NationStates Jolt Archive

OK, so apparently my students are often times still hazy on how to write an effective history paper in my class, so I'm looking at changing the lecture around for next semester... Here are my note ideas so far, tell me what you think!

Historiography is Like Preparing and Eating a Bagel

Introduction

The bagel, America's favorite morning bread product! There are any number of ways to eat a bagel, but enjoying it for breakfast is not what we're doing today... As we wrap up the current unit we're studying, you will soon be writing you first essay for my class... What do bagels and Historiography have in common? Plenty of things, if you look at it properly. In fact, to know the bagel, is to gain a basic understanding of how to write an essay for my class.

Bagels: Nice Package or By Themselves

Bagels come to you the same as topics... In a pretty package or laying out somewhere in a coffee shop or at the bottom of a dumpster where it's not so easy to get. In this class, most of your topics should be in a nice pretty package in the form of what we've talked about up till now.

Preparation of a Bagel and a Paper

To prepare a Bagel, you need many utilities... Personally, I like a toaster, a knife, and honey. Likewise, before you can sit down and get to the real meat and potatoes with your essay, you must gather sources... These can be books, internet sources (so long as they are credible), or anything else along those lines.

So now you have all this stuff... What do you do with it?

1. You divide it up into sections... Take the knife and slice the bagel down the center (or divide up your information into different points with your thesis statement).

2. Put each piece into the toaster and let it sit (or let your information stew in your brain for a bit).

3. Put some love on that bagel in the form of Cream Cheese, Jam, Peanut Butter, or in my case... Honey... Whatever you want, so long as it is delicious to the person eating it (namely me). Likewise, begin to write your paper using interesting language that makes the reader (namely me) want to read your paper.

4. Squish the bagel back together and so you have a nice, toasty bagel with honey seeping out of the sides... In other words, you bring it all back together for your conclusion.

5. Put it on a nice plate and give it to the person who is eating it... Namely me.


Obviously it's a bit of a work in progress... Just wanted to know how other people viewed it. I often times make abstract connections fairly effectively, but I'm on the fence about this one.

It looks good, in my opinion. I feel that your students would probably take this as an interesting way to look at writing essays, though they may freak out more over the prospect of doing poorly over such a simple (not necessarily easy) procedure.

Being a student, I would say that this does help procedurally, though would not affect content (which should be a good thing, since you don't want to write your essay for your students). I think Kat may have something to say in the future... :p

Depends on the timing, if you do it just before lunch then half your students coud end up going 'mmm, bagels'

Essay writing is its own art form and as such requires practice. Rather than reviewing the basics of how to write an essay give them more essays to write. Your students should all know how to write an essay since this is, presumably, a university level course that you're teaching. If you're truly committed to helping your students become skilled writers than let them practice more.

The most common retort to this is, "I don't have the time to mark so many assignments." Well, if you are truly committed to improving your students abilities then you will find the time (after all, there's a reason why you have a TA). Also, by assigning more essays the students will have a better understanding of the material as they will have to focus on particulars.

Do your essays follow the "here's what I'm going to do"/"here's what I've done" pattern -- ie, an introductory par that works as an "executive summary", with the conclusion rehashing how they got there?

If so, you might need a step where they picture in their mind the bagel as it's going to be in all its loaded bagel-y goodness (intro). Then at the end they could gloat over how, in every little way, it's exactly what they pictured (conclusion).

And please, please, tell 'em to make sure it's a clean plate and the best china -- ie, Spell-bloody-Check it, people! And re-read after that to make sure the program hasn't let 'em get away with homophones.

Hmm... depends, do you LIKE reading hundreds of hamburger (or in this case, bagel) essays?

I'd say that it's an acceptable analogy, and one that has been used with various sandwich type foods for just about as long as there have been English composition teachers (and something resembling a sandwich to draw on), but I would caution that the problem with the hamburger style is that you tend to get, well, hamburgers unless you take pains to show examples of more creative writing skills and encourage your students to break out of the mold a bit.

I've always been taught to treat essays like a girl's skirt... long enough to cover the subject, but short enough to keep it interesting.

Maybe thats why I never bothered with essays. Far too occupied with more interesting subjects.

I've always found comparing processes to perhaps more familiar processes to be helpful on the getting me engaged in something I might not be so enthusiastic about - although I really do think that practice is an integral part of learning something and it should help your students get their teeth into a topic.

So a mixture of these would have worked best for me I guess!
:P

...mmm, bagels..

