I think It's Ridiculous We're Talking About Ketchup

I have tried teaching form in a number of ways mainly because I think form is the most important point to get to stick. First, in their reading responses I got wrist cramps writing that they need to move from summary to connections to evaluation. I explained what that meant. Then I moved to their essays and we talked about how to write a thesis. What does a thesis consist of, what does it tell the reader and how does it act like a map sentence. Then we talked about conclusions. One day in class a girl asked me "what did you mean when you said my conclusion sounds like a laundry list." I tried to explain she should sum up what her paper talks about in one or two sentences rather than sentence after sentence explaining her topic sentences. "But how do you sum up your paper if you don't list what you talked about?" In desperation I grabbed my jump drive, found an old paper and showed them a conclusion. Granted they didn't know the entire context of my paper, but I explained which parts were summation of the paper topics and which were wrapping up thoughts. That seemed to shut them up.

One day we spent almost half the class talking about transition sentences. One of my students was having a hard time writing transition sentences for her paper and she asked how to do it. So I grabbed examples from the class (I collected their papers) and wrote sentences on the board. We came up with a list of words that they could use to help transition between paragraphs. You know, those transition words that you feel guilty using, but sometimes have to because you can't find anything else to say? We talked about what to put at the end of the paragraph and how to move into the beginning of the next paragraph. I saw her try some of what we talked about in her essay so at least someone listened.

Lately, I've been trying to model. Today we talked about the Ketchup article. I had them find the thesis again and we looked at the conclusion and the different examples Gladwell used throughout the essay to complicate his idea. One of my students snorted when I asked what Gladwell does to complicate his idea. I asked him, "Why are you scoffing?" and he responded, "I think it's ridiculous we're talking about ketchup." I explained to him that we're not talking about ketchup, we're talking about how Gladwell writes and why he writes the way he does. He stopped scoffing, but I don't know if he really got it.

I've been trying really hard to get them to use some of the tools the writers we've read in class use, but I'm not sure they've made that connection yet. I could ask them if they get it, but they'd probably just stare at me as usual.