The unessay: A contructivist approach to developing student writing (formalisation and dissemination)
Posted: May 17, 2013 Filed under: Classroom practice, Digital pedagogy, General, Genre and Reception, Research, Teaching, Unessay 2 Comments »This is the original application for the Unessay Grant.
Project Overview
The goal of this project is to formalise and further develop work that Michael Ullyot of the University of Calgary, graduate student Heather Hobma, writing centre tutor Virgil Grandfield, and I have been carrying out on an innovative approach to teaching undergraduate writing: the Unessay.
The unessay is based on the premise that students do not understand formal essays the same way their teachers do: as a powerful and flexible means of exploring intellectual problems. Instead they see them in much the same light figure skaters see “compulsory figures”: as an artificial set piece designed primarily to test their ability to meet arbitrary rules. Read the rest of this entry »
The Unessay and Metacognition
Posted: May 16, 2013 Filed under: Classroom practice, Digital pedagogy, Genre and Reception, Research, Teaching, Unessay 1 Comment »In order to understand what the unessay attempts to do for writers one must understand the underlying philosophies that govern it. In my preliminary research for this project I attempted to dissect the unessay, revealing its structures, and then relating those structures to the larger theories of teaching writing. Read the rest of this entry »
Introduction to Unessay Research
Posted: May 15, 2013 Filed under: Classroom practice, Digital pedagogy, General, Genre and Reception, Research, Teaching, Unessay 1 Comment »There appears to be a fundamental discord in the way students are taught to argue and the what professors view as a “good argument”. High school students are taught that a good argument is a point that can be evidentially proven, but professors are searching for a more open-ended approach. Students are taught to answer, while professors want them to question.
Yet, the essay seems to be a loose term in regards to genre and its conventions, with variations being prevalent across disciplines. Does “anything go” when it comes to formulaic standards? Some scholars make a distinction between the “essay” and the “article”. But how many students are taught and become truly aware of this distinction? Students read articles, yet are told to formulate essays. This distinction is one that is not often communicated to students. Upon beginning my research of the subject, I myself had never entertained the distinction. Read the rest of this entry »
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