PART II

Pre-Reading

The pre-reading part of the paper arc, occurring when the instructor first presents a new reading to her class, is a crucial point in the entire process. At this stage, we want students to be able engage with the concepts introduced by a new essay in the context both of readings that they have already worked with but also, equally importantly, with the text as a discrete entity. At this stage both reading comprehension and contextualizing the issues seem to be the most pressing points of engagement—a student needs to start to understand the concepts introduced by the new essay, and how they may possibly engage with other texts, but also with the world in which the students are reading.

This stage focuses students’ attention on particular parts of the new text, without the expectation that the students have read the whole text. This part requires preparation on the part of the teacher, in order to focus students’ attention, and to get them into making meaning of the new, possibly intimidating, prose, that they see before them. We ask students to read for three things:

• reading for narrative

• reading for focus on main ideas

• reading for connecting between readings, moving between old and new

The first engagement with the text, whether it be by discussion of the issues which surround the ideas in the reading, or by focusing on small quotes from the reading chosen by the teacher, or by some other means, can be directed as any of the areas above. Covering the range of them in the course of the semester—and making explicit what role the activity serves with respect to each of these kinds of reading—helps students to see the various ways in which they can dive in.

Questions to Get Students into the Reading

In order to reinforce the idea that reading and writing go hand-in-hand, as well as giving students concrete points of access to the text, instructors usually assign some “reading question(s)” for students to consider as they begin a new selection from the textbook; a question or suggested focus that will encourage students to begin “making a mark” on the text, and to begin writing a response to the text so as to make meaning of it. With such pre-writing in hand, students will be prepared to participate much more productively in the ensuing class discussion of the assigned reading. Even if you only ask students to write a list of their own questions as they read, they will come to class more ready to make sense of the text than if they were simply to read it cold.

Throughout this reading and re-reading process, students will often find that, as one question is answered or one problem resolved, another question or problem—often a more complex one—emerges. This trial-and-error or exploratory method of conducting class discussion is messier than lecturing to the students, or simply answering their questions as they arise, but it has several advantages over lecturing. Not only does the exploratory method usually cover the same textual issues that a lecture would, but it also raises important issues that you yourself might not have thought to raise. The exploratory method also models—and gives students practice in—learning as discovery, rather than as delivery of understanding from teacher to student. Finally, the exploratory method gets all students (not just those who are already comfortable talking in class) involved in the text’s understanding, especially when small-group work precedes full-class discussion.

Activities for a New Essay

Here are some specific activities you can use for initial in-class work with a new essay:

Using the Link-O-Mat

Either schedule a class in a computer classroom when beginning a new reading, or ask your students to visit the Link-O-Mat for that essay before they come to class. Use the questions in each Link-O-Mat to initiate discussion, or ask students to go beyond the material there to locate other web pages that speak to the issue of this reading.

Group Pictionary

Divide the class into groups, and ask each group to draw a picture of an idea or concept from the essay (for example, Kaldor’s “netforce”). Have someone from each group draw the group’s picture on the board and explain it to the class. Switching to the visual provides a new register that can unearth new meanings.

Locating Contexts

Divide the class into small groups and ask them to generate a list of the larger contexts for this essay, locating quotations from the piece that point to that context or larger conversation. For example, with Guinier, students may list Democracy, Voting, Equal Rights, Race, and others. Not only does this generate the themes of the essay, but it also helps students to see that these texts are not isolated writings but participate in larger conversations. It additionally gives them practice in locating these larger conversations through the written and unwritten clues in the essays.

Close Reading Activity
By Michael Goeller

• Look at the second paragraph from Kaldor’s essay. What vision of society does she suggest is characterized by the term “modernity”? How does his vision compare/contrast with Amy Chua’s vision of the modern world? Type out a brief answer to these questions, being sure to quote parts of that first paragraph.

• Identify what you think is the closest thing to a thesis statement (that is, a paragraph or short passage that you think states very briefly the overall argument) in Mary Kaldor’s essay. Type out this paragraph or passage. Then explain what you think Kaldor is saying in the passage you’ve chosen—and therefore what her overall argument is, in your own words. (You’ll have a chance to revise this at some later point—so just do your best to lay out what you think his overall thesis is, as you understand it right now—hopefully, of course, that understanding will improve as we continue to read and discuss Kaldor in the coming weeks.)

• Do the same with Chua. What’s her thesis?

Preparing the Path
By Martin Pousson

[Before I hand out the assignment for an essay, I give my 100-level students a set of pre-writing activities. Some they complete in class, others they finish at home. I keep the same exercise structure for each essay, but adapt the questions and material to match the shift in sequence.]

Directing Summary

In one sentence each, summarize what Boyarin, Gould, and Armstrong are trying to do in their respective essays.

Finding Quotations

Flipping through the three essays, mark at least two places in each essay where you see the authors discuss the importance of words or terms in making meaning.

Providing Definitions

In complete sentences, using a quotation from Armstrong, define “fundamentalism.” Using a quotation from Gould, define “evolution.”

Forming Interpretations

What do you think Armstrong sees as the cause of changes in the way people view God or religion? How does Boyarin view the cause of change in the way he or others view religious identity? What parallels can you draw between Armstrong’s description of social change and Boyarin’s description of individual change? Find at least one quotation in each essay that supports your view.

