Pennington Publishing Blog

Teachers can help students practice the elements of Rhetorical Stance: voice, audience, purpose, and form. Learning these elements will enable students to flexibly address any writing assignment with dexterity and flair. Students need to be able to adjust their writing to a wide variety of genre in order to communicate effectively.

Find clear models of the elements of rhetorical stance and share these with your students. Help students to identify each of the elements in the model. Discuss how each interacts with the others. Make sure to use a wide variety of models.

Then, have students mimic the voice, audience, purpose, and form of the model to respond to an engaging writing prompt. Share their creative triumphs and correct shortcomings.

Voice—Some would define voice at that intangible which makes one’s writing unique, personal, and honest. I define voice a bit more globally, encompassing style, point of view, tone, and diction (word choice). Students need to practice mimicking other voices to refine their own voices. Additionally, students need to be able to manipulate their voices to best suit the audience, purpose, and form. Choose student models to share that will broaden your students’ understanding of voice and encourage students to mimic these examples and the voices of other writers. Check out another article I have written, titled “How to Develop Voice in Student Writing” for plenty of instructional strategies. Why not introduce a video clip of Martin Luther King, Jr. to inspire students to mimic his poetic, emotional, and hopeful voice prior to a relevant quick write?

Audience—Students need to understand that all writing is interactive communication. The other is the writer, himself, as reader and any others with whom the writer shares the work. Students all too frequently learn to write to the teacher as their exclusive audience. This practice tends to de-personalize student writing and limit development of voice. Choose student models to share that use a voice that engages and is particularly appropriate to the audience. Ask students to identify which parts of the writing response specifically address the defined audience and why. Why not select a class of third graders as an audience to encourage controlled vocabulary, brevity, and appropriate word choice?

Purpose—My comprehensive essay curriculum, Teaching Essay Strategies, uses eight key writing direction words (describe, explain, discuss, compare-contrast, analyze, persuade, justify, and evaluate) as the action words of each writing prompt in leveled writing strategy worksheets. These same writing direction words are used on a rotating basis (eight times each) as the purpose components in the 64 Rhetorical Stance Quick Writes. Check out the attached example of a Rhetorical Stance Quick Write and use to guide your instruction in the elements of rhetorical stance. Why not have your students describe the ideal world that they hope to live in as adults?

Form—Although the academic essay becomes the predominate form of composition beginning in the intermediate elementary years and continuing through college, facility in other writing forms is certainly necessary to develop voice, writing fluency, and writing dexterity. Additionally, writing practice using a variety of forms will improve reading comprehension across a wide variety of genres. Use a wide variety of form, from anecdotes to classified ads to help students adjust their writing form and voice to the purpose of the writing and their audience. Why not mimic the rhetorical style, including the parallel “I have a dream” refrains from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in a two minute speech?

The writer of this blog, Mark Pennington, is an educational author of teaching resources to differentiate instruction in the fields of reading and English-language arts. His comprehensive curricula: Teaching Grammar and Mechanics, Teaching Essay Strategies, Teaching Reading Strategies, and Teaching Spelling and Vocabulary help teachers differentiate instruction with little additional teacher prep and/or training.

Find essay strategy worksheets, writing fluencies, sentence revision activities, remedial writing lessons, posters, and editing resources to differentiate essay writing instruction in Teaching Essay Strategies at www.penningtonpublishing.com.

Writing audience, composition, essay, form, prompt, purpose, rhetoric, rhetorical stance, theme, tone, voice, Writing, writing domains, writing genre, writing openers, writing process, writing prompt, writing style, writing voice

Writing research has shown that one key ingredient to writing success is time. Developing writers need time to learn the writing craft, time to research/brainstorm, time to draft, and time to revise. However, ironically, time may in-it-of-itself be the greatest impediment standing in the way of writing profiency and fluency for many of our students.

Since the return of phonics-based reading instruction in the 1990s, elementary teachers have had to allocate more instructional time to direct instruction. With greater diversity in most states, more pressure to differentiate instruction in reading has compounded the problem of instructional minutes at all grade levels. Science, art, social studies, physical education, music, and writing have become the casualties of this time-theft.

The advent of timed writings on high stakes tests, such as the new SAT 1, high school exit exams, and standards-based writing assessments, has placed teachers in the difficult position of choosing among three instructional approaches to help students both learn to write and succeed on these tests with no additional time allocated for writing instruction. The three approaches are 1. process writing 2. on demand writing and 3. a mix of the two.

Advocates of the process writing approach (Six Traits, National Writing Project, Writers Workshop, etc.) argue that frequent practice in all phases of the writing process i.e., research/brainstorming, drafting, revision, editing, and publishing best helps writers develop writing fluency and proficiency. Advocates of the on demand approach argue that the above components can be streamlined into an integrated process, which teaches the writer to concurrently multi-task the drafting, revision, and editing steps with the quick bookends of planning and proofreading. Those teachers trying to please both masters have limited their process pieces and upped the amount of on demand writing tasks when the standardized writing test looms on the horizon.

Process writing proponents tend to teach grammar and mechanics (punctuation, capitalization, and spelling) incidentally throughout the writing process or via targeted mini-lessons. On demand proponents tend to teach grammar and mechanics explicitly through an established instructional scope and sequence. Those who try to combine process and on demand writing wind up relegating most grammatical and mechanics instruction to test preparation out of sheer time constraints.

