The In-Class Writing Process
After receiving an email from our WPA regarding in-class and out-of-class essay recommendations, I went back to my lesson plans to further scaffold the writing process into this first essay sequence. I dedicated almost an entire class period to rhetorical analysis review, including a preview of the texts students will analyze in their essays. My goal is that students engage in the writing process, receive feedback from me on their brainstorming/drafts, and have access to their prior thinking and writing when writing the essay itself.
The essay asks students to write a rhetorical analysis of a dating app profile. Originally, I planned to only let the students see the dating app profiles on the day of the essay; however, that didn’t quite offer enough emphasis on the writing process. Therefore, I printed all four (fake) dating profiles and brought them to class with me a few class periods in advance of the essay so that students could draft thesis statements and outlines. In doing so, students not only practiced writing outlines and thesis statements, but they also had time between classes to contemplate the profiles and do some critical thinking.
Here’s how I scaffolded the rhetorical analysis essay:
3 Class Periods before the Essay: Show students a draft of a fake dating profile; receive feedback; revise accordingly. Note: The draft isn’t one of the profiles they can analyze in the essay; instead, it offers me a chance to gauge the effectiveness my Canva-made fake dating profile and adapt.
2 Class Periods before the Essay: Rhetorical Analysis Cheat Sheet (~30 minutes) where students transfer notes to a piece of paper, ask questions, etc., knowing they will have the cheat sheet during the essay, and I collect these after class; Rhetorical Analysis Preview (~30 minutes) where students read all of the fake dating profiles they can analyze, select one or two to outline, and draft thesis statements and analysis points in the form of a worksheet that is also returned to me at the end of class. Also: Share and review tips for writing in-class essays as well as the ungrading checklist.
1 Class Period before the Essay: I respond in writing to students’ outlines and thesis statements while hosting an optional Zoom class to discus the essay (necessary because I am out of town on this class day).
Day of the Essay: Return Cheat Sheets and outline/thesis statement worksheets with my feedback.
The only major snag I’ve encountered thus far is that one student was absent on the review day, thus missing the opportunity to write a cheat sheet and review the profile options. Thankfully, they were able to meet with me during office hours so that they could make up the class and have the same materials as their peers. While meeting with absent students individually works at the moment (likely because I only have 16 students total), I imagine this could become a headache in the future and/or for instructors with a lot of students. This wouldn’t have been feasible when I had 74 first-year writing students!
Another hiccup is that one student will be out of town for the essay. Our testing center only serves students with documented accommodations due to capacity reasons, so I have to schedule a 75-meeting meeting with this student to write the essay with me one-on-one. While manageable, it’s neither ideal nor scaleable to a larger number of students.
At this point, I feel like I’ve done the writing process justice in this sequence. Students have time and space to think deeply; they receive feedback from me on their ideas; and they have access to notes and their outlines for the essay. This sequence did dedicate a large chunk of class time to in-class writing, including brainstorming and pre-writing. Writing is thinking, so an optimistic view of this approach is that students use dedicated class time to engage in thoughtful contemplation. A pessimistic view would suggest students are losing class time during which they would be able to learn more about rhetorical analysis. Our next meeting is the in-class essay, which will be the true tell of whether or not my scaffolded, in-class approach to essay writing is worth continuing or is in need of revision before our next essay.