Supporting Conclusions

Which of these writers—Boyarin, Gould, or Armstrong—do you find most valuable in considering the way that religious ideology shapes the way we see the world and describe it in language? Find a quotation from that author and use it to explain what you find most compelling about his or her point of view.

At-Home Assignment

Before you begin your rough draft, write one full paragraph (no less than nine sentences) in which you make reference to Boyarin, Gould, and Armstrong as you discuss the relationship between religion and language in shaping a worldview.

Writing in Class and Presenting New Texts
By Christine A. Cerrato

I find that the best way to begin a discussion is with student writing. Whenever I introduce the third essay into a sequence, I bring to class a page of three quotations, one from each author. I have students write on the first quote for ten minutes. Then, I tell them to connect the ideas in the second quote to those in the first quote and write for ten more minutes. For the final ten minutes, I have them connect the third quote (which is relatively or completely new to them) to the ideas in the first two. Then, each student reads a portion of his or her writing to the class.

By taking the passages out of context, I encourage the students to close-read and make connections between them. Once they have made these initial connections, the larger essays do not seem as intimidating. In addition, it’s important for them to see the ways we can make connections between passages in creating their assignments.

I think that this method works best when you pick particularly difficult passages, or ones that highlight major disagreements between two or three writers. When I choose the more difficult passages, I find that students have more to discuss after they write than they do if I choose passages that offer explicit connections between them. The responses I received from my students led to an engaged discussion in which many students participated.

Introducing a New Reading
By Karen Zivi

Together we read a passage or a series of passages from the essay. . . . After we’ve read aloud, I have the students spend some time (five minutes or so) writing down what they think is going on in the reading. . . . We then spend 15–20 minutes discussing the meaning of the passage(s). I usually prepare a series of questions in case I need to direct the flow of the discussion. For example, I may push them to identity places in the text that support their interpretations or to define a term or phrase more clearly. If need be, I may direct them to other parts of the text. (I spend a total of 30–45 minutes on this exercise.)

Reading and Rereading

This stage occurs on the second day of the cycle, when the student has spent some time reading the text on his own. This is the point at which you can have expectations that the students will know something about the text, but not have the detailed knowledge that comes from focused rereading, especially that which is produced by the pressure of an assignment question. Most importantly, this is the moment where the students are making meaning from the text, sorting out their own interpretations of the text, looking at what the text says both globally and specifically. The activities in this section, like the pre-reading activities, give ways to help our students find ways into the text, and make their own paths through it.

Drawing Pictures to Aid Revision
By Michael Goeller

I have often experimented with drawing in my classes, asking students to draw Thomas Kuhn’s concept of “paradigm” for example. I have also found that “mental maps” are an effective way to get students to start thinking with the right side of their brain to get a larger “picture” of the overall argument in an essay. In teaching Michael Pollan’s “Playing God in the Garden,” for example, you might have students draw a map of all the different groups concerned about bio-engineered potatoes in order to show how these groups relate to each other. Right away, students start to recognize that there are lots of voices represented in Pollan’s essay and there are not just two sides to the issue.

Drawing pictures works best, I find, when combined with close reading so that the picture brings students back to the text rather than drawing their attention away from it. The following series of activities was very effective in combining close reading (left brain) and drawing pictures (right brain) and took up two days of class time. These activities worked very well as a way of moving into the second assignment since they helped students make connections between two essays. I had students do the Close Reading Activity in the computer classroom, using forums, but you could just as easily do it in the regular classroom. The initial close reading got them to focus on just a few short passages and made a great exercise for the first day of a new text, which was the same day that the first paper was due. Most students, of course, had not read more than the first half of the Drucker essay, but they were still able to engage with the activity since it asked them to look at passages that appeared relatively early in his essay. And the homework assignment, which asked them to draw pictures, got them to carry the class exercise a bit further and to revise their initial ideas based on their overall “picture” of the essay. In class on the second day, the pictures were especially effective in supporting public speaking, since students felt very comfortable speaking when they had a visual aid to use (and, sometimes, to hide behind).

Instructions for homework:

For next class you each must do the following:

Draw two pictures, using whatever medium you have available, to represent the visions of globalization offered by Mary Kaldor and Eric Schlosser in their respective essays. You could use crayons, collage, computer graphics, or just pencil and paper. But draw two pictures, and they should be about the size of a standard piece of paper (about eight and a half by eleven inches) or larger, so you can show people in class next time. It may help to think of your picture as a “mental map” of the forces, people, institutions, and other pieces of society that are involved in globalization as portrayed by each of the writers we have examined.

Instructions for class discussion:

1) Get into groups as directed in class.

2) Take turns presenting your drawings of Kaldor’s and Schlosser’s visions of globalization to your small group and to explain how your drawings are meant to capture their two visions. Be sure to discuss the following two questions:

3) What similarities or contrasts do your drawings suggest?

4) How do they help to clarify critical points in the comparison of these writers’ ideas?

5) Once everyone has presented his or her drawings, take a vote on which drawings you think are most effective at capturing the visions of globalization of each writer. You might find that you like one drawing by one student and another by a different student. That’s fine—just reach a consensus on two drawings.

6) Now that you have chosen the drawings, choose two group leaders to present your drawings to the class (one leader for each drawing). The presenters will receive credit toward the public speaking component of the course.