A brief readers theater (tongue firmly planted in cheek) may help teachers of all writing approaches greater appreciate the challenge of teaching writing today.

Narrator: Here is a familiar scene in the teachers’ workroom. Two teachers kill time while waiting in line for the laminating machine. Their subject of discourse: an ongoing discussion of Process Writing versus On Demand Writing.

Teacher 1: I can’t believe that Mildred accidentally threw out my Writing Process charts when she rotated off-track. I’ve got to get new ones laminated and back on the wall. I’m lost without them!

Teacher 2: Are you still using those dumb charts? I thought that you must have dumped them by now. The Writing Process is “old school.” We dropped that with whole language years ago. Get with the program! It’s On Demand Writing, now. Oh by the way, I put back your Lucy McCormick Calkins book in your box; I have enough paperweights for my desk, thank you.

Teacher 1: You and your on demand writing tasks… You’re not teaching—all you are really doing is testing. Are you still passing out those grammar worksheets for homework? Remember, the research about writing says—

Teacher 2: Don’t give me that research stuff—I know what works for my kids. My language expression scores on the state test were much higher than yours. You’re lucky you’ve got tenure.

Teacher 1: Even when I didn’t, I never kissed the principal’s butt like you do. And I don’t teach to the test, like you do. My kids are learning how to think. They are writing to learn. Who cares if they know their subjects and predicates!

Teacher 2: Kids are going to have to spell, punctuate, capitalize, and use grammar correctly if they want to make it in today’s world. They’ve still got to be able to write in those blue books in college for a timed one-hour exam. They can’t just pick their own writing subject and do multiple drafts for a mid-term. You really need to get a Red Bull® and wake up to the real world.

Teacher 1: In the real world, students need to have the brains to say something. Outside of school, people have time to revise and edit. They have the time to be reflective. That’s what real authors do… They don’t have someone forcing them to write to a contrived prompt and then hovering over them with a stupid yellow timer.

Teacher 2: Now, you’re getting personal. My aunt gave me that yellow timer… Who writes your paycheck? Last I checked it was the school district. All our principal cares about is higher test scores. If you can’t show it, they don’t know it!

Teacher 1: That’s not why I got into teaching. I want to develop the whole child and nurture a love for learning. I just completed a trimester-long unit on the Haiku and its place in Japanese society…You should come in and see our published poems on the wall. We used real 24 carat gold to highlight—

Teacher 2: I bet I could find some punctuation mistakes—you with your peer editing groups. Talk about the “blind leading the blind.” I have students write one paragraph each day in indelible ink—no changes. I time them and have their desk partners count how many words the student has written in the 10 minutes. It sure saves a lot of teacher grading time. All I have to do is record the number of words in my grade book program. I can show you huge gains in words per minute.

Find essay strategy worksheets, writing fluencies, sentence revision activities, remedial writing lessons, posters, and editing resources to differentiate essay writing instruction in Teaching Essay Strategies at www.penningtonpublishing.com.

Writing composition, essay, on demand writing, Process writing, revision, Six traits, theme, writers workshop, writing fluencies, writing openers, writing process, writing project, writing prompt, writing style

Essays have different rules than do stories, letters, poems, or journal writing. Essays respond to a writing prompt or writing topic. The writer is required to develop a thesis statement in the introductory paragraph, then follow with at least two body paragraphs which address the thesis statement, then end with a concluding paragraph.

Essays may be expository or persuasive. Expository essays explain and analyze while persuasive essays argue a position or point of view. Each of these types of essays focuses on the subject of the writing prompt and follows the following essay writing rules.

Keep in mind that essays are a very formal type of writing. Although they may certainly express opinions, essays present evidence in a fair and balanced manner. Think of presenting evidence in an essay as an attorney would present evidence in a court of law. All of the traditional rituals have to be followed. The attorney (writer) has introductory remarks (introductory paragraph) in which a verdict (think thesis statement) is stated. Next, the attorney (writer) presents the main points of the case and the evidence that supports them (body paragraphs). Finally, the attorney (writer) presents the closing arguments (conclusion paragraph).

Here are the rules to be followed in essay writing:

1. Write in complete sentences. Intentional fragments, such as “Right?” don’t belong in essays.

2. Write in third person. Talk about the subject of the essay. Don’t personalize with first person pronouns such as I, me, my, mine, we, us, our, ours, ourselves. Don’t talk to the reader with second person pronouns such as you, your, yours, yourself, yourselves. The essay is to be objective (fair and balanced), not subjective (personalized).

3. Do not abbreviate. Abbreviations are informal and serve as short-cuts, so they don’t belong in essays. So write United States, not U.S. in essays.

4. Do not use slang, such as kids. Use official, or formal, words, such as children.

5. Do not use contractions. Again, essays are very formal, so write “do not” rather than “don’t.”

6. Do not use figures of speech. Be direct and precise in essay writing. Essays do not use poetic devices or idiomatic expressions. For example, don’t write “He let the cat out of the bag.” Instead, say “He shared a secret.”

7. Do not over-use the same words or phrases. For example, avoid over-use of the “to-be” verbs: is, am, are, was, were, be, being, been.

