In an attempt to determine which topic the Argumentative Research Paper for the class will be, the stases invention process outlined by Sharon Crowley in Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students was used with the following results:
Potential Topic #1 - Engaging
the Reluctant Writer
Students
enter high school with a wide range of abilities and interest (or lack thereof)
in writing, and yet writing is an essential component of almost every course
they take. How can a teacher empower reluctant writers to be engaged in the
learning process rather than merely squeaking through with poorly written,
poorly conceptualized papers? How can one make writing come alive for a student
who struggles to write a simple sentence?
Thesis (general) or Hypothesis (specific)
- My choice: Hypothesis (specific):
- What tools are available for a teacher to use to engage reluctant writers?
Which of the four stases best describes the point
at issue in the rhetorical situation at hand?
Conjecture
- Is there a way to reach writers at the high school level who have developed an aversion to and unhealthy habits related to writing?
- What techniques have been tried in the past?
- What causes a student to become a reluctant writer?
- What can be done to improve these writers’ skills?
Definition
- What are some specific tools that can be used to engage reluctant writers?
- What are some of the characteristics of a reluctant writer?
- Are there examples of techniques that have worked?
Quality
- Why does the quality of writing matter?
- What aspects of reaching the reluctant writer are the most important – proficiency vs. passion?
- Do the tools to engage the writers’ work?
Procedure
- How could this be implemented in a classroom?
In this assessment
of how to approach the topic of engaging reluctant readers, using Crowley’s
Stases Theory, the most applicable stasis in Hermagora’s Questions is Definition – the identification of tools
that have worked or might work in the classroom, and the characteristics of the
students involved. Supplemental stases that might also be helpful would include Conjecture, applied to a study of what has been done in the past, and the
backstories of some examples of reluctant writers to gain a better
understanding of their writing development and the obstacles to it. Procedure would be important if the research done lends itself to classroom application, which I hope it would.
An analysis of the stases procedure and its
effectiveness in the discernment process for me as a writer results in personal mixed
reviews. The thesis/hypothesis determination was very helpful because it
narrowed my topic from a broad, rather philosophical one to a very specific
(hypothesis) tool-based focus. In terms of Hermagora’s questions, in the end it
felt a bit like I was trying to come up with different ways to answer basically
the same question. I think if I had chosen the thesis/general approach, with a
far broader scope, the states questions would have been more helpful,
particularly in terms of answering the “Why is this important?” kinds of
questions. Doing this exercise helped me let that go, because I think it would
have generated an entirely separate, thinly connected, peripheral direction of
research. The surprise I found in the process was my willingness to let that,
and indeed this topic, go for now.
I am happy to read that you come out with a crisper focus -- but also interested that you see the importance of letting go of certain ideas you had been keeping in mind. Being able to let go of some possibilities is an important part of writing a focused paper -- and I wonder how you would help those will teach understand how any why they can do this.
ReplyDeleteI am also interested to hear how (and whether) you would use something like this stasis approach in your future teaching. It sounds as though you have a sense of when *you* would find such an approach useful again in the future -- but do you think it is generally useful enough to use in certain teaching situations to help students both expand and focus?