7) To help your presenters prepare, find at least one quotation from Kaldor and one from Schlosser that you think help to support the pictures that you have chosen to present. Be prepared to answer questions from the group and from me—especially about the apparent differences and similarities between these two visions of globalization.

Rethinking Assumptions
By Martin Pousson

[Author’s Note: I decided to try an apparently “reductive and mechanistic” exercise in the hope of leading students to question the assumptions that they made about specific texts. I feared that these sentences would appear verbatim in student essays, but my fears proved unfounded as—instead—some students actually experienced mini-epiphanies as they were led to acknowledge in writing that their ideas had in fact changed.]

Reading Boyarin’s essay made me rethink Gould’s idea that

I now feel that Gould is right/wrong on at least this one point because

Rereading Gould’s essay made me rethink Boyarin’s idea that

I now feel that Boyarin is right/wrong on at least this one point because

Interpreting Quotes
By Tina Crafton

Ask students to select a quotation from each essay they are working with (they do this for homework). In class, ask for volunteers to tell what passages they selected and ask them to discuss how these passages are connected; how they illustrate a common theme or idea. This gives them a head start on their first draft. The class helps the student relate the two passages together (it becomes group interpretation). This allows students to do the work of finding quotes, not the teacher.

From Reading to Writing

Working with the readings in isolation is only a small part of the process of working with the texts in the reader. In the arc of the paper we move very quickly—by the end of the second day in the cycle—to working with the texts in the context of the student’s writing. The following sections offer activities which take students from their first engagement with the assignment question through the revision process, up to handing in the final draft.

Pre-Writing

Pre-writing exercises provide an important step in preparing the student to produce the kind of paper we are asking for. Working out from The New Humanities Reader into their own written work can be intimidating for our students, especially when they are faced with an assignment question with a minimum page length requirement, a weighty reader, and a blank computer screen. Therefore, we ask the student to start small, and to get used to the idea of articulating their thoughts in a written form before they need to think about their writing as a part of the paper itself. In class, informal writing activities provide an ideal forum for an instructor to model the kind of writing and thinking that she expects in the paper itself. Working on a paragraph in isolation, or even parts of a paragraph, gives students an inventory of materials to draw from when they are on their own, faced with their reader and an assignment question.

The activities in this pre-writing section are mostly driven by the student’s first exposure to the assignment question (day two in the paper cycle given above). They ask the student to respond to that question first in isolation, but soon move to asking the student to think about the question the context of the new reading, the old reading, and the old assignments too. Once again, we draw on what the students already know in order to construct ways in to the new question, and the new reading, and into the student’s own paper.

Mapping the Assignment
By Karen Zivi

Depending on where we are in the semester, I may also spend about ten minutes working on reading the next assignment—what I call “mapping the assignment.” We’ll read the assignment together and then I’ll have them write for a few minutes on what they think the theme of the assignment is and what they would do to answer it. (I give writing time to assist those students who aren’t quick to raise their hands or need more time to think things through as well as to force each student to do some independent analysis.) During this exercise, they’re not only practicing textual interpretation (with the assignments text) but also discussing the different steps they’ll take in completing the assignment—from rereading an essay to finding and interpreting citations that support a point. This seems to help them focus their reading and writing and feel less overwhelmed by the assignment. I usually only do this mapping once; twice if I find that they’re having trouble making sense of the assignments. Later in the semester, then, I spend the extra class time on brainstorming connections between what they’ve read in class and the essays they’ve already read. That is, I’ll have them individually write down a series of connections they can make between texts, noting where in the text they can find support for these connections. Then I’ll put them in groups and they’ll choose one or two of the connections and work on paragraph development. That is, as a group, they’ll write a paragraph that includes 1) a framing sentence, 2) appropriate citations, and 3) interpretations of the citations used. I might then ask them to brainstorm about the main focus of the paper that would include this paragraph. Finally, I have them share their paragraphs with the class to see if similar connections were made using different textual support or different interpretations. We also might analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the argument presented by each group. I’ll end final draft days with a reminder that they’ll need to come to the next class prepared to discuss the new reading and assignment.

Puzzling Through the Assignment Enigma: “The Mission Impossible Scenario”
By Michael Goeller

On the day you hand out assignment questions, split the class into groups of three or four students. Give each group the mission—should they choose to accept it or not—of decoding the assignment, in effect rewriting it in their own words without altering its meanings, intentions, or goals. Again, this exercise can be made into a fun contest, with the class voting on which group has come the closest to fulfilling the mission, and saving the world. The “Mission: Impossible” scenario is especially effective at twisting their anxiety about an assignment into excitement and suspense in playing the game. Here is the assignment as I wrote it:

Mission: Impossible—Deciphering the Assignment

Here is your mission—whether you want to accept it or not!

The assignment question for Essay #3 has been posted to the class forum and handed to you in class. Your mission is to decipher the assignment and help your peers (and yourself) begin the process of gathering materials to write a response.

The fate of the free world hangs in the balance!

There are six steps. Do your best to get them done today in class—and if you don’t finish, please return to your response at home or in a campus computer lab to finish your mission. . . .

• In your own words, and to the best of your ability, tell your peers how they can ace this assignment. What is the assignment asking? What will be their mission objectives? Who is the enemy and how will he or she be defeated?