Find essay strategy worksheets, writing fluencies, sentence revision activities, remedial writing lessons, posters, and editing resources to differentiate essay writing instruction in Teaching Essay Strategies at www.penningtonpublishing.com.

Writing essay, essay rules, essay strategies, essay worksheets, writing rules

“Johnny is a creative story-writer, but he can’t write an essay to save his life.” Does this ring true for your child or student?

Johnny has had some good writing instruction. He can recite the steps of The Writing Process from the posters he has seen in every classroom throughout his elementary school years. He knows all about Writers Workshop. He would know what to expect if the teacher had written “Writers Conferences” or “Response Groups” on the white board as parts of her daily lesson plans. Johnny’s writing portfolio is chalk full of fanciful stories and writing pieces in the sensory/descriptive or imaginative/narrative writing domains. He has been encouraged to unleash his creative mind-although that story that he wrote last year about the student boycott of the cafeteria may have been a bit too creative for the principal’s tastes.

However, if you give Johnny a writing prompt, asking him to “Compare and contrast the cultural roles of women in Athens and Sparta,” sixth grade writing paralysis would surely set in. Or worse yet, Johnny might begin his essay with “Once upon a time in a far-away land called Greece, two young women from Athens and Sparta…” His difficulties would, no doubt, increase if this were a timed assessment.

Unfortunately, most of the writing that Johnny will need to complete throughout his academic and work careers will not take advantage of his story-writing experience. Instead, most of what Johnny will be required to compose will be some form of writing that informs or convinces his reader. Additionally, most of his writing will be subject to some kind of time constraint. Johnny has just not had the instruction and practice in this kind of writing. His college professors probably will not hand him a “blue book,” tell him to write a story of his own choice, and then turn it in after multiple revisions when his final draft has been published and properly illustrated.

Students need to learn how to write structured essays designed to inform and convince their teachers and professors. But how do you transform a creative, non-linear thinker like Johnny into an organized and persuasive writer? Take the mystery out of essays by replacing the confusing terminology of thesis statements, topic sentences, concrete details, and commentary with simple numerical values that reflect the hierarchy of effective essay structure. For example, assign a “1″ to introductory strategies, a “2″ to the thesis statement, a “3″ to the topic sentence, a “4″ to the concrete detail, a “5″ to the commentary, and a “6″ to the conclusion strategies. Telling a student that a “5″ is needed to support a “4,” which supports a “3″ is much more intuitive-and students get it! Teach structural variety by having students write 3-4-5-4-5 paragraphs and revise with 3-4-5-5-4-5-5 paragraphs. Have students analyze text structure by numerically coding their science book or a newspaper editorial. Use this approach to develop sequenced writing skills, incorporating different grammatical structures and sentence structure. 

Find 42 sequenced writing strategy worksheets and quickly move students from simple three-word paragraphs to complex multi-paragraph essays. With 64 sentence revision lessons, additional remedial worksheets, writing fluency and skill lessons, posters, and editing resources, the teacher can differentiate instruction with no additional prep with Teaching Essay Strategies.  Also, find whole-class diagnostic grammar and mechanics assessments, enabling 4th–12th grade teachers to differentiate instruction with 72 targeted worksheets in Teaching Grammar and Mechanics. The book has a full year of 15-minute sentence lifting lessons with standards-based mechanics, spelling, and grammar skills that teach all the conventions needed for successful writing.

Writing 5 paragraph, composition, essay, grammar, teaching, teaching essay, Writing, writing strategies

Grading essays with specific comments can be very time-consuming. Rather than simplistically giving a wholistic score without specific comments, use the editing tools of Microsoft Word® to give prescriptive comments and still save time. These are comments that students will actually read. Require students to modify their writing, according to your comments, by using the Track Changes function in Microsoft Word®, to help students refine their essays.

Here are the most frequently used prescriptive comments for essay commentary. A quick one-page “Editing Short-Cuts” reference follows. To program these comments into Microsoft Word®, simply open “Tools” and then “Autocorrect Options.” Put e1 into “Replace” and then copy and paste Use commas before or after speaker tags. Example: She said, “Call me at home.”  into “With.” Continue with the rest of the list.

On the students’ Microsoft Word® essays, click the cursor where you want to make a comment. Open “Insert” and then “Comments.” Type in e1 and the comments with appear in the comment bubble.

Mechanics

e1. Use commas before or after speaker tags. Example: She said, “Call me at home.”

e2. Use commas to set apart appositives. Example: That man, the one with the hat, left.

e3. Use commas after each item in lists (except the last). Example: John, Jane, and Jose left early.

e4. Use commas after introductory words or phrases. Example: First of all, you should listen to me.

e5. Use commas between number dates and years. Example: It all happened on May 3, 1999.

e6. Use commas between geographical places. Example: She lived in Tampa, Florida.

e7. Use commas after greetings/closings in personal letters. Example: Dear Ralph, …Sincerely, …

e8. Use commas after nouns of direct address. Example: Kristin, leave some for your sister.

e9. Use commas before conjunctions to join two independent clauses. Example: I liked her, and she liked me.

e10. Use exclamation points for surprise or strong emotions. Example: The decision really shocked me!

e11. Use quotation marks before and after direct quotations. Example: Sue said, “I’m going to bed.”

