Big Picture Procedure
|
Step One: Self-Editing
CLAIM SENTENCE
CONTEXT AND DATA
|
The Claim Sentence: ATSQ, or Answer the Stinking Question
One of the major reasons students sometimes fail to have writing grades that match their actual abilities is a very simple problem: failure to ATSQ, or Answer the Stinking Question. This is very true on the Advanced Placement Language or Literature exams, and it's also true of the SAT and ACT or any other standardized test that requires writing. If you don't answer the question, you will automatically fail. It's just that simple. _________________________________________________ How to Self-Edit to Make Sure You Answered the Question Key Word Read-Through
Context and Data Sentences: Check for Embedding and MLA Style
Major problems with the context and data sentences occur when the student has failed to embed a direct quotation or account for data with sufficient background and explanation either before or after the quote takes place. This exercise will help with embedding. Put Your Finger On It: Did They Embed?
The Pinky Rule: MLA Citation Done Right
Avoiding Run-Ons When students are embedding quotations, they typically have a problem ending the quote and then continuing their own sentences without making a run-on.
|
WARRANTS
|
Warrants: Relevant Data Explained Relevantly
The major problem with warrants is actually a data problem. Student data will often be chosen basically at random, rendering the warrant fairly useless. In Planning: Make a T-Chart to Match Claim and Data Key Words During the PLANNING process, it is helpful to have students generate a claim and find the data first, even before they've written a paragraph. Students should be told to circle the key idea in their claim AND THEN circle the corresponding matching word, relevant word, or similar word that also occurs in their data. It helps to do this as a T-chart. In the example below, the similar ideas in the claim are color-coded to match the ones in the data. |
Example T-Chart
Claim: Emily Dickinson believes that insanity is actually a higher form of inspiration or insight than normal thought. |
Data: "Much Madness is divinest Sense/to the Discerning Eye..." |
CONCLUSIONS/TRANSITIONS
|
Check the Claim and Data
Check the Warrants for Development and Key Words
The primary issue with conclusions is that students need to reiterate the key word and the primary discovery or argument in the paragraph. Have students circle key words here too.
|
Basic Procedures
|
Step One: Trade and Grade
|
Step One
|
Make Keyword Dots Along the Margin
No Bald Spots
|
Steps Two and Three: Check Context and Data
|
Trust, But Verify
|
Step Four and Five: Check the Warrant and Conclusion
|
|
Why Style Matters
|
It's Not Just What You Say; It's Also How You Say It
Style is one of the most overlooked aspects of student writing, but it really shouldn't be. Too often, the big push is to teach students structure -- clearly important, of course -- but leave their style untouched. As a result, students' style is often riddled with vague words, fake questions, and passive voice -- or worse, pseudoacademic jargon that completely obscures meaning and utterly lacks voice or personality. Sentences like People do a lot of things in different situations for a lot of different reasons, and in this paper, it will be shown what some of those situations are and how to get out of them are sentences that say absolutely nothing about anything. |
Fake Questions
|
Fake Questions: Look for the W-Words
Fake questions are those phrases which...
Examples
Fake Questions Are a Problem Fake questions are a problem because they essentially obscure the author's meaning. What DID Bob show Timmy to do? When DID he show Timmy to do it? How DO these characters relate to each other? Fundamentally, the fake questions pretend to tell us information, but they don't. Use Control-F One sure way of eliminating fake questions is the "Control-F" trick. Using the "Control-F function in Word or Docs, find all "who" all "what," and so on. Eliminate any event in which fake questions occur and instead, give an actual meaning. |
Start With Data
|
Begin With Evidence
One of the biggest mistakes some teachers make -- and then teach their students to make as well -- is in giving students an essay that requires evidence and having them "just write" it. Typically, what you'll get will be jammed-in quotes with no real relationship to either the claims (in each body paragraph) or the thesis (the "superclaim" that unifies all the claim sentences). How to Do It Instead, you need to have your students START with data. For example, let's say your topic has to do with character motivation. Why does Hamlet take five acts to kill Claudius? COLLECTION AND DISCUSSION
THE T-CHART Put your claims on one side of a t-chart and your data on another. For an essay of five paragraphs (3 body), you should have 3 claims. The T-chart should look like this:
Each individual claim needs at least one (usually more) relevant quote.
WORDS MUST MATCH The words in the data must match the words in the claim. Simply that. If there are key words in the claim above like "distrust" or "reality" or "motives," where in the data do you personally see...
Example: In the example above, I need to back up the idea that Hamlet DISTRUSTS. I can circle "I'll have grounds more relative than this," which suggests his distrust and need for outside verification. I also need to back up the idea that Hamlet distrusts the Ghost's reality. He calls him a "spirit," a word which suggests the supernatural and is therefore related to "reality." I need a word about the Ghost's motives. The idea of "the Devil" suggests the issue of motivation. |