Course Methods

The Writing Process

Writing 5 approaches writing as a process that requires a continuous re-thinking and deepening of a student's engagement with a topic. Accordingly, Writing 5 classes expose students to an array of skills and strategies.

• Exploring.

  Texts and ideas are not self-evident; they prompt exploration. Among the various means of opening up a text or idea are close reading, short oral or written commentary, individual and collective information-gathering, and brainstorming.

• Analyzing.

  Analysis is more disciplined than exploration. Analysis identifies the premises and patterns of a text, teases out its assumptions, determines its perspective and intention - in short, analysis is a sustained inquiry into the existing and potential meanings of a text.

• Drafting.

  Drafting shapes the discussion of a claim, question, or problem into a coherent whole. Often drafting begins with developing an outline of the whole paper; sometimes it begins by writing a section of the imagined whole. In all cases drafting is a recursive process in which the writing is clarified by re-thinking its shape, purpose and audience.

• Revising.

  Revision happens at every stage of the writing process as the writer clarifies his or her thinking and refines expression. In scholarly and professional writing - and in Writing 5 - revision assumes a draft that circulates to other readers/writers for comments. Revision may involve reformulating a section, reordering the sequence of discussion, or rethinking the whole text. Revision can also target a particular issue in the discussion or a recurrent problem in the prose. Revision, or editing, is also the local work of polishing a text, making sure its prose is clear and concise, and readying it for circulation as a finished piece.

Inquiry

Both reading and writing give rise to questions that require refinement and investigation. Writing 5 encourages students to bring their questions into ongoing intellectual discussion and to incorporate a sense of that discussion into their own work. The course does not require a research paper, but each section includes a library session coupled with an investigative assignment appropriate to the materials of the class.

• Developing habits of investigation.

  Formulating and refining questions often requires research in primary or secondary sources. Interesting issues are complex and emerge from traditions of inquiry that shape the context of their discussion.

• Engaging a topic.

  Entering the discussion on a particular topic means both knowing the terms, issues, and arguments already present in the discussion and acknowledging the contribution one makes to the discussion.

• Practicing appropriate citation.

  In its strictest sense, citation means knowing the conventions and methods of documenting the primary and secondary materials used in a piece of writing. In its larger sense, citation involves acknowledging how the ideas, arguments, and research of others have contributed to one's own intellectual work and writing.

Argument

Argument describes the process of making claims, posing questions, and discussing evidence; argument also names the result, or product, of that process. In Writing 5 students gain experience in various aspects and kinds of argument.

• Establishing the ground of an argument.

  An argument begins by making a claim, raising a question, posing a problem, or setting out a thesis and explaining its importance.

• Engaging critical conversation.

  Argument takes place in a context. An argument might develop out of the close analysis of a single text, or it might involve bringing two or more texts into dialogue with each other. Argument often involves accounting for and making use of other arguments that have been made about a topic.

• Assembling support and evidence.

  Argument depends on the well-reasoned discussion of evidence to support its points. Often the evidence derives from close analysis of a text or texts. Evidence may also involve other arguments that have been made on a topic. Interpretive, practical, and theoretical models often shape how evidence is chosen and used.

• Advancing argument.

  Argument requires organizational strategies and structure. Often an argument must integrate interpretive disagreements or counter-arguments into its own development. Successful argument moves progressively and logically toward a clear and persuasive conclusion.