e12. Use quotation marks before and after songs, poems, document titles, book chapters, magazine articles, and short story titles. Example: Whenever I hear “Clementine,” it reminds me of “Leaves of Grass” and “The Gettysburg Address.”

e13. Use colons after business letter greetings. Example: Dear Sirs:

e14. Use colons to introduce lists. Example: The following: shoes, pants, and…

e15. Use colons between numbers in relationship. Example: 8:52 P.M.

e16. Use semicolons to join independent clauses without conjunctions. Example: Jamal went to school; Larry met him there.

e17. Underline movie, television show, book, magazine, play, and work of art titles. 

e18. Use apostrophes for contractions. Example: I can’t see what they’re doing.

e19. Use apostrophes for singular and plural possessives. Example: Tom’s and the girls’ coats were red.

e20. Use parentheses to explain or define. Example: The hombre (man) rode off alone. 

e21. Capitalize proper nouns (a name that is given to special persons, places, or things). Example: Ryan visited the Holocaust Museum in Los Angeles.

e22. Capitalize holidays, dates, groups, organizations, and businesses. Example: Last Easter on March 24, 2002 the P.T.A. and McDonald’s helped out.

e23. Capitalize the first, last, and any important words in titles. Example: Prince Charles’s favorite book was Islands of Adventure.

e24. Capitalize the names of languages and peoples. Example: He spoke Spanish to the Indians.

e25. Capitalize special events and historical periods. Example: The New Year’s Day Parade celebrates the Year of the Dog.

Spelling

e26. The “i” before “e” Rule—Usually spell “i” before “e” (believe), but spell “e” before “i” after a “c” (receive) and when the letters are pronounced as a long /a/ sound (neighbor).

e27. The Final “y” Rule—Keep the “y” when adding an ending if the word ends in a vowel, then a “y” (delay-delayed), or if the ending begins with an “i” (copy-copying). Change the “y” to “i” if the word ends in a consonant, then a “y” (pretty-prettiest). 

e28. The Silent “e” Rule—Drop the “e” (have-having) if the ending begins with a vowel. Keep the “e” (close-closely) if the ending begins with a consonant, has a soft /c/ or /g/ sound, then an “ous” or “able,” or if it ends in “ee”, “oe”, or “ye.”

e29. The Double the Consonant Rule—Double consonants, when adding on endings if these conditions are met: 1. last syllable is accented (per/MIT) 2. last syllable ends in a vowel–consonant (permit) and 3. ending begins with a vowel (ed).

e30. The Ending “an”–“en” Rule—End words with “ance”, “ancy”, or “ant” if the root has a hard /c/ or /g/ sound or it ends with “ear” or “ure.” End words with “ence”, “ency”, or “ent” if the root has a soft /c/ or /g/ sound, after “id,” or it ends with “ere.”

e31. The “able”–“ible” Rule—End words with “able” if the root has a hard /c/ or /g/ sound, after a complete root word, or after a silent “e.” End words with “ible” if the root has a soft /c/ or /g/ sound, an “ss,” or after an incomplete root word.

e32. The Ending “ion” Rule—Spell “sion” (illusion) for the final zyun sound or the final shun sound (expulsion, compassion) if after an “l” or “s.” Spell “cian” (musician) for a person and “tion” (condition) in most all other cases.

e33. The Plurals Rule—Add an “s” even with “y” or vowel—“o” endings. Spell “es” after /s/, /x/, /z/, /ch/, or /sh/ sounds or a consonant— “o.” Change a “y” to “i” and add “es” when the word ends in a consonant—“y.” Change “fe” or “lf” ending to “ves.”

Writing Errors

e34. —=Delete

e35. vt=verb tense error

e36. ww=wrong word

e37. ¶=needs new paragraph

e38. v=Close gap

e39. ~=Reverse

e40. ro=run-on sentence

e41. frag=sentence fragment

e42. ‘=Insert an apostrophe

e43. awk=awkward

e44. mm=misplaced modifier

Writing Revisions

e45. dev=inadequate development

e46. irr=irrelevant

e47. nc=not clear

e48. red=redundant

e49. sup=add support evidence

e50. trans=needs transition

e51. wordy=excessively wordy

e52. //=lacks parallel structure

e53. voice—needs third person

e54. slang—informal language

e55. figure of speech—Avoid idiomatic expressions in formal writing.

e56. verb—Too many “to be” verbs

e57. Abbv—Do not use abbreviations in formal writing

e58. cont=Don’t use contractions in formal writing

e59. wc=word choice (word overused)

e60. db neg=double negative

e61. pv=passive voice unnecessary

e62. Rhetorical question in which answer is assumed

e63. Too many prepositional phrase strings

e64. Avoid (parenthetical) remarks.

e65. Don’t start sentences with coordinating conjunctions, e.g. but, and, so, or.

e66. Don’t split infinitives, e.g. “to carefully walk”

e67. Don’t end sentences with prepositions.

e68. Don’t refer to your own writing.

