. Who may possibly read your thoughts? What sorts of backgrounds or beliefs might they have? Don t assume everyone is the same! A Thesis Statement is what 3 things? 1) Clear 2) Arguable 3) Supportable How do you write a SUPPORTABLE thesis? 1) Find at least three reasons readers will agree Thesis Supportability As you know, every continent has many countries that comprise it. Africa includes Somalia, Rwanda, Madagascar, Egypt, and Côte d'ivoire (which, when pronounced correctly, is the coolest-sounding country. Gotta try it!). Ideas are the same way. They need to be grouped together to make sense. That s why an essay has paragraphs with topic sentences that all point back to a thesis. It s logical and organized. Your thesis needs to be supportable. All the other pieces need to come together underneath it. Here s another example: Imagine a dog walker. She represents the Thesis. She will lead the pack. Now imagine the dogs. They represent the Topic Sentences. They are connected tightly to the Thesis. If they get too far from the Thesis, we ve got trouble! Obviously, the dog walker (the Thesis) needs the dogs (the Topic Sentences). Otherwise she doesn t have a job and her walk down the sidewalk is boring and financially unproductive. Correspondingly, the dogs (the Topic Sentences) need the dog walker (the Thesis). Without her, they are just a pack of howling, annoying dogs who run all over the place and never arrive at their destination. And finally, think about all the fleas on those dogs. (Unfortunately, these dogs have fleas.) The fleas represent the content of the paragraphs (called Supporting Sentences). Each dog has tons of its own fleas. The fleas belong to that dog. Likewise, each paragraph has its own examples, links, and critical thinking. Everyone here is tied together the dog walker, the dogs, and the fleas but there is a clear hierarchy. The fleas don t lead the parade. The dogs shouldn t get tangled up in each other s leashes. The dog walker shouldn t just let the dogs go wherever they want to. We want everyone to stay in their place and do their job! How do you write a SUPPORTABLE thesis? 1) Find at least three reasons readers will agree Where are those reasons expressed? 1) In the Topic Sentences
What 5 things does a Topic Sentence need to be? 1) Part of every paragraph (usually at the beginning) 2) Points back to the thesis 3) Directs the paragraph 4) Is mentioned in the preview/review (usually) 5) Helps the essay flow naturally from one idea to the next On the next page is a handout ( Argue It! ) that I d like you to go through with your parents (you may want to print it). You will practice noticing REASONS that SUPPORT the argument.
Argue It! First, circle the topic. Next, underline the thesis. Give it an A (arguable) or F (factual). Finally, put a 1, 2, 3 next to each part of the Preview. These list the reasons the thesis is correct! America is one of the best nations in the world to live in. People in America can follow any religion, attempt to enter any occupation, go to 12 free years of school, and America is very wealthy compared to the rest of the world. Brett Favre is the worst quarterback in the NFL today because he is physically compromised, he is a media hog, and he is more focused on breaking records than winning for the Vikings. Macs are superior to PC s, for Macs offer speed, programs, and reliability that PC s do not. Prince William will be a remarkable monarch, since he has a clean personal life, keeps good company, and has a charismatic personality. My mom and dad are similar in these ways: they are hard working, they care about their children, and they have a good sense of humor. One should not attend NDSU for these reasons: NDSU does not offer a variety of academic programs, NDSU is very expensive, and NDSU has a huge student body that prevents students from feeling connected. Parents should read books to their children, for reading increases a child s literacy, general knowledge, and curiosity. Since the Missionaries of Charity offer spiritual discipline to their members, practical help to the poor, and have locations worldwide to work, young people should consider becoming nuns and brothers and joining the Missionaries of Charity. Because I am physically fit, mentally alert and determined to practice, I am the best tap dancer in the ninth grade.
What s the hardest step of experimenting? 1) Drafting What s the most important step of experimenting? 1) Revising The Writing Process Review The Writing Process Drafting Tips How do you draft? 1) Just Do It 2) Right now I can t do everything, but right now I can do something There are two types of writers: Plunge Writers: Some people sit down and just start writing (They often freewrite/speak, and simply start on the draft) Ponder Writers: Others have to jot things down, make an outline, write down separate thoughts, etc. (They often list, outline, bubble map, pace, etc. They can freewrite/speak but it s usually not in essay form; it might be some part of the essay or something completely unrelated) Which one do you think you are? Remember ARMS add, remove, move, substitute? Don t be surprised if your paragraphs veer away from your thesis! If you find yourself moving away from your original thesis, ask: Am I writing good paragraphs? If so, modify your thesis! You can do that. Make sure it leads where your paragraphs want to go. You should almost ALWAYS have to go back and move stuff around, including words, sentences, and entire paragraphs. I do that all the time. ARMS experimentation at its finest. Set a timer, and make yourself write for just ten minutes more on your topic. Do it like a Freewrite no stopping, no fixing, no over-thinking. Just let your thoughts and emotions gush. Talk to yourself in your writing (I do this ALL THE TIME). Do things like (I might use this later) (this might be a bad idea) (this might work better in my 2 nd paragraph). Then, when you go back to fix it up, you have your original thinking to guide you. Don t let beginnings (of paragraphs, or essays, or ideas) bog you down. They are difficult. Try just ramming through them you can experiment with them later! For now, write, The thing of it is And another thing What I want to talk about is You want to know something? Pretend you have an audience to teach about your topic. They are sitting right in front of you. Speak your ideas out to them. Be real stand up, take what you have, and speak. Take a break and do something you enjoy. I get my best ideas by strolling outside in the sunshine. Pet your lizard, read a book, talk with your best friend, bake and eat dessert, etc. Something about the typical activities of daily life settles and clarifies the ideas in your head.
The Writing Process Revision Tips What does revision mean? 1) See again with THEIR eyes Remember Audience Analysis think about your readers. It doesn t matter if it makes sense to you; what matters is whether it makes sense to THEM. How do you revise? 1) ARMS Add, Remove, Move, Substitute This is the strength of revision! Revision is made up of ARMS. What changes is what and how much and how you decide what to add, remove, move, and substitute! When do you revise? 1) Every step of the writing experiment Focus first on global issues (applying what you ve learned in this class and others!): Argument, Organization, Content, Audience POV. Then focus on sentence level issues (grammar, spelling, etc.) Don t get hung up on those at first. If you really struggle, get someone to help you! Can I tell you a story about this? My mom went to public school. They tried to teach her to read by drawing squares around the words and telling her to memorize the shape of the square. She didn t figure out how to read until she was in 8 th grade. Reading, spelling, and writing were always hard for her. But she went to college to be a nurse and had to take an English class. She tells me that she spent HOURS going over and over her paper. She used a thesaurus to find new words. She worked extremely hard. As a result, the teacher told her that she should be an English teacher! Hard work brings profit!