Programs: Workshop a Paper
Teaching Resources: The Research Paper
Large Group Writing Workshop on the Research Paper
Working with a Sample Student Paper
-
Read sample student paper a loud (each person takes a paragraph)
As students read paper, instructor annotates draft: highlight analytical claims, thesis, research questions, note mechanical and stylistic features that you want to address, and so on. Prioritize areas you want to discuss with student.
-
Have students pair up and collaboratively respond to peer response sheet
Meanwhile, you meet individually with the student at your desk to review your comments.
-
Facilitate a class discussion of the paper based on students’ response sheets. At end of discussion students should give their completed sheets to the writer.
-
Create a Teaching Moment:
Some Possibilities:
- Map out with your students the major analytical claims (or review your mapping): see attached
- Show students how to prioritize concerns through mapping analytical claims in the draft and then in the final paper
- Bring in a film clip and have students practice The Method and then return to sample student paper and ask class how these new observations might further complicate the paper, the thesis, etc.
Follow Up Day: Create a Teaching Moment II
If you brought in a film clip for Teaching Moment I, you might follow-up the next day with a revision of this particular research paper.
Another option is to introduce another sample student paper and to track with the class how the paper develops, thesis evolves, etc. You might choose to work with the paper on Reality TV distributed in Pre-Quarter Workshop.
Research Paper: Christianity and Hollywood Film
Create a Teaching Moment --- Mapping Major Analytical Claims
-
Student Claim: “Therefore movies are for the most part shaped to hold the same ideals as the movie viewer . . . . Viewing a movie about alternative times might impose the conventions of those generations on them.” (page 1)
Instructor Comment:
Movies reflect audience ideals. These ideals/values are historically specific—timely. {Kairos}
-
Student Claim: “Christianity is portrayed many different ways in these movies and while not all of them show it as a good thing they all seem to give it some respect.” (page 2)
Instructor Comment:
Introduces rhetorical category of analysis: GENRE. What are some of these strategies? How would you characterize movie plots? [Other genres mentioned: spoof movie/comedy; cult film.] -
Student Claim: (draws on secondary source) “’In the past twenty years or so, movie enthusiasts have witnessed a proliferation of apocalyptic films ranging from comedies and children’s films to horror movies and nuclear disaster films’” . . . “Most of the apocalyptic films of today use many different ways to show how the world might end.” (Page 3)
Instructor Comment:
Introduces rhetorical category of analysis: GENRE. What are some of these strategies? How would you characterize movie plots? [Other genres mentioned: spoof movie/comedy; cult film.] -
Student Claim: “The end result is the classic good versus evil showdown where good triumphs over evil . . . . Not all films make religion seem to be a good thing. Some actually portay it as a bad thing” (page 6)
Instructor Comment:
Identification of a binary. Are these binaries reproduced by the films? To what degree do the films under consideration recreate or complicate such binaries? To what extent are the binaries a product of the students’ limited analysis? To what extent do the films actually adhere to such binaries? -
Student Claim: “This [Fight Club] portrays Christianity as almost a cult in which made men get way too psycho about what has to happen and who should be judged.”
Instructor Comment:
In what ways does Fight Club complicate the good/bad binary through its portrayal of “madness”? The main character? The cult of the Fight Club?
How might Fight Club be used to complicate analysis of earlier films? How might the thesis evolve through an analysis of Fight Club? How does Fight Club complicate the good/bad binary?
Have an idea for Tried and True? Send it to fywp@osu.edu!
Return to Top