Writing Content

e69. def=Define this term.

e70. spf=Get more specific.

e71. cit=Needs citation

e72. Needs sentence variety

e73. Off topic—focus is off of central idea

e74. Overstated idea—exaggerated

e75. seq=sequence problems

e76. Inconsistent argument

e77. Needs topic sentence

e78. Needs variety of types of evidence

e79. Needs another introduction strategy

e80. Needs variety of introduction strategies

e81. Thesis is unclear—must state purpose or point of view.

e82. Re-state the thesis to introduce the conclusion.

e83. Needs another conclusion strategy

e84. Needs variety of conclusion strategies

e85. Proper Heading (Left, Top, Four Lines): John Doe–Mr. Pennington–English-language Arts–7 March, 2009  Then, have two double spaces before indenting your first paragraph one Tab space.

e86. Set one inch margins; double space; use Times New Roman 12 (no bold face); and indent each paragraph one inch–don’t skip lines between paragraphs.

Editing Marks Short-Cuts

Mechanics

1. Commas—speaker tags

2. Commas—appositives

3. Commas—lists

4. Commas—introductory word(s)

5. Commas—dates

6. Commas—geography

7. Commas—letters

8. Commas—direct address

9. Commas—before conjunctions 

in independent clauses

10. Exclamation points

11. Quotation marks for dialog

12. Quotation marks—titles 

13. Colons—letters 

14. Colons—lists 

15. Colons—relationships 

16. Semicolons

17. Underline titles 

18. Apostrophes—contractions 

19. Apostrophes—possessives 

20. Parentheses 

21. Capitalize—proper nouns

22. Capitalize—holidays, dates, groups, organizations, and businesses

23. Capitalize—titles

24. Capitalize—languages and peoples

25. Capitalize—special events and historical periods

Spelling

26. The “i” before “e” Rule

27. The Final “y” Rule 

28. The Silent “e” Rule

29. The Double the Consonant Rule

30. The Ending “an”–“en” Rule

31. The “able”–“ible” Rule

32. The Ending “ion” Rule—

33. The Plurals Rule—

Writing Errors

34. —=Delete

35. vt=verb tense error

36. ww=wrong word

37. ¶=needs new paragraph

38. v=Close gap

39. ~=Reverse

40. ro=run-on sentence

41. frag=sentence fragment

42. ‘=Insert an apostrophe

43. awk=awkward

44. mm=misplaced modifier

Writing Revisions

45. dev=inadequate development

46. irr=irrelevant

47. nc=not clear

48. red=redundant

49. sup=add support evidence

50. trans=needs transition

51. wordy=excessively wordy

52. //=lacks parallel structure

53. voice—needs third person

54. slang—informal language

55. figure of speech 

56. verb—Too many “to be” verbs

57. Abbv—Do not use abbreviations 

58. cont=Don’t use contractions 

59. wc=word choice (word overused)

60. db neg=double negative

61. pv=passive voice unnecessary

62. Rhetorical question 

63. Too many prepositional phrase strings

64. Avoid (parenthetical) remarks.

65. Don’t start sentences with coordinating conjunctions

66. Don’t split infinitives

67. Don’t end sentences with prepositions

68. Don’t refer to your own writing.

Writing Content

69. def=Define this term.

70. spf=Get more specific.

71. cit=Needs citation

72. Needs sentence variety

73. Off topic

74. Overstated idea

75. seq=sequence problems

76. Inconsistent argument

77. Needs topic sentence

78. Needs variety of types of evidence

79. Needs another introduction strategy

80. Needs variety of introduction strategies

81. Thesis is unclear

82. Re-state the thesis 

83. Needs another conclusion strategy

84. Needs variety of conclusion strategies

85. Needs proper MLA heading

86. MLA formatting needs work

Grammar/Mechanics, Writing essay, grammar, mechanics, writing strategies

Good readers analyze the quality of written and spoken evidence and can spot fallacious reasoning. Thinking and reading critically will allow you to debunk faulty reasoning and improve your ability to argue effectively.

1. Synonym Errors

A synonym reasoning error occurs when the writer substitutes one term for another in the argument, yet the terms are not same. 

Example: The undemocratic government of Mexico had only one political party with real power. This dictatorship has been in control of Mexico since 1919.

Explanation: The writer substitutes dictatorship for undemocratic. However, not all undemocratic forms of government are the same as dictatorships.

2. Non Sequitur Errors

A non sequitur reasoning error means that the argument does not follow logically. In other words, the conclusion cannot be reached from the facts presented.

Example: If the sky is blue, and blue is the color of the ocean; then the sky must be made of ocean water.

Explanation: The conclusion that “the sky must be made of ocean water” does not follow logically from the facts presented.

3. Red Herring Errors

A red herring reasoning error means that an unconnected reference is used to distract the reader from the argument. A red herring refers to a smelly fish that was sometimes used to throw hunting dogs off the track of the fox in English foxhunts.   

Example: The politician suggests that poverty remains the most important problem in the world today; however, the world has always had its share of poor people.

Explanation: The statement “the world has always had its share of poor people” attempts to distract the reader from the issue of poverty as the most important world problem.

4. Unsupported Generalization Errors

An unsupported generalization reasoning error applies specific facts to a broad generalization without justification.

Example: Bobby and Amanda have blonde hair. They both excel at sports. All blonde children excel at sports.

Explanation: The fact that specific children who have blonde hair are good athletes does not justify the broad generalization that “All blonde children excel at sports.”

5. Poisoning the Well Errors

A poisoning the well reasoning error means that an argument is weakened by a criticism in the argument itself.