Man, now I'm hungry. Does this lecture come with free bagels?

Essay writing is its own art form and as such requires practice. Rather than reviewing the basics of how to write an essay give them more essays to write. Your students should all know how to write an essay since this is, presumably, a university level course that you're teaching. If you're truly committed to helping your students become skilled writers than let them practice more.

The most common retort to this is, "I don't have the time to mark so many assignments." Well, if you are truly committed to improving your students abilities then you will find the time (after all, there's a reason why you have a TA). Also, by assigning more essays the students will have a better understanding of the material as they will have to focus on particulars.

I am the TA. :p

I'm a grad student and my boss charged me with teaching two sections of the Freshman level history class... With my Thesis coming up next semester, I honestly do not have enough time to grade essays that frequently... I like to get my point across through lecture, if that doesn't work, I get my point across by slapping a big fat "F" on their first essay... I generally write notes about what they did wrong, so if they use those, they should (and generally do) do better on the next ones.

Man, now I'm hungry. Does this lecture come with free bagels?

Only the bagels I use for my example... I generally don't have a problem with students bringing food to my class, so long as it isn't loud and distracting (and they give me some! :p).

A picture is worth a thousand words :p

Hmm... depends, do you LIKE reading hundreds of hamburger (or in this case, bagel) essays?

I'd say that it's an acceptable analogy, and one that has been used with various sandwich type foods for just about as long as there have been English composition teachers (and something resembling a sandwich to draw on), but I would caution that the problem with the hamburger style is that you tend to get, well, hamburgers unless you take pains to show examples of more creative writing skills and encourage your students to break out of the mold a bit.
This. The formulaic approach, be it "bagel", "hamburger", or any other similar system, gives you formulaic essays. They rapidly become tedious as students force themselves into this pattern. The school I worked at used something called the Jane Schafer method, which broke each body paragraph into a topic sentence, two concrete details, four commentary sentences, and a concluding sentence. Every essay I read looked...well...identical, as students focused more on the formula, rather than their writing. Several struggled to understand that you can have more than one "commentary" in a single sentence. So I got the exact TS/CD/CM/CM/CD/CM/CM/CS paragraph. Every time. And by the time I was done reading them, I wanted to hurt myself for using this method (I was forced to, sadly).

I could have literally have copy and pasted any one sentence into another essay and not have seen a change.

Take the time to explain "this is the way to a C paper. Here are examples of better writing styles. I encourage you to find what works for you; remember that, no matter what you do to the bagel, it is still a bagel. If you want the A, give me filet mignon wrapped in bacon."

I hate formulated essays, myself. While in the computer lab, I sometimes get to see what people print off and leave behind, and I am shocked to read so many college level students producing crap that is taught in junior high. Teach them a basic form, and then explain to them that they should feel free to write as they please. I don't write in a formula myself, unless its a long research paper, so I explore a bit with my writing. As a result, my teachers are never bored with what I write about, because it brings something new to their eyes and minds.

Fairly decent.

I hate formulated essays, myself. While in the computer lab, I sometimes get to see what people print off and leave behind, and I am shocked to read so many college level students producing crap that is taught in junior high. Teach them a basic form, and then explain to them that they should feel free to write as they please. I don't write in a formula myself, unless its a long research paper, so I explore a bit with my writing. As a result, my teachers are never bored with what I write about, because it brings something new to their eyes and minds.

It isn't just telling them to write as they please, but exposing them to different writing styles...say I'm having my kids write an essay on Great Expectations for their first essay in my class...I'll teach them the hamburger method to give everyone a common starting point, but then I'll show them essays or excerpts from essays that demonstrate a writing style that (while showing characteristics of the hamburger) is creative.

Good writers are those who have been exposed to lots of other peoples writing. They think like readers, and therefore, know what is and is not interesting rhetorical styles

OK, so apparently my students are often times still hazy on how to write an effective history paper in my class, so I'm looking at changing the lecture around for next semester... Here are my note ideas so far, tell me what you think!

Historiography is Like Preparing and Eating a Bagel

Introduction

The bagel, America's favorite morning bread product! There are any number of ways to eat a bagel, but enjoying it for breakfast is not what we're doing today... As we wrap up the current unit we're studying, you will soon be writing you first essay for my class... What do bagels and Historiography have in common? Plenty of things, if you look at it properly. In fact, to know the bagel, is to gain a basic understanding of how to write an essay for my class.

