Job Discussion Forums

[The Ever-changing Cleric]

Anyone teaching lessons on expository writing that would like to exchange some ideas please contact me via PM.

[xiaolongbaolaoxi]

If you pass on some more info, I can"spitball" ideas your way. PM me, and I can go from there, as well as send links/worksheets... please indicate (privately) if you have VPN access.

In terms of writing, the biggest issue I saw in China was structure/continuity of argument... kind of burying the lead and hedging/qualifying the statement(s) to the point it was useless. Major cultural issues. Have a close friend (reporter in the US, but trained in China) who said that she had to learn to be blunt in her writing in a way she would never have done in PRC. Students who I knew had received early exposure to western education [their parents were rich] had zero problems with "how to write an essay," but otherwise, it was brutal. Also, defending statements/explaining why/providing evidence was/were a/n amazing concept/s.

I felt like I was in a constant battle with CTs regarding every aspect of writing... everything I was teaching was being undercut by other teachers. Punctuation, grammar, syntax, even idioms were a battle. When in doubt, CTs would rip into students for a/an/the when the teachers themselves were wrong. Felt like writing was a way for them to hold themselves over their students. But, when I met/saw/observed the English instructors who were teaching tourism in English, whole different world.

Aloha (comma)
XLB

[Beyond1984]

"Expository writing is a type of writing, the purpose of which is to inform, explain, describe, or define the author's subject to the reader." -Wikipedia

I'm guessing that you are teaching expository writing to first-year college students. Probably your main goals are to stress the evils of plagiarism and how to do some basic research.

Many students in such a course want to write about their interests:

1. How I Make Dumplings
2. Why Coke Is Better Than Pepsi
3. Why KFC Is Better Than McDonald's
4. The Great Wall
5. Michael Jackson
6. Kobe Bryant
7. My best friend



I recommend that, if possible, you steer your students toward what could be described as academic writing, which uses few if any personal pronouns, quotes experts and authorities and follows the MLA or APA format.

-HDT

My second-year students must choose a subject that has been in the news within the last year, is non-trivial and is researchable. Their papers require critical thinking and follow these formats:

Theory X is Useful in Understanding Subject Y

or

Subject + Researchable Assertion, e.g.:

The Great Wall Was/Was Not Effective in Deterring Invasions

[randyj]

This upcoming term my classes will consist entirely of elementary writing for English majors, so I am debating how to proceed. First of all, I will submit a questionnaire to my students and try to find out their ideas.

I am guessing that academic writing is what they need, as Beyond says. At the same time, I believe students learn to write by writing, so I want to assign journal topics each week rather than concentrate on a few larger writing projects during the semester. This could be a conflict.

Xiaolong is right about the problem of style. I have observed in previous writing classes that students definitely have a problem with bluntness. Students tend to be verbose. I remember one student in a writing class last semester remarked to me that the idea of less is better was a real eye-opener for him.

[TexasHighway]

The biggest challenge I find in teaching writing is that the students' essays are so full of clich�s. We need to encourage them to think outside of the box!

[kev7161]

This year, I've taught my 6th grade primary students the joys of the 5-paragraph essay. They started with a basic brainstorming word web, learned how to put together an outline, used that outline to make a rough draft and, ultimately a final copy. They learned about topic sentences, paragraphs dovetailing into the next, and introduction and closing paragraphs. Afterward, they translated their outlines onto index cards and gave a speech about their topic (a European country). They learned how to choose only 3-4 main ideas and not try to do it all in one paper. I would grade their success rate at about 75% (several stumbled over the oral report and a couple blatantly cut and pasted from websites) - - not too bad for 6th graders though, considering it was their first taste of writing a full report like this.

If you use the semester to go step by step with your students, you may find many wonderful papers. If you just tell them to write a report and give them only a lesson or two about the basics, then they may fall apart.

[randyj]

[Beyond1984]

"Students tend to be verbose." -randyj

So true.

I attribute this to the teachers who stipulate x number of words.

I refuse to stipulate word counts. but they must count sentences: 4-7 per paragraph. They can count pages ... most papers need not exceed 3, plus a Works Cited page.

-HDT

[the_otter]

I got my first year college students to write essays last semester. It was...interesting. There's definitely a lot of things I'd do differently...after tipping my melted brain back into my skull first, of course. Reading 120 essays of a thousand words each was not fun.