I certainly think the concept of kairos is important to impart to my composition students - realizing that an argument has importance other than the fact that the student is choosing to write on it is an important step towards answering the "So what?" question. One of the tactics I use in my tutoring session to get students to think about how they want to formulate their conclusions is to read aloud the thesis of the paper and then ask, "So what?" It is one pieces of composition and argumentative writing that students have the most trouble with, in my experience, and getting my students to understand kairos is one of the ways I hope to teach them about writing their conclusions in my future composition class.
What I found most helpful for writers (especially inexperienced or new writers) in this reading was the "question" approach, especially the approach of first asking a general question and then making it more and more specific until it suits the needs and requirements of the assignment. I often found during my undergraduate career (and at times still have this problem) that I would attempt to write what should have really been a much longer paper in less than ten pages. I think that this approach would have helped me address this problem - I could fine-tune the question, making it more and more specific, until it suited the assignment. This is also a great spring-board for ideas - by asking questions and making sure that these questions get more and more specific, the student can begin to formulate an argument. She can see what will be too much to take on in that 5-7 page paper, or what topic will be too narrow for her to write about for that long. Another useful consequence of this approach is that the student can create a broad list of specific questions, each representing a different direction in which to take the paper. This goes back to the importance revision that Shelley spoke about in our last class - that it is important for students to realize that there can be different directions in which they can take the same topic. I think that this "questions" approach is another way (and one with which I personally feel more comfortable) in which to get students to do this.
I agree with this, full-heartedly. I use the "so what" question to help explain the conclusion all the time. "You proved your thesis to be correct--great! So what?" Students definitely respond more favorably to these open ended, sometimes tailored, questions than they do to rhetorical questions.
ReplyDeleteLike Jeremy above, I agree that the "So What?" question helps students think about the relevance and importance of their work. Soon, these students will be leaving college and won't have people to read their writing or to offer helpful comments on it. It's a bleak thought, but students have to understand that they'll need to start asking "So What?" themselves because there won't be a free writing tutor or professor in the future to read their work.
ReplyDeleteAssuming they will every write again. - Professor Bleakerton
Delete(This is the part where I agree with everything you say) (Really, it is a great post, I am just in the habit of identifying rhetorical moves right now.) I also use the "So what?" question, but I was thinking about it earlier today and I thought shouldn't they be asking themselves the "So what?" question throughout. I mean if your going to make me read a chunk of text I want to know why I am reading it. This "need" might be remedied by the "How does this argue your thesis question," but perhaps different parts of the essay can answer different parts of the so what? question. If you start with a current event like many of these articles do, you will have to show how it functions as kairotic moment for the issue you which to take up. There are many so whats that will always be popping up. Is there a formal way to describe this? Does the introduction need to answer one kind of so what question while the conclusion needs to answer a different kind?
ReplyDeleteRight on, Justin - they totally should be answering the so what? question throughout. Might be a little overwhelming to the student, though - maybe a focus on the so what? in the conclusion will lead them to think about it as a function of the whole paper?
DeleteYep, I dig the questions approach too. Isn't this writing as a process - a well-explained process?
ReplyDelete