Writing is an essential skill that students learn in school which they will use in their career of choice, no matter the field. Whether they are writing a resume, an extensive research report about their findings in a lab, or a political speech that they will deliver to hundreds of people, writing is a skill that is needed and applicable everywhere. Most students only receive writing instruction or application in their English class, despite its importance. While English teachers would not necessarily be responsible for bringing writing into other subject areas, they can provide better instruction that allows for students to have more transferrable skills to bring into these additional subjects.
Argument Writing & the Problem
The goal of argument writing should be to teach students to think critically. When they are writing a paper for a specific novel or other text, they should be learning how to process their thoughts and come to a conclusion about the text in a way that develops their ability to do so, in order that they may replicate this process in other situations. In order to do this, teachers must expand their writing assignments to be beyond answering a simple prompt. The development of a thesis is essential to establishing an argument, and often students miss the complex process that allows them to examine their data or evidence, establish a question and use that question to develop a thesis statement as their answer, one that they can prove and defend. In his article, “Teaching Argument for Critical Thinking and Writing,” George Hillocks highlights the fact that teachers often either tell or imply to students that argumentation is simply defending their own opinions, rather than using logic and evidence to prove their point. He explicitly states that “a thesis statement arises from a question, which in turn rises from the examination of information or data of some sort” (Hillocks, 2010, p. 26). The basis for an argument should not be the merely the students’ opinions of a question that a teacher asks, but rather “from the examination of data as a first step” (Hillocks, 2010, p. 26). That data can come in any form, whether it is a physical data set gathered by the students as part of a science research study, or quotes from the novel that the students are reading that support the claim they are making.
My Project
My goal will to be provide teachers with resources and ideas that they can use in their classroom in order to further promote the development of argumentative writing skills for their students that they will be able to take beyond the classroom and into their future careers. The question to be answered can be summed up well in the article, “Teaching Thinking and Writing for a New Century:” “How can we design writing instruction to help students develop the tools they need to solve complex, unfamiliar problems; think for themselves; act independently and with others; discern the proper course of action in situations that are ambiguous; and understand a variety of perspectives?” (Johannessen, 2001, p. 38).