• Using the special secret agent decoding skills we have equipped you with, find an description of what Scott means by the term “public transcript,” and an example of one. Cite a page number and either briefly quote a passage or describe the example. Explain in your own words why this example shows a public transcript.

• Now find an example in Krakauer of a public transcript.

Using the brilliant problem solving skills you have honed in the secret agent academy, locate and point to a passage or an example in Scott that seems to describe a hidden transcript. How does this hidden transcript work—and how can your peers use this idea to defeat the enemy?

Now do the same for Krakauer.

If time allows, tell us what you think is the most important “art of resistance” by which ordinary citizens can help prevent world domination by the forces of power? When you hit the “Reply” button above, this message will disappear, and you will have about an hour to answer these questions. If you fail in your mission . . . well, keep trying and do your best.

This message will now self-destruct. . . . Good luck, class!

Informal In-Class Writing
By Carol Denise Bork

Sometimes, the most gratifying classes lead to the most disastrous papers. We have all had the experience of leaving the classroom thinking, “wow, what a great discussion,” only to get a set of papers a few days later than show none of the insight that was so apparent in the discussion. In order to help students make a stronger bridge between the good discussions they have in class and the solitary experience of writing a paper, I try to encourage lots of informal in-class writing. This is writing that students do “on-the-fly,” in the course of the discussion (rather than the more formal mode of in-class writing with which I often start my classes). Encouraging informal in-class writing is particularly important for struggling students, who often have not yet developed strong note-taking habits. Here are some ways to develop informal in-class writing into the class:

When small groups are reporting on their discussions, remind the rest of the class to jot down important ideas. It’s crucially important for students to leave the classroom—even after a day of discussion—with something concrete to which they can refer as they work on their papers. Some students may not have good note-taking habits, and constant reminders to write down useful ideas that come up in conversation can help them to develop in that area. (For example, “Lee just made an excellent point about . . . ; can anyone paraphrase what Lee just said? You might want to jot that idea down, and think about it more while you work on your paper this weekend. . . .”)

Take brief “writing breaks” every ten or fifteen minutes during a discussion. After a period of strong discussion, I will say, “take a few minutes to write down the most important ideas from the discussion so far.” Near the end of class, I will say, “take a few minutes to jot down the ideas from discussion that you will want to work with in your paper.” Then I will ask the class as a whole if they want anyone to repeat anything. This question helps students to reflect on the discussion immediately, so that they can add to their notes.

Ask students to write 5 substantive questions about the discussion so far. After 10 or 15 minutes of discussion, ask students to reflect back on the discussion and write down questions about issues that have been raised in the discussion. If students find this daunting, you can even provide some patterns for questions, such as “what is the relationship between ______ and ______?” or when ______ writes about ______ does she mean ______ or ______?

Tell students at the beginning of the discussion that you will call on someone to re-cap the important points later in the class. This means that everyone has to take notes and be ready to report on the high points of the discussion, including disagreements and ambiguities. (Make sure to affirm that the student chosen for this task does a good job, so that others will be willing to try in the future.)

Working with Text

The next stage in making the connection between assignment and texts, and between reading and writing, often comprises brainstorming connections between the readings, in the context of the new assignment question.

In order to bridge the gap between a student’s interpretation of an idea in one of the texts in the New Humanities Reader texts, and the act of responding to them in writing, and to help students engage responsibly with the essays in The New Humanities Reader, classroom activities are often centered around working in detail with quotations of those essays. The usual way that we ask students to incorporate the ideas from the texts is by using direct quotation; in a paper where we are asking a student to make his own voice heard, perhaps for the first time, it is essential to formally delineate when the student’s idea ends, and those in the readings begin. At this stage of the writing process we ask students not only to think about what a quote says, but what it does in the context of the essay in which it occurs, and what purpose it can serve in their own paper. We encourage students to build connections between the texts with a somewhat vague idea of the assignment question in mind, rather than setting out a thesis and seeking quotes that will help them prove it: the latter approach leads to reductive thinking makes it difficult for students to make complex connections or to develop a project which addresses the complications in the readings in the context of their own ideas. Therefore, the activities outlined below focus on building connections between the text as a starting point for the student’s own project, rather than treating the student’s project as being a complete thought before he gets to the text.

The exercises in this section help students to deal with quotes in three ways:

• quotes in context

• quotes in isolation

• quotes in conversation

These three ways of using quotation all help students to understand the text and its implications for their own project, and also, simply, to have something to write.

Working out—The Grid
By Heather Robinson

Have students take a sheet of paper, draw a grid with three columns along the top, and a row for every text that the assignment question asks for. These terms should be kept fairly general—they are supposed to facilitate connection, rather than stymieing the student by seeking specific connections between the readings that will have to be forced. Then the students choose three words or phrases from the assignment question, and write a word in each column. The student writes one of the author’s names in each of the rows. The empty boxes in the middle of the grid are then filled with quotes that the student finds, which can be connected. Importantly, the words in the top boxes of the column provide inspiration for the connection, rather than occurring in the quotes themselves.

It also works well to leave a row blank at the bottom of the grid, so the student can describe the connection that they’re seeing, so when they go home to write it up, the don’t have to reconstruct the idea.

This exercise works well as an on-the-board activity, as well as something for students to do individually, or in small groups. Some individual preparation may facilitate the whole-class activity.

