Transcript UIL Ready Writing Workshop

UIL Ready Writing Workshop
Workshops for Ready Writing Coaches
Dr. Thomas Barker, TTU UIL RW Contest Director
Dr. Rich Rice , TTU Assistant Professor
Technical Communication
Training Exercises for Ready Writers
Lay the groundwork
Teach the nature of exposition Exercise
Focus on prewriting and organizing strategies
Exercise
Use winning ready writing essays
Responding to Ready Writers
This workshop segment is an activity.
1. Read the sample essay
2. Respond using the rubric
3. Compare responses with others
4. Compare responses to “suggestions”
Recruiting Ready Writers
Select the best Ready Writing candidates
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Highly intelligent
Well read
Distinctive writing style
Involvement in other extracurricular activities
Love of challenge and competition
Reliability
Limit writers to 6 per year
Build subject-area files: “sociology,” “education,” “the nation,”
“family and lifestyle,” “science and the environment”
Teaching Elements of Exposition
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Have students write a thesis
Exchange and critique:
“How would you revise the thesis to make it clearer?”
“Where do you expect the essay to go after reading this
thesis?”
“What words seem strong or weak in the thesis?”
Exercise:
What questions would you ask about the “outline,” the
“development” the “language”
Training Exercises for Ready Writers
Prompt for the Day
“An Athenian citizen does not put his private affairs before
the affairs of the state; even our merchants and
businessmen know something about politics. We alone
believe that a man who takes no interest in public affairs
is more than harmless—he is useless.”
Pericles’ Funeral Oration Athens, 5th century BC
Shaping an Essay
Training Exercises for Ready Writers
Shaping an Essay
What three or four ideas do you see associated with the prompt?
How do the ideas relate to one another?
What’s the progression from one to another?
What shaping strategies might apply? growth of a plant, climbing a mountain,
spreading of a disease, downhill slide, gathering storm, quest for a holy grail,
sin/redemption, lost/found, tension/release? Other?
Prompt for the Day
Training Exercises for Ready Writers