Text of my above comments:

Explaining Week Five Writing Exercise

 

 

We have another assignment for this week.  So, you’ve probably noticed a pattern in this class, that we’re going to have weeks where we do the Concepts and Questions lectures, and then we’re also reading and journaling.  Then, we have a week to write.  Now, we’re going to move on to the week five writing exercise and essay.  Because I saw all of us struggling with that first template, we’re going to stick with that template for a while because I want to work out any misunderstandings we’d had about how that template kind of works.

 

 

So, here is the week five writing exercise essay.  Let me walk you through it, here.  It’s a little more complicated than the previous assignment.  In chapter six of “The Social Animal”, David Brooks, through the story of Harold and his teacher, offers us something of a model regarding how we, as students, might study, learn, attain expertise in a given field.  Your assignment is to write a three-paragraph essay, 250-300 words, which is about a page and a half to two pages, in which you summarize this model, “they say”, the Brooks model, and then articulate your own position in response, which is the “I say” part of the “they say, I say” structure.  Articulate your own position in response in the context of your own education.  You’ll notice in the bullet points down here I kind of add to this.  Remember, this is a three-paragraph essay.

 

 

In your first paragraph, you should summarize Brooks’ model, all right?  So, you did something very similar to that in the last writing assignment.  Your second paragraph should summarize what you believe the current model to be as evidenced by your current or past courses.  In other words, Brooks has one idea about how we should learn, and if you look at your past courses you may be able to come to some conclusions about how your own professors have thought you should learn.  Perhaps these two models are the same, perhaps they are not. 

 

 

As I was writing this assignment, I was thinking that it’s very clear that Brooks has a very specific idea about how Harold gained expertise, right?  In that long essay, he was writing Brooks has some very specific ideas about generally how, perhaps, we should be educated, and how we should explore ideas and put these ideas together and take them apart, and so on and so forth.  I don’t know that those ideas are necessarily reflected consistently in higher education, and I’m willing to bet that you’ve had a lot of different experiences across your college career.  Of course, you’re probably having a different experience in this very class that you’re taking right now.  So, I’m assuming that there’s Brooks’ model, and then you’ve experienced a different model.

 

 

So, I want you to summarize what you believe the current model to be as evidenced by your current or past courses.  Now, I know that you have a lot of professors, so it’s hard to say they all have one model.  They don’t all have one model.  But, you might reach some conclusions about how you generally think you are being taught at the college level, all right?

 

 

Then finally, your third paragraph.  In your third paragraph, you should articulate your own position, how you think you should be educated and offer evidence to support it.  So, how do you think you should be educated?  What might be effective, all right?  So, this is where you come in.  This is kind of a “they say, they say, I say” structure.  So, you’re going to talk about Brooks, you’re going to talk about your current professor/professors.  Please don’t spend a lot of time talking about me.  Although, if you have criticism for my teaching style, that’s fine.  Finally, in your third paragraph you should articulate your own position, all right?

 

 

Now, here are some other additional points.  Your essay should contain at least four direct quotes because I want to spend some time figuring out whether or not we’re working appropriately with signal phrases.  I also want you to focus on offering evidence in the form of direct quotes, okay? 

 

Your paragraphs should follow the analytical paragraph structure.  They should have a claim, evidence, explanations and a conclusion.  So, be thinking about that, that you need to not only work on the “they say, I say” structure, but you need to be working the with a claim, evidence, explanations and conclusion structure.

 

 

Last but not least, when you submit your rough draft, make sure that the language from the template is in bold so that I don’t have to search for it.  Don’t worry about labeling the paragraphs.  I know that I’ve labeled them down here at the bottom for you, paragraph one, paragraph two, paragraph three.  I did that because on the last assignment it seemed like a few students were confused about where the paragraph one and the template ended, and where paragraph two began.  So, I’ve just divided it up here, all right?  So, as it notes here, below you’ll find a template for the essay.  If we had to describe it in shorthand, we could say it’s a “they say, they say, I say” template.  All right.

 

 

So, let’s take a look at this here.  So, in chapter six of “The Social Animal”, David Brooks, through the story of Harold and his teacher, offers us something of a model regarding how we as students might effectively study/learn/attain expertise in a given field.  Specifically, Brooks argues that, right?  You’ve seen this pattern before.  This is the template that we worked on last time, right?  “As the author himself puts it…”, so we have space here for a direct quote.  Then, although some people believe that this is the “they say” portion, “Brooks argues that…”.  Then, “In sum, his view is that…”, and we have the space here for you to offer a summary of his view.