Interpreting Quotes
By Tina Crafton

Give students a difficult passage from the essay and ask them to explain and then interpret the passage, paying attention to particular words and phrases and how these things indicate tone and meaning. Ask them to tie the passage to the larger theoretical issues the essay brings up.

Idea vs. Example Quotes
By Heather Robinson

I’ve found it useful to have students not just pick out quotes that they think will fit into their essays, but also to reflect on what sort of quote they are choosing. I have students choose quotes from the two different essays, and write the two quotes on the board, along with a brief description of the idea that they using to connect them. We then look at the relationship between the two quotes. Are they offering an idea, and an example that helps to show how the idea works? Are they both examples, which show the student’s connecting idea working in some way? Are they both ideas, either in contrast, or comparison, or does one offer a possible direction for development of the other? I also like to point out that the quotes that helped them to understand what was happening in an essay on their first reading are not necessarily the quotes that will work best to explore ideas: examples are only useful in the context of an idea that they are trying to demonstrate.

I then ask them to repeat the exercise—from quote choice, to discussion of what the quotes are doing in relation to each other—and thus start to build a paragraph of their own.

In The New Humanities Reader classroom we see the production of an initial draft as a beginning, rather than an end. Just as we ask students to produce text in response to essays in the reader, so we then ask them to respond to each others’ papers. The activities given earlier in this chapter set students up with the materials they need to create a project that allows them to think connectively about the texts in the reader, and the assignment question. In this section we offer activities that help students with the mechanics of making connections, and building a project, in the context of writing a five-page paper. By focusing on connective thinking, and encouraging students to visit and revisit their own, and others’ work, we are trying to bridge the gap—often a large one—between what a student can say and understand in response to the readings, and what he can actually articulate in a written form. By focusing on the steps of the process, rather than the finished product, we strive to build students’ confidence in their own abilities to build a project which responds to issues in the world—but which they can own—and to help them to generate the text that will comprise their paper.

Connecting

When we ask students write a paper that responds to an essay or essays from The New Humanities Reader, we are asking them to respond in specific ways. Particularly, we are asking them to do more than report on what an author says, and to do more than apply one author’s ideas to another’s. Rather, we are asking them to enter into a conversation with the voices in the texts with which they are working; to not only build points of connection between the texts, and the texts and the assignment, but also to have their own voice guide the discussion. In the pedagogy of The New Humanities Reader, students are asked to put forward a project, through which the conversation between the student and the texts, the assignment question and the readings, the students and the assignment question, come together. This is not a simple task—it requires the student to analyze, interpret, and go beyond an argument which they try to “win,” and a thesis that they try to “prove.” We encourage students to see that complications can make their project stronger, and that a project that recognizes nuances and complications, and grapples with them through connective thinking, will not only help them to succeed in their composition class, but will also help them in the rest of their academic writing, and beyond. The activities and handouts in this section help students to write themselves into a conversation with the ideas in the readings.

From an Argument to a Project
By Barclay Barrios

In the second essay, most everyone had a strong sense of project, but in many cases it was too strong, making it too much like an argument. What’s the difference? Well . . .

Argument
Is something you want to win	Is something you want to accomplish
Is reductive	Is complex
Is neat, all the evidence falling into place	Is messy, because evidence is
Points to the texts	Points through the texts to something more
Will help you pass a paper	Will help you do well on a paper

Another way to think of this is to say that arguments have no action horizons; they’re concerned with proving something about the texts (one author right or wrong), but they don’t use the texts to suggest any solution. Sometimes I’ll use the terms interchangeably in class and elsewhere, because I don’t want us to abandon argument. But, whenever you hear “argument” also think “project,” and whenever you hear “project” also think “argument.”

On Textual Responsibility

The problem with an argument is that because you need to prove it, in fact because you need to win it, you’ll tend to let the argument override everything else, most especially the complexity of the texts. That means you’ll “leave out” parts of the text that don’t help you win your argument, or that hurt your argument, or that (more simply) complicate your argument.

But in order to do well in this class, your argument/project must be responsible to the text. What does that mean? Better to give some examples of what it means when you’re not responsible to the text:

• Arguing that all men in Bedouin society think that women are always stupid, regardless of how much education they receive—without noting that this is Kamla’s depiction of the situation.

• Arguing that Kamla “eventually becomes successful in her profession because of the education she received” or that she married an Egyptian man—indicates that the writer didn’t read the essay enough to grasp the details.

• Arguing that Kamla’s father feared that the Bedouin girls “could have a say or opinion about their own lives” without noting that Kamla expressed many opinions.

Being responsible to the text means that as you make your point, you take into account what both essays have to say about it. Of course, if you’re just arguing, that’s tricky, because arguments are supposed to be black and white—projects aren’t, because the texts aren’t.

On Locating a Project with Textual Responsibility

Part of the problem may be the way in which you come to your argument. Basically, there are two ways to locate a project:

1. Read the essays, think about them, formulate an argument, and then go back into the essays to find the quotations you need to prove it.

2. Read the essays, think about them, look through the text for quotations, and then formulate an argument from them.

The problem with method one is that you’re more likely to skip over (unconsciously even) the very passages you need to complicate your project. In other words, if you start with an argument and try to prove it, you’re much more like to end up with an argument that is not responsible to the text. On the other hand, if you begin with the texts, with the problems you find in the passages, if you think about these problems and think about how they resonate in passages from the other text, then your argument/project will have greater textual responsibility, because it will come from the text rather than being forced or mapped onto the text.