Example: The president’s plan to reduce taxes in order to encourage taxpayers to spend more money to help business has been harshly criticized as “unworkable” by all leading economists. 

Explanation: The president’s argument that reducing taxes will encourage taxpayers to spend more money is weakened by the comment that all leading economists have criticized the plan. 

6. Cause and Effect Errors

A cause and effect reasoning error occurs when the writer assumes that something directly causes something else, but the result is actually a matter of coincidence.

Example: An irritating commercial aired after my favorite television show. I sneezed twice. Irritating commercials always make me sneeze.

Explanation: Sneezing after a commercial is a matter of coincidence. Commercials do not cause sneezing—there is no logical cause-effect connection.

7. Begging the Question Errors

A begging the question reasoning error takes place when the writer assumes something to be true, that has not been proven, in order to support the argument. 

Example: No one likes the poor musicianship of country music.

Explanation: The statement assumes that country music has poor musicians to support the argument.

8. Either-Or Errors

An either-or reasoning error sets up a false choice between two ideas or issues and ignores other options.

Example: Either you support the president, or you are not a true American.

Explanation: The statement ignores other options that true Americans might choose. 

9. Comparison Errors

A comparison reasoning error attempts to find similarities or differences between two unrelated ideas or issues.

Example: The price of Chinese tea has increased and so has the price of American gasoline.

Explanation: The price of tea and gas are unrelated issues and cannot be compared.

10. Questionable Authority Errors

A questionable authority reasoning error refers to a source that is not a specific expert on the idea or issue.

Examples: Experts say that the world will run out of oil in 20 years. A Harvard mathematician claims that love at first sight is impossible.

Explanation: In the first example, the expert is non-specific. In the second example, a mathematician is not an expert in matters of love.

11. Contradiction Errors

A contradiction error says the opposite of what has already been stated in the argument. 

Example: Skateboarding is the safest of all individual sports. Skateboarding injuries account for more hospital visits than any other sport.

Explanation: Skateboard injuries contradict the claim that the sport is safe.

12. Inconsistency Errors

An inconsistency reasoning error refers to parts of an argument that are not in agreement. 

Example: Children should be required to wear helmets while riding bicycles, but not while in-line skating.

Explanation: The arguments that children should be required to wear helmets while riding bicycles, but not while in-line skating, are not in agreement. 

13. Omission Errors

An omission reasoning error means that a necessary piece of information is missing in the argument.

Example: The Folsom High School Band has the best band in the city. 

Explanation: The fact that the Folsom High School Band is the only band in the city has been omitted.

14. Oversimplification Errors

An oversimplification reasoning error reduces a complicated idea or issue to something simple.

Example: Baseball is a simple game of pitching, running, hitting, and fielding.

Explanation: This oversimplification ignores the complicated components such as baseball strategy, substitutions, and statistical probability. 

15. Sampling Errors

A sampling reasoning error refers to the data from which conclusions have been drawn. A sampling error may relate to an insufficient sample size or an unreliable sample group.

Example:  Three out of four dentists surveyed agree that people should floss twice per day.

Explanation: Only four dentists made up the sample group—hardly enough people upon whom to base a conclusion. Also, perhaps three of the dentists are paid by dental floss companies to promote their product. 

Find 42 sequenced writing strategy worksheets and quickly move students from simple three-word paragraphs to complex multi-paragraph essays. With 64 sentence revision lessons, additional remedial worksheets, writing fluency and skill lessons, posters, and editing resources, the teacher can differentiate instruction with no additional prep with Teaching Essay Strategies.

Reading, Writing essay, evidence, reading comprehension, reasoning

Writing an effective essay prompt requires equal shares of art and science. The prompt must allow room for creative interpretation and analysis. However, the prompt must also provide organization and boundaries for the writers’ responses. Finally, the prompt should provide ample room for post-writing criticism to help students improve their writing.

1. The prompt should be brief. Wordiness only serves to confuse the writer.

2. The prompt should be focused. A prompt that rambles in an attempt to explain or motivate is counter-productive.

3. The prompt should require only the prior knowledge that has been emphasized in class instruction. Isolate the variables of personal experience to best assess the outcomes of instruction.

4. The prompt should be age appropriate. Know the developmental capabilities and interests of your students and translate these into the writing prompt.

5. The prompt should avoid issues which students or parents would find objectionable. Save the PG-13 issues for older students. Don’t let the subject interfere with the writing task.

6. The prompt should not be so personal that the privacy of the writer is jeopardized. A writing prompt should not inhibit the writer from answering honestly and comfortably.  

7. The prompt should not embarrass the gender, ethnicity, or socio-economic background of the writer. Stay sensitive to these variables within your classroom. Words have different meanings according to one’s perspective.

8. The prompt should allow students of varying abilities to respond effectively. An ideal prompt allows all students to experience success in their writing.

9. The prompt should be interesting enough to motivate the writer. A prompt that does not provoke thought will reap a thoughtless response.

10. The prompt should allow “room to breathe” for divergent thinkers. Expect the unexpected in student responses, and design prompts to allow for a variety of responses.

11. The prompt should enable the writer to respond with a thesis that states the purpose of the writing and/or the author’s point of view. If you can’t turn the writing prompt into a thesis statement without effort, your students will never accomplish this task.

12. The prompt should not artificially force the writer into a certain thesis. A one-sided prompt that demands a certain thesis will not produce original thought.

