[DOWNLOAD] "Playing Around with Organization (Tutor's Column)" by Writing Lab Newsletter ~ eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free

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eBook details

• Title: Playing Around with Organization (Tutor's Column)
• Author : Writing Lab Newsletter
• Release Date : January 01, 2008
• Genre: Education,Books,Professional & Technical,
• Pages : * pages
• Size : 52 KB

Description

As tutors we frequently read papers that seem to lack focus, or structure, or both. Often these papers are disorganized because writers get bogged down in their ideas and can't see a guiding framework for their writing. That's where we come in. Helping writers with organization, though, isn't simply a matter of tidying up their papers; instead, tutors need to engage writers more deeply with the ideas they present in their texts in order to create focus. Tutors can help writers organize by showing them new ways to think about their work. For instance, word games like Directions and 20 Questions can give writers a different perspective on their ideas and arguments, and can help writers find a logical organization scheme that considers audience and purpose. Writers don't simply transmit their ideas and arguments into their readers' heads; instead, readers form their own ideas and conclusions based on what they have read. Tutors can demonstrate this by playing Directions, a game in which one person leads another through a simple task with a series of commands that must be followed exactly. Problems arise when the leaders skip steps that seem obvious to them but aren't to the followers. If, for example, the leader explains how to fold a paper airplane, but forgets to tell the follower to take the paper out of a notebook first, the whole notebook gets folded. Playing this game shows writers how their ideas might become confusing and their papers disorganized when they leave out crucial steps in their ideas. Once I worked with a student who was writing a paper on how board games teach children various skills and values. Since we were already thinking about games, the session was especially playful and relaxed. Though she had the start of a good, creative paper, the writer consistently skipped steps, making it hard for me to understand her analysis. I suggested that she pretend that I was a reader who had a hard time following her arguments/ directions, and only made the connections and followed the steps she specifically stated, just like a player in Directions. As she read the paper a second time, when she reached the part of her paper where she discussed gender roles she exclaimed, "I'm skipping a step! I just give examples, but then I don't connect them back to real life, and that's why you get lost." As we continued going through the paper, she identified other areas that needed more explanation, and she rearranged some of her ideas to make connections clearer.

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