For Paper Three

Think about:

• Action horizons. OK, so you’ve located a problem or conflict, how can you discuss the issues in a way that doesn’t reduce or simplify the complexity of the issues?

• Projects. Yes, I still need a clear statement of what your paper is going to do, yes in many ways this is still an argument. But locate an argument that is complex, that acknowledges the essays, and that isn’t concerned with proving someone right or wrong so much as it is concerned with finding a way to negotiate the problems the texts present.

• Stay responsible. Whether you start with project and move to text, or start with text and move to project, be sure to consider how all the parts of both texts impact your argument. Remember, if you find a passage that works against your argument it’s not a problem—it’s an opportunity! Modifying your position to take that passage into account will create a more nuanced and complex and sophisticated and better project/argument/paper.

Framing and Making Connections
By Carol Denise Bork

I had a class that had lots of trouble “making connections.” They all wrote paragraphs that included discussion of two writers, but they were very few substantive connections between the ideas of different writers. In desperation, I tried this exercise.

Choose one of the sentences below as a starting place. Fill in the first blank with a specific incident or idea from Baldwin’s essay, and fill in the second blank with a specific concept that is important in Bellah’s essay. Then continue writing until you have at least 200 words explaining the connection you have made.

Abu-Lughod’s description of ___________________ is a good example of Scott’s concept of ___________________ because . . .

Abu-Lughod’s description of ___________________ is a poor example of Scott’s concept of ___________________ because . . .

I was concerned that this exercise would lead to a simplistic, constraining notion of framing because it seemed so reductive and mechanistic. However, it proved extremely productive, and was the turning point for most of the students in the class. While I had worried that these sentences would appear in papers exactly as I had presented them, instead students used the exercise to develop the skill of “framing,” and quickly moved beyond the simple model provided by the exercise.

I devised this exercise as an attempt to help students make substantive connections between ideas; however, I was pleased to discover that the “fill in the blank” format was also useful for working with quotations. Most of the students in this class were already fairly skillful at the mechanics of quoting. However, this exercise helped those who had not acquired that skill to practice it, and also helped everyone to make more meaningful use of quotation.

Super-Secret Formula for Connection
By Barclay Barrios

Cl ® I ® Q1 ® E ® T ® Q2 ® Ce

Cl = Start by stating your claim, what you are trying to prove.

I = Then introduce the first quotation.

Q1 = Give the first quotation.

E = Explain it in your own words.

T = Give some sort of transition to the next quotation, providing a clue to connection.

Q2 = Give the second quote.

Ce = Explain how the second quote connects to the first one in a sentence or two. This last part is crucial. You need to explain the connection in order to really prove it.

Paragraphing
By Heather Robinson and Michelle Brazier

This worksheet is extremely formulaic, but it particularly helps weaker students in working towards a passing paper. By requiring the students to make sure their paragraphs contain each of the elements given below, they are forced to make rudimentary connections (by physical juxtaposition of quotations if nothing else), which we can help them articulate and complicate in the revision process. These are the parts of a paragraph (the essential parts—you can have more if you want):

1. Claim: what you are trying to show in the paragraph

This sentence is the one where you tell your reader how you will contribute to your answer the assignment question, or to your project, in this particular paragraph. It should express an idea, or an observation about the issues you are addressing, rather than a detached statement of fact, or a quote, or an idea directly taken from one of the readings. It should be yours.

2. Introduction to the first quotation (with proper punctuation: none, comma, colon)

This sentence should include:

• A brief “set-up,” where you highlight for your reader what you want them to look at in the quotation.

• A suggestion of how the quotation relates to your claim, either by supporting it, or offering a contrasting perspective.

3. The first quotation

This should take the form of a grammatical sentence. Make sure that you incorporate it seamlessly and sensibly into your own sentence. Use correct punctuation and [brackets], if necessary.

4. An explanation of the quotation, in your own words

This is where you explain what the important parts of the quotation are. In your explanation you could emphasize a key word (explaining why it is a key word), or you could rephrase an important idea. Indicate to your reader what they need to pay attention to.

5. A transition sentence

This is a sentence which helps you to move from the idea you were exploring using the first quotation, to the idea that you will be exploring using the second one. This is the sentence where you explain your connection, and thus the relationship between the two quotations with which you are working. Think of it as the hinge-point of your idea connection.

Your connection might be:

• A comparison (. . . and . . .)

• A contrast (. . . but . . .)

• A development (if . . . then, furthermore) [Please note: “also” is not a form of development]

• A complication (or, on the other hand, however)

• Frame-case (the first quote gives a theory, the second an example which shows the theory at work, or how the example contradicts the theory)

We are striving for one of the latter—connections which are either complications of the idea you started off with in the first part of the paragraph, or developments of that idea (not simply addition). Comparisons and contrasts are OK, but they limit the kinds of claims you can make because they constitute an “either-or” relationship that is black-and-white; grey is the bread and butter of writing. That is why “complications” are the most useful kinds of connections you can make in these papers.

6. Introductory sentence #2

This sentence sets up the next quotation. Tell your reader what to look for when they are reading. See also point 4 above.

7. Quotation

Idea or example?