13. The prompt can provide a writing situation to set the writing directions in context. However, the writing situation should not overwhelm or confuse the writing instructions.

14. The prompt should have clear writing instructions. Writers are the best judges as to whether the prompt has clear instructions. Avoid vocabulary and terms that will confuse the students. Don’t use writing direction words, such as “analyze”, if your students do not understand them.

15. The prompt should be one that will afford your writers plenty of evidence with which to prove or elaborate upon their topic sentences. Picking narrow or obscure writing subjects will not allow your writers to weigh easily accesible evidence. They will also be tempted to plagiarize or invent when little evidence is available.

Writing directions words for essays designed to inform the reader…

1. Describe means to show the characteristics of the subject to the reader through visual details.

2. Explain means to make something clear or easy to understand.

3. Discuss means to talk about all sides of the subject.

4. Compare means to show how things are the same, and contrast means to show how things are different. If the writing prompt only mentions compare, you must still do both tasks.

Writing directions words for essays designed to convince the reader…

5. Analyze means to break apart the subject and explain each part.

6. Persuade means to convince the reader of your argument or claim.

7. Justify means to give reasons, based upon established rules, to support your arguments.

8. Evaluate means to make a judgment about the good and bad points of the subject.

Find 42 sequenced writing strategy worksheets and quickly move students from simple three-word paragraphs to complex multi-paragraph essays. With 64 sentence revision lessons, additional remedial worksheets, writing fluency and skill lessons, posters, and editing resources, the teacher can differentiate instruction with no additional prep with Teaching Essay Strategies.

Writing essay, essay strategies, teaching writing, writing style

Many writers are ill-equipped to write an introduction to an essay, article, formal research paper, or business letter. All too often, students only received this limited instruction about how to write an introduction: “Introduce the topic in one sentence; write another sentence that has a “hook” or “lead”; then end with a thesis statement.” Not much to go on with that limited instruction…

The following strategies will help you write an introduction leading up to your thesis that will be appropriate to the writing task, engage the reader, and show off your writing skills. The BAD RAPS memory trick will help remind you of your introduction strategy options on timed writing tasks. Not every introduction strategy fits the purpose of every writing task, so learn and practice these options to increase your writing skill-set.

BAD RAPS Introduction Strategies

• Background—Sentences that briefly explain the setting or help your reader better understand the thesis statement. (B)
• Question to be Answered—A sentence worded as a question that asks either a question needing no answer (rhetorical question) or a question to make the reader think of a question that will be answered in the essay. (A)
• Definition— Sentences that explain the meaning of a key word that may be unfamiliar to the reader or help to narrow the focus of the subject. (D)
• Reference to Something Known in Common—Sentences that refer to a fact or idea already known by most people, including your reader. (R)
• Quote from an Authority—Sentences that quote an authority in the subject of the essay. It must list the name of the authority. (A)
• Preview of Topic Sentences—Sentences that list the subjects of each body paragraph topic sentence in the order that they appear in the essay. (P)
• Startling Statement—Sentences that are designed to startle the reader with an emotional response or a controversial remark to help support the thesis statement. (S)

For short essays (such as on the SAT®), college applications, business letters, etc. I suggest that two of the strategies listed above, leading into a concise thesis statement will be more than adequate. Flesh out each strategy in a compound-complex sentence or two separate sentences and then finish the introduction with a one-sentence thesis statement that makes good plagiarized use of the writing prompt. For longer writing tasks, such as research reports, a few more of the introduction strategies, developed in separate paragraphs will be appropriate. The writing rule of thumb is 10% of the writing task as introduction paragraph(s), 80% as body paragraphs, and 10% as conclusion paragraph(s).

Think of writing an introduction much as a prosecuting attorney uses an opening statement to convince a jury that the defendant is guilty of the crime. Connect your introduction strategies and thesis statement with effective transition words to maintain coherence. The introduction should flow together as one whole. Every word should move the reader toward the demanded verdict, which is your thesis statement. Always place your thesis statement at the end of your introduction. Writing research indicates that the thesis statement is placed at the end on the introductory paragraph most of the time in published works, so don’t re-invent the wheel. Write in the way your reader expects to read.

I suggest that you take the time to pre-write before drafting any writing task. Compose your thesis statement first; then, brainstorm the body paragraphs. Next, draft the body paragraphs, skipping space to later write your introductory paragraph. Then, write the introduction. Finish the writing with your conclusion paragraph. 

Now you have the right strategies to make your case in your opening statement, by using BAD RAPS to write an introduction. All you have to do is to convince your jury.

Find 42 sequenced writing strategy worksheets and quickly move students from simple three-word paragraphs to complex multi-paragraph essays. With 64 sentence revision lessons, additional remedial worksheets, writing fluency and skill lessons, posters, and editing resources, the teacher can differentiate instruction with no additional prep with Teaching Essay Strategies.

Writing conclusion, essay, essay strategies, introduction, teaching strategies, teaching writing, writing style

Very few writers have learned how to write a conclusion to an essay, article, formal research paper, or business letter. All too often, students only received this limited instruction about how to write a conclusion: “Re-state the thesis; write another sentence that summarizes the body paragraphs; then ‘give a finished feeling’ to the writing.” Hard to write an effective conclusion with that kind of limited instruction…

The following strategies will help you learn how to write a conclusion that will be appropriate to the writing task, convince your reader, and also show off your writing skills. The GQ SALES memory trick will help remind you of your conclusion strategy options on timed writing tasks. Not every conclusion strategy fits the purpose of every writing task, so learn and practice these options to increase your writing skill-set.