Bagels: Nice Package or By Themselves

Bagels come to you the same as topics... In a pretty package or laying out somewhere in a coffee shop or at the bottom of a dumpster where it's not so easy to get. In this class, most of your topics should be in a nice pretty package in the form of what we've talked about up till now.

Preparation of a Bagel and a Paper

To prepare a Bagel, you need many utilities... Personally, I like a toaster, a knife, and honey. Likewise, before you can sit down and get to the real meat and potatoes with your essay, you must gather sources... These can be books, internet sources (so long as they are credible), or anything else along those lines.

So now you have all this stuff... What do you do with it?

1. You divide it up into sections... Take the knife and slice the bagel down the center (or divide up your information into different points with your thesis statement).

2. Put each piece into the toaster and let it sit (or let your information stew in your brain for a bit).

3. Put some love on that bagel in the form of Cream Cheese, Jam, Peanut Butter, or in my case... Honey... Whatever you want, so long as it is delicious to the person eating it (namely me). Likewise, begin to write your paper using interesting language that makes the reader (namely me) want to read your paper.

4. Squish the bagel back together and so you have a nice, toasty bagel with honey seeping out of the sides... In other words, you bring it all back together for your conclusion.

5. Put it on a nice plate and give it to the person who is eating it... Namely me.


Obviously it's a bit of a work in progress... Just wanted to know how other people viewed it. I often times make abstract connections fairly effectively, but I'm on the fence about this one.

Everything I've heard about the American college system is true...:p

Seriously though... Have you tried telling them what to do in direct descriptive language? If they can't handle that, they probably shouldn't be in college.

What I have found effective in other courses is 1) providing good samples for the students and 2) providing a detailed copy of the rubric (in theory you already have one) that is being used to grade their papers. Knowing in greater detail what is expected of them in terms of quality and substance often goes a long way to improving the final product.

I am the TA. :p

I'm a grad student and my boss charged me with teaching two sections of the Freshman level history class... With my Thesis coming up next semester, I honestly do not have enough time to grade essays that frequently... I like to get my point across through lecture, if that doesn't work, I get my point across by slapping a big fat "F" on their first essay... I generally write notes about what they did wrong, so if they use those, they should (and generally do) do better on the next ones.

Alright, a good trick is to assign bonus marks (say, up to 3% of the overall grade) to all those who hand-in a rough copy. You'll be guaranteed to have a final product worth reading from those who bite the bait while simultaneously improving their writing abilities.

I don't know if your class permits this kind of time, and it might be a wasted effort on freshmen, but what if you had your students present their first papers to each other, like a conference? They're all required to give feedback on each other's work, so they'll hear from their peers what's working and what's not....and in critiquing others they ought to learn some lessons about their own writing.

I don't know if your class permits this kind of time, and it might be a wasted effort on freshmen, but what if you had your students present their first papers to each other, like a conference? They're all required to give feedback on each other's work, so they'll hear from their peers what's working and what's not....and in critiquing others they ought to learn some lessons about their own writing.
I would suggest doing this in smaller groups. It allows more discussion...say, 3 to 4 students. It also allows you to get through all of the papers in one class period.

Since you are a TA in history, I was recommended by instructors to avoid what you suggest that your students do- merely restate the thesis. How you are supposed to approach historiography is to make the students think about their handiwork and its significance to contemporary society in their conclusions. If you were to compare this to food, have them imagine the process for preparing "turducken", with the conclusion being the taste test to make sure the turducken is of the quality that you would serve to patrons of a high class restaurant. I agree, from some tough experiences, that formulaic methods are not the way to an A or B paper. The "turducken", or Iron Chef America metaphor (an even better choice, if using food, and you wish to develop their writing skills) would work to help them attain an A paper, or a paper sufficiently long enough to be a term paper that gets a C.

I am the TA. :p

I'm a grad student and my boss charged me with teaching two sections of the Freshman level history class... With my Thesis coming up next semester, I honestly do not have enough time to grade essays that frequently... I like to get my point across through lecture, if that doesn't work, I get my point across by slapping a big fat "F" on their first essay... I generally write notes about what they did wrong, so if they use those, they should (and generally do) do better on the next ones.

Alright, a good trick is to assign bonus marks (say, up to 3% of the overall grade) to all those who hand-in a rough copy. You'll be guaranteed to have a final product worth reading from those who bite the bait while simultaneously improving their writing abilities.