8. Explanation of the quotation

This is where you explain what the important parts of the quotation are. In your explanation you could emphasize a key word (explaining why it is a key word), or you could rephrase an important idea. Indicate to your reader what they need to pay attention to.

9. Concluding sentences: highlight the connection > paragraph transition

Bring the first author/quote back into the discussion. This is the 2nd place in this paragraph where you should highlight your connection between the two authors. Explain how the two quotes have helped you to develop your claim in this paragraph. Then use your paragraph transition to move from the main idea of this paragraph to the claim you will make in the very first sentence of the next paragraph. Always be conscious of the idea that connects this paragraph to the next one.

N.B. This paragraphing sheet can also be adapted effectively into an exercise where students read each other’s work. By breaking the paragraph down in this way, we can ask other students to look for the component parts and alert the writer if they are not present.

Noun Flow Chart
By Jen Schubert

This exercise particularly helps students to make concrete the links that they are seeing between texts by having them form chains of nouns within quotations, and between quotes and the student’s own discussion. I see it having three solid realms of application

• connects student’s ideas (response to assignment question) with quotes

• connects claim and support

• connects two texts via quotes

• maps development of ideas within a single quote

The student starts by reading some part of each text that they want to make connections between or in (assignment question, quotes from text) and selects the important nouns in each. If the student is just looking at a single quote, he can choose the important nouns in that quote. He then writes on how they relate to each other—how they help the author put their own idea together. The same thing happens between assignment question and quotes, or between two quotes—the student focuses on the nouns, and then must explain the relationships between the nouns from his own perspective. The student can then refer back to these nouns—and use them—in his own discussion of the text. In addition, making the student focus on a particular noun, or a particular few nouns maintains the focus of a paragraph, connecting all the component parts coherently, and giving the reader the thread of the whole passage.

Worksheet for Connecting
By Barclay Barrios

Introduction

You probably know by now that connections are a crucial component to a passing 101 paper, but you may not know that there’s a big difference between having connections and making them. Often, you’ll have a connection in your head, and you’ll see it when you read your paper, but you’re not doing enough to explain the connection, so the person reading your paper (like your instructor) doesn’t see a connection at all. You have a connection, but you need to make it, and that means you need to make it clear by explaining it well. Here’s an exercise that can help you make connections. You may not have to do this for every connection you’re going for, but it’s extremely useful for making sure the connection is there and for making sure you’re explaining it well.

Nail that Connection Exercise:

1) Select the two quotations or concepts or ideas you think make a connection.

2) Take a sheet of paper and draw a line down the middle, from top to bottom.

3) Write each quotation/concept on the paper, on either side of the line, so that you can actually see the two pieces of text next to one another.

4) Underline the phrases in each quotation/concept that you think actually connect, and then draw a line connecting them. If you can’t find anything to underline, then maybe this is not the best quotation to make this connection. Often, you have an idea in your head that connects the essays, but you may not be using the right piece of text to show that connection. If you’re having problems at this stage, try finding a better piece of text to work with. Also, make sure that the connection is between ideas, rather than just words on the page.

5) Rewrite the parts you underlined underneath each quotation/connection on either side of the line. This lets you visually formulate the connection you’re aiming for.

6) Write a sentence that uses the underlined parts to explain the connection. Remember that if you started with actual quotations, then you will want to enclose the phrases in quotation marks as you refer to them in this sentence.

7) Incorporate this sentence into your paragraph. It should make the connection for you, because this exercise has forced you to point directly to the place where you see the connection happening.

8) Repeat for the next connection.

Conclusion

Connection is a crucial skill and not an easy one to master. It takes a lot of thinking to make connections, because this class demands a lot of thinking. But always also check to make sure your connections are clear: remember, it’s not enough to think critically. We have to understand those thoughts as well.

Types of Connections
By Heather Robinson

We ask students to make connections between readings from the second reading in the sequence. However, it’s often difficult for them to go beyond making connections that just notice similarities between the texts. To help students remedy this, I give them a worksheet where they look at the kinds of connections that they are making between texts.

1) Draw a box around the sentence(s) in each paragraph where you see the connection between the ideas in the texts being explained.

2) Which of the following words best describes the kinds of connections that the writer of the paper is making?

a. Comparison

b. Contrast

c. Idea—Example demonstrating idea (Frame-Case)

d. Two alternative approaches to answering a question

3) Write the word next to the sentence in the box.

4) In the margin, write a sentence or two as to how the author might make the connection more interesting, or complicated. For instance, could the author change his/her choice of one of the quotes, or focus on something different in each of the quotes, to complicate his/her position?

Once a student has put together her four- or five-page rough draft, we embark on the process of revision. That is, we ask the student, and the other students in the class, to examine the conversation that they have put together in their rough draft, and to develop and complicate it. Our focus on revision reinforces the claim, central to the New Humanities Reader pedagogy, that writing is a process, and the conversation between authors—students and others—should be developed in the process of revision. Just as we encourage students to think that their first reading of the essays in the New Humanities Reader cannot be the final one, so the first writing of their paper is not the final one. Also, from a practical perspective, students usually write themselves into a viable project. While they start to answer the assignment question at the beginning of their rough draft, it is often the case that a true project which thinking connectively about the assigned readings, only emerges towards the end of the paper. Revision gives students a chance to step back and see this for themselves, to build on those moments, and potentially even discard the writing that helped them get to that emerging project in favor of new writing that develops the project which has emerged.