GQ SALES Conclusion Strategies

• Generalization—Sentences that make one of your specific points more general in focus. (G)
• Question for Further Study—Sentences that mention a related subject or question that is beyond the focus of the essay. (Q)
• Synthesis of Main Points—Sentences that pull together the points proven in the essay to say something new. (S)
• Application—Sentences that apply the proven thesis statement to another idea or issue. (A)
• Argument Limitations—Sentences that explain how or why your conclusions are limited. (L)
• Emphasis of Key Point—Sentences that mention and add importance to one of the points of your essay. (E)
• Statement of Significance—Sentences that discuss the importance and relevance of the proven thesis statement. (S)

For short essays (such as on the SAT®), college applications, business letters), I suggest that two of the strategies listed above, following a concise thesis re-statement will be more than adequate. Flesh out each strategy in a compound-complex sentence or two separate sentences. For longer writing tasks, such as research reports, a few more of the conclusion strategies, developed in separate paragraphs will be appropriate. The writing rule of thumb is 10% of the writing task as introduction paragraph(s), 80% as body paragraphs, and 10% as conclusion paragraph(s).

Think of how to write a conclusion much as a prosecuting attorney uses closing arguments to convince a jury that the defendant is guilty of the crime. Connect your conclusion strategies and thesis re-statement with effective transition words to maintain coherence. The conclusion should flow together as one whole. Every word should move the reader toward the demanded verdict, which is your thesis statement. 

Take enough time to pre-write before drafting any writing task. Write your thesis statement first; then, brainstorm the body paragraphs. Next, draft the body paragraphs, skipping space to later write your introductory paragraph. Then, write the introduction. Finish the writing with your conclusion paragraph. 

With GQ SALES, you have the right strategies to make your case in your closing arguments. Now that you know how to write a conclusion, all you have to do is to convince your jury.

Find 42 sequenced writing strategy worksheets and quickly move students from simple three-word paragraphs to complex multi-paragraph essays. With 64 sentence revision lessons, additional remedial worksheets, writing fluency and skill lessons, posters, and editing resources, the teacher can differentiate instruction with no additional prep with Teaching Essay Strategies.

Writing conclusion, essay, essay strategies, introduction, teaching strategies, teaching writing, writing style

Using numerical values to identify and apply expository writing structure has proved an effective tool in identifying expository text structure and helping writers organize essays. The numerical values eliminate the writing jargon that varies from teacher to teacher and curriculum to curriculum. Instead, writers simply apply the implicit hierarchy of the number system to that of reading and writing. Writers just seem to intuitively “get” the idea of a number system applied to their expository writing in essays.

The Teaching Essay Strategies curriculum uses following number system:

(1) for the introductory strategies of an essay introduction—for example, a definition or a preview of the topic sentences.

(2) for the thesis statement that “talks about” the introduction strategies.

(3) for the topic sentences that “talk about” the thesis statement.

(4) for the major details that “talk about” the topic sentence. 

(5) for the support details that “talk about” the major details. 

(6) for the conclusion strategies—for example, a thesis re-statement or summary.

For Developing Recognition of Text Structure

Try analyzing expository reading by numbering the sentences. Critique the writing by analyzing the structure and whether there is sufficient evidence, e.g. enough (5s) to back the (4s).

For Essay Writing

Using your own writing prompts, practice varying sentence order within the numerical hierarchy to help students develop a flexible writing style to address the demands of the writing prompt and improve the quality of your essays. Try the following paragraph organizations and watch your students improve their writing structure and recognition of text structure at the same time.

1. (3)-(4)-(4)

2. (3)-(4)-(4)-(4)

3. (3)-(4)-(5)-(4)-(5) 

4. (4)-(5)-(3)-(4)-(5) 

5. (4)-(5)-(4)-(5)-(3) 

6. (4)-(5)-(4)-(5) 

7. (3)-(4)-(5)-(4)-(5)-(4)-(5) 

8. (3)-(4)-(4)-(4)-(5)

9. (3)-(4)-(4)-(5)-(4)-(5) 

10. (3)-(4)-(5)-(4)-(5)-(5) 

11. (Transition Statement)-(3)-(4)-(5)-(4)-(5)

12. (3)-(4)-(5)-(4)-(5)-(Concluding Statement)

13. (1)-(1)-(2) added to any two of the above body paragraphs

14. (6)-(6)-(6) added to any two of the above body paragraphs

15. (1)-(1)-(2) added to any two of the above body paragraphs (6)-(6)-(6)

Find 42 sequenced writing strategy worksheets and quickly move students from simple three-word paragraphs to complex multi-paragraph essays. With 64 sentence revision lessons, additional remedial worksheets, writing fluency and skill lessons, posters, and editing resources, the teacher can differentiate instruction with no additional prep with Teaching Essay Strategies.

Writing conclusion, essay, essay strategies, evidence, introduction, paragraphs, reasoning, teaching strategies, teaching writing, writing style