 

 

Now, look at the language here in paragraph two.  In looking – I need to change that, here.  “In looking at my own education, I’d have to conclude that my professors agree/disagree with the conclusions Brooks has reached.  For example…”.  So here, I’m signaling to you, and you’re signaling to the reader, that you’re going to offer evidence now.  Now, look what I’ve done here in this template.  I’ve written, “We can see from this example that…”.  So, what is that, if not language that is signaling to the reader of your essay that you’re going to explain the evidence, right?  “For example…” is language that says hey, here comes evidence.  “We can see from this is example…” is language that says okay, now I’m going to show you what was relevant about that example in terms of my claim.  We have another sentence here, “I’d also like to point out that…”, where obviously we’re going to introduce additional evidence.  Then, “So, as you can see…”, although perhaps not explicitly stated, “my professors have concluded that…”, and so there’s the moment where you’re going to summarize the model you think your professors have used.  Notice here that I have not offered you the language that you are going to use when you explain this second piece of evidence, so you’re going to have to come up with that language yourself. 

 

In paragraph three, you’re going to reflect on Brooks’ position, and then the position that you think your professors have.  “In reflecting on the two positions above I’d like to offer my own…”. This is where the “I say” comes in, “I believe that…”.  Then, obviously, this paragraph three is not two sentences long.  This is just language that I’m giving you to kind of shoehorn your way into that paragraph, but you need to complete this paragraph three offering the “I say”, which is a claim.  Then, you need evidence, explanations, and closings, all right?

 

 

So, we have here a template.  You can diverge from this template.  Rather, you can diverge from the templates that we use later on in the course.  I will gradually, slowly but surely, give you more room to move in these templates.  But, what I’ve noticed in the previous template is that perhaps we need to spend more time with it and make sure that we’re not inserting contradictions, and make sure that we really understand how this template works.  For the moment, I’m going to insist that you use this template and that you don’t change any of the language in it, all right?  You can certainly add to it.  For example, I pointed out that in paragraph two there’s a space where you need an explanation of the evidence.  Obviously, paragraph three requires you to complete it, almost in its entirety.  So, feel free to add to this template.  Do not change it, though.  And certainly don’t delete parts out, because I did notice in our previous exercise that portions got deleted.  I think it created a confusing experience for you when you deleted portions of the template.

 

 

So, this is a fairly challenging assignment.  If you look back at the syllabus, I’ve weighted all of these grades so that these earlier writing assignments, while still challenging, are worth less of your final grade.  The further along we go in the semester, the more these assignments will be worth.  The idea is that as you progress, you’re learning these various writing strategies, these templates begin to make more sense, your analytical paragraphs are more effective, so on and so forth.  Therefore, your grades are getting better and you’re rewarded for improving, quite frankly.  So, you shouldn’t have a great deal of anxiety about these assignments.  Obviously, you should be completing them because five percent of your grade is still five percent.

 

All right.  As usual, this video – it’s a bit long this week, but I needed to discuss the assignment and the previous assignment.  As usual, this video has a discussion session attached to it, a discussion section.  I’m having a problem with S’s today for some reason.  So, if you have any questions about this assignment, or if you want to put up any attempts at the paragraph, or questions about the template, feel free to post them there.  These discussion boards that are attached to the video really are for your benefit and you can use them as you like.  I have noticed that some people have been going through and typing notes in, that’s perfectly fine.  You’ve been using them as a space to communicate with your classmates, that’s great.  You’ve been using them as a space to ask me questions, that also is great.  Just make sure that you’re making it clear who you’re addressing on the discussion board but make use of it.  Make use of it and we’ll all benefit from those exchanges.  You may have sent me a note in the last week or two and asked me a question and I gently nudged you to not ask me the question privately, but rather ask me the question publicly on the discussion board because I guarantee you that if you have the question, someone else has the question.

 

 

All right.  So, we’re in week five.  This is the writing exercise.  You’re going to find all of this information in week five along with the relevant checklist.  As always, let me know if you have any questions.