For all you Level 3 writing teachers, here is a series of handouts that can be used to teach the persuasive essay. Hard copies can also be located in the Level 3 binder in the office.

The file labeled persuasive intro contains:

1. An opinion-exchange task on some controversial topics
2. An info-gap task based on essay ideas that students generate
3. Usage notes on modal verbs followed by some thesis sentence completion exercises
4. Model outlines for the essay
5. An activity designed to raise awareness of the Toulmin structure (let me know what you think–this is in the pilot stage)

The quoting-and-paraphrasing.doc file has some comprehension-based activities intended to introduce those concepts (it might not hurt to ask any liberal arts students if they learned about these writing conventions in the LA seminar as a way of activating background knowledge). There is also an example of a reference list in MLA style. The Level 3 shelf has a very concise MLA style guide–not much help, I know. If anyone has ideas on how to make teaching first-years to write a reference list less painful, please share them!

Finally, there is a one-page peer checklist to be used when students turn in their first drafts. When I do this in my other writing class, I get students to pair up, read their whole paper aloud to their partner (as a proofreading activity), then ask them to swap papers, read silently and fill out the checklist for their partner. You might want to review the terminology used in this one well in advance–so that you can teach it in class or change it to suit your own approach.

P.S. All of the links on the Level 3 writing resources page over at elpweb.com are still functional. Here are a few that are worth checking out:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/
http://citationmachine-east.net/
http://www.eslbee.com/

Goals of the Activity

This is a consciousness raising activity to raise students awareness of how to support paragraphs. It has four parts.
Part one, Reading- here students read examples from authentic texts of the four common ways to support opinions in paragraphs; 1) an example 2) an explanation 3) an expert opinion 4) a statistic.
Part Two Reading and Labeling – here students read four more examples from authentic texts and try to label them under the four supports 1) an example 2) an explanation 3) an expert opinion 4) a statistic.
Part Three Reading and Analyzing- here students read an example paragraph and discourse analyze it for the four supports 1) an example 2) an explanation 3) an expert opinion 4) a statistic.
Part Four Read and Compare – here students compare the paragraphs they have written, based around the same topic, with the example paragraph in three. How can they improve their paragraphs based around the four supports and the patterns offered in the example paragraphs?

Potential Problems with the Activity

It is important to point out to students that the distinction between the different types of supports can be blurred, (e.g. statistic can easily be used to give an example). The activity is just designed to raise awareness of the need to support opinions and offer some tools for doing so.

student pages

teachers pages

This handout presents some basic information about quoting source material for the persusive essay, including the placement of quotes within sentences and verbs used to introduce quotations. Following that, on the second page, there are some quotations which students can practice on. Although the handout does not mention any particular style, the examples on the first page follow APA format.

Discussing the differences between quotation and paraphrase might be a good way to lead into this activity and it would be helpful if students brought their sources to the class to practice with. It could also be a lot of fun to talk about the quotes and invite students to agree or disagree with them, providing their own backing for or against the claims contained within. We had a great time analyzing the Sugimoto quote in my class.

Quoting.doc

MLA Citation Practice

Let’s see just how good we are at MLA citation style. Try these drag-and-drop exercises just for fun. But, imagine your students trying this as practice after some introductory material, or as a refresher.
http://smccd.net/accounts/webready/lesson9_book_drag.asp

Can you identify the correct MLA reference?

Now try these. Read the information and choose the correct reference format. You might want to use some guidelines for help.

http://smccd.net/accounts/webready/lesson9_mla-check.asp

So, how did you do? Do you think your students might need some help with this?

Citation Machine is a quick and easy way for students to create accurate bibliographic entries.

• Go to The Citation Machine at http://citationmachine.net/
• Select the appropriate source  in the left block.
• Take your article or webpage and try to enter the correct data.
• Click Make Citations.

Yes, it is that simple.

EasyBib has free and paid services for producing and sharing correct entries for lists of Works Cited. Though more powerful, EasyBib requires a little more care and effort.

Let’s give it a try.

• COPY this EasyBib ID Number: N200601250151091733.
• Go to EasyBib at http://www.easybib.com/
• Look for the link that says “Load Old List”
• PASTE in the EasyBib ID Number: N200601250151091733 and hit the NEXT button.
• You should now see a brief bibliography.
• Take your article or webpage and try your hand at using EasyBib. Select the source and medium, then enter the data.
• When you are finished reload the page to see what others have added.

There are several ways this can be used:

• individual student record keeping
• student groupwork
• teacher to student communication
• departmental resource

Can you think of any past situations when this would have been handy? Do you think your students can master using EasyBib?