The Proposal to a Small Group: Learning to 'See Otherwise.'
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| Title: | The Proposal to a Small Group: Learning to 'See Otherwise.' |
|---|---|
| Language: | English |
| Authors: | Frisch, Adam |
| Peer Reviewed: | N |
| Page Count: | 6 |
| Publication Date: | 1989 |
| Document Type: | Speeches/Meeting Papers Guides - Classroom - Teacher |
| Descriptors: | Audience Awareness, Class Activities, College Students, Higher Education, Persuasive Discourse, Writing Instruction |
| Abstract: | In most traditional introductory college composition courses students are generally advised to address the teachers or some other authoritative figure as their primary audience. To supplement this traditional approach, students should also direct their discourse to audiences who are not projected as superior critics. One paper assignment that can move students in an advanced course towards a concept of peer readership is the "proposal directed at a specified small group." Students advocate a specific action to a small, carefully defined, local group that has the power to make that proposal happen. Students must name the members of the small group, and include a short rationale analyzing the probable beliefs and values of those members, based on occupational and geographical circumstances, personal interviews, local rumor, or any other kind of evidence they deem applicable. This assignment succeeds in addressing nonthreatening readerships because it is addressed to a small group rather than to an individual, and it demands that the student choose a specific value system to characterize the attitudes and beliefs of the selected group. Although many students have trouble separating the value system of their chosen audience from the values most closely associated with the thesis and content of the paper itself, the value systems approach succeeds in moving students towards a clearer sense of reader uniqueness. The assignment also helps students initiate conversation between their composing selves and their various other selves. It teaches then the important human value of "seeing otherwise." (MM) |
| Entry Date: | 1989 |
| Accession Number: | ED303796 |
| Database: | ERIC |
| Abstract: | In most traditional introductory college composition courses students are generally advised to address the teachers or some other authoritative figure as their primary audience. To supplement this traditional approach, students should also direct their discourse to audiences who are not projected as superior critics. One paper assignment that can move students in an advanced course towards a concept of peer readership is the "proposal directed at a specified small group." Students advocate a specific action to a small, carefully defined, local group that has the power to make that proposal happen. Students must name the members of the small group, and include a short rationale analyzing the probable beliefs and values of those members, based on occupational and geographical circumstances, personal interviews, local rumor, or any other kind of evidence they deem applicable. This assignment succeeds in addressing nonthreatening readerships because it is addressed to a small group rather than to an individual, and it demands that the student choose a specific value system to characterize the attitudes and beliefs of the selected group. Although many students have trouble separating the value system of their chosen audience from the values most closely associated with the thesis and content of the paper itself, the value systems approach succeeds in moving students towards a clearer sense of reader uniqueness. The assignment also helps students initiate conversation between their composing selves and their various other selves. It teaches then the important human value of "seeing otherwise." (MM) |
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