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Jason Reynolds’ Graduation Speech
This brilliant speech is an excellent example of so many things. For starters, it’s a counternarrative with a “yes, but…” or “agree, but with a difference” multi-layered thesis. Reynolds begins by identifying the standard “spread your wings,” trope of graduation speeches, affirms it, then makes it clear what it overlooks. Here is his “three-story thesis”: …
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Ursula LeGuin’s “The Carrier Bag Theory”
LeGuin’s “The Carrier Bag Theory” is not only super interesting and pertinent for a writing studies course, but it’s the only short and relatively accessible narrative I could find that tackles the overall purpose and use of stories. However, the text is dense and far more “writerly” than my freshman are comfortable reading. If I…
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“How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” writing prompts
I use the quotes and prompts in these slides to help my students prepare to write their literacy narratives.
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The 3-story Thesis
I like Amy Guptill’s explanation of the “three story thesis” for concretizing the difference between a high-school level thesis and a college-level thesis. These slides review her examples and also break Ursula LeGuin’s “Carrier Bag Theory” thesis into three levels, since I introduced them to that around the same time.
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Lit Analysis vs. Rhetorical Analysis
When first learning to do rhetorical analysis, students often ask how it differs from literary analysis. I made this handout for easy reference. Word version:
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ChatGPT vs. Anne Lamott
For this lesson, I do a side-by-side comparison of Anne Lamott’s “Shitty 1st Drafts” and a text generated by ChatGPT, from a prompt that matches Lamott’s thesis. I don’t tell the students the second piece was written by A.I.—only that it essentially says the same thing as Lamott’s piece, only differently. The first time I…
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ChatGPT vs. Anne Lamott
The excerpts on the right are all from Anne Lamott’s “Shitty First Drafts.” The excerpts on the left are ChatGPT’s responses to the prompt, “Explain that all writers write terrible first drafts and that doing so is an important part of the writing process.” You can find the whole of ChatGPT’s response here. I sometimes…