Peer Review

In order to focus students on the idea that it is up to them to make meaning out of the material in front of them, rather than having wisdom handed down to them from on high, instructors do not provide specific comments for revision on a student’s rough draft. Rather, we provide worksheets that guide the students to offer suggestions for revision on each other’s work. Peer review can be used to focus on new parts of the writing process which we want students to gain control over, or it can be used to reinforce lessons taught earlier in the semester. Most teachers have a sequence of peer review activities that address different concerns at different parts of the semester. Instructors often factor a student’s peer review responses into the grade on their paper—a lazy peer reviewer will have their final grade reduced. This helps motivate students who don’t take peer review seriously, as well as encouraging them to practice the skills that will ultimately help them be more successful in reviewing their own work.

It is not easy to make peer review work. Students are often resistant to accepting comments on their papers from people who they see as being “just as bad” at writing as they are. The peer review questions and sheets included below have worked not only as exercises for students to review each others’ work, but they also provide questions that students should be encouraged to ask of their own writing. This technique of specific questioning helps students give feedback that their peers see as a useful alternative to instructor comments.

Peer review sheets should provide questions that focus on both the mechanical and the conceptual parts of student writing—not only what the author wants to say, but how they might say it most effectively. Peer reviews focus on different things throughout the course of the semester; should reflect the points of emphasis that are new, or that students are not doing very well, though repeating fundamental things (analysis not summary etc.) is important. A typical sequence of peer review activities might follow the trajectory below:

Peer Review #1—Focus on identifying moments of summary vs. moments of analysis

Peer Review #2—Focus on writing connections—putting connective thinking in writing

Peer Review #3—Building a conversation between three authors

Peer Review #4—Consolidating (good time for review of points which students are still having trouble with—e.g., using quotes effectively, incorporating quotes well into paragraphs, developing a project throughout the paper)

Peer Review #5—Complicating the conversation between two authors

Peer Review #6—Keeping three authors under control, and complicating the argument

Sample Peer Review Questions

(There are lots of questions here—a typical peer review sheet will be shorter)

Writer’s Name:				Date:
Peer Editor’s Name:

Generic Instructions to the Peer Editor: Please do your best to give helpful feedback to the writer whose paper you review. Wherever possible, provide specific examples. Write as much as possible on this sheet, and be sure to write on your peer’s paper as well. [Editor’s Note: For space reasons we have left out the blank areas in this peer review sheet in which students can answer the questions].

Generic Instructions to the Writer: Please save all of the peer evaluations you receive and hand them in with the final drafts. This will help me to evaluate the effectiveness of peer revision, and it will give me a chance to engage with the comments of your peers in my own comments on your final draft.

1. Go through your partner’s paper and mark with a star all the places where you think the writer is interpreting and thinking rather than supplying information directly from the readings in the form of summary. Also mark places with a large S where you feel the writer is providing unnecessary summary that does not seem to help her or him develop an argument.

2. Which of the starred moments in the draft seem especially interesting or promising? That is, what place in the essay does the writer say something that seems most original or interesting? What is so good about this moment to you?

3. Could the idea you discussed in #2 help to unify the paper in some way? That is, do you see a moment of argument here? What would that argument be?

4. What is the writer’s argument, in your own words? That is, how does she or he respond to the main essay question? What answer does the essay suggest? Do you agree with the writer’s argument, as you see it? Why or why not?

5. Play devil’s advocate for a moment, and try to imagine the most contrary point of view that someone could take on your peer’s argument. What criticism would the devil’s advocate level against this paper?

6. How does the writer think that [Generic Author Name #1] differs from [Generic Author Name #2] in responding to the essay question?

7. Does the writer directly deal with the readings in most paragraphs of the essay? Where should the writer do more to incorporate or quote from the readings? What passages or ideas from the readings should she or he especially consider?

8. Locate at least one place where the writer can strengthen connections between essays. Explain what connection you are working with: Is the connection between the essays clear? Does this connection relate back to the main argument? How might he or she explain this connection more carefully?

9. What are some of the things that the writer should work on in revision? For example: Has the writer begun to address the basic elements of the assignment? Does she or he try to form an argument that addresses the essay question? Does the writer generally work to present interpretation rather than summary? Has he or she incorporated the other readings into the essay well enough? Does she or he use quotes or discuss these writers’ arguments directly? Does the writer use specific references to the text to illustrate points? Does the writer try to engage the texts in conversation rather than just using them to back up her or his narrow argument? Does the writer acknowledge the arguments of these writers and work to separate her or his own voice from that of the writers (not repeating things said by the writers as though it were her or his own opinion)?

10. Come up with an original title for your peer’s paper. The title should try to capture what you think the writer is saying in the essay.

11. Look at two quotations that the writer uses, and talk about how accurately and how well the writer deals with those quotes. First, pick a quote that you think the writer could definitely talk about more or talk about more accurately. Second, look at the longest quote that the writer has used. Is this quote too long? Is it being used in place of writing or in place of some sort of directed summary? If you think the quote is good—or if you think it should be shortened—what is the most important part of the quote? What part should the writer discuss most? What might the writer say about the quote?

12. Respond to a second student’s paper when you are finished with the first.

Sample Peer Review Sheets

Peer Review Sheet for Paper #1
By Heather Robinson

Writer’s Name:<