Coming from someone who also works as a TA, it takes a significant amount of time to effectively mark a paper, certainly if you actually give them decent feedback as opposed to just a mark. And my guess is, if it's like my university, if the marking is not part of the course set out by the organiser, he won't get paid for it.

Frankly, I'm distinclty of the the point of view that we shouldn't hand-hold University students. They should be able to take their bad grade, look at the feedback and then figure out how to do better next time. Giving them some guidance of basic structure is good though - I'd frame it as guidelines and tips rather than hard and fast rules though.

Unfortunately there are some students who go to college, and they need lots of guidance to figure out how to write. My uni has a writing handbook that spells out what is expected out of an A, B, C, D, and F papers. If a student is really confused as to what their instructors are looking for, they should make an appointment and ask.

I've always been taught to treat essays like a girl's skirt... long enough to cover the subject, but short enough to keep it interesting.

You never happened to have a Mr. Paul Waite as an English teacher, did you?

sounds just like the burger analogy, but less tasty. I think it will fail as most students probably won't put int he work/have the smarts to improve.

Everything I've heard about the American college system is true...:p
Probably.
Seriously though... Have you tried telling them what to do in direct descriptive language? If they can't handle that, they probably shouldn't be in college.
This is good advice. But, also provide a few examples (This is an A Paper, this is a C, this is an F), and provide an explanation ("This paper got an A because he had an awesome title;" "This guy got an F because he misquoted the text here and here;" "This guy got a C because he had an interesting premise, but failed to explain what these paragraphs had to do with anything"). Don't overload them with handouts on writing or metaphors, they'll just throw it all in the trash can.
And make similar explanations on papers that you grade. I hate it when I get an essay back and there is, maybe, one squiggly line per page, and the last page just has "Good work. A." on it. Give them advice on how the essay could have been improved (eg, Don't use so many parenthesis.)

The other thing about feedback... If they do more than one essay once in a blue moon, don't write 2 pages of why they are rubbish. Concentrate the feedback on the most bleeding obvious 2 or 3 problems, and explain them thoroughly, perhaps with examples.

wait a minute, you want your students to burn their essays in toasters and then put peanut butter on them?
you strange person.
good idea though, relating work to real life is always a challenge.

I personally liked the idea of marking another persons work in my class because then we compared notes, and had an idea of what was going through the markers mind.
I also enjoy lectures where they ask you to questions, personally not just to the audience because then you're snapped out of a daydream.
I don't want to be hit by a wall of information about the topic i'm studying, i'll do that in my own time, i need the main concepts and the best ways to tackle them in a simple format.

The other thing about feedback... If they do more than one essay once in a blue moon, don't write 2 pages of why they are rubbish. Concentrate the feedback on the most bleeding obvious 2 or 3 problems, and explain them thoroughly, perhaps with examples.

What we tend to do is write comments in the margin - so it's directly relevant to the part which had an error, as well as having a feedback sheet. I doubt anyone is ever going to write two pages of feedback, it will take far far too much time.

Mmmm! Bagels! But as a History paper? No!
Avoid extended metaphors. You're talking History here. History is real. It stands by itself. Avoid confusing the issue with too much metaphor.

Stick to specific directions. e.g.
First analyse the issue.
e.g. Lincoln was the great emancipator - discuss.

The key terms are obviously "Lincoln" and "Great Emancipator"
In planning a response you need to idicate to your students that, in their planning of this essay response, they will need to discuss who Lincoln was and what he did (I would argue from well before he became President (perhaps when he was campaigning as an ante-bellum abolitionist) though his early handling of the Civil war (use quotes such as "If I could save the Union by freeing some of the slaves...etc") to the Emanciation Proclamation and beyond.

Emphasise that the task required of the students is to "DISCUSS" which will require them to look at the argument s for and against. (There are lots of For arguments - which is why the South rebelled) but there are also against arguments - his task was first and foremost to save the Union.
Get your students to bring in different historians and to weigh up their opposing points of view.
In the conclusion, stress that they must have a conclusion.This means they can't just sit on the fence. They can qualify their argument but they must have a verdict. (oops that's a metaphor)
Then the schoolbell will ring for luch and you can eat your bagel in the secure knowledge that you taught them how to plan a decent history essay.

Easier method - "eh guys make sure your essays don't suck, please"

Mmmm! Bagels! But as a History paper? No!
Avoid extended metaphors. You're talking History here. History is real.
Bagels are also real. And it is a pretty decent idea for a lecture, to be fair.