How do students go about writing their papers? This question is one that has been on my mind since my sophomore year at VMI. My own personal development has shown me that everyone begins their paper differently and while it may be what we like, it is not always what is best for us. I began with our usual outlines and filling in. Over time I have determined that the method that is best for me to write up a draft “cold” without stopping and then revising my writing multiple times later. The follow up and support question I wonder about is what steers students towards making this decision. Is it because they have not been taught various pre-writing methodology by their teachers? Or is it because procrastination is such a drastic problem amongst my generation, especially in college? 

I realize that this may seem like a semi broad topic for my paper, but I believe I can narrow down my research with scholarly journals and surveys that cadets fill out. I am not sure at this moment if I would want to drop surveys off to various random rooms, or if I would like to interview at least two students from various majors. I think it is important to incorporate various majors because as English majors, we tend to have a more extensive education regarding writing (I think this also comes from our natural passion regarding writing). As stem majors what they are expected to know and what they are expected to do is drastically different. Regardless, I think it is important that we teach all majors the same information so that everyone has a fair chance of being able ot write properly and to the best of their abilities. 

Annotated Bibliography 

Burnett, MacCurdy. “Differential Methodologies for Freshmen.”College Composition and Communication, vol. 9, no. 2, 1958, pp. 116–122. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/355347. 

I believe that this is a significant source for me because it not only applies to my peer group and my most recent experiences, but it shows us a starting point. After reading the first few pages I realized that the concepts within this article are very beginner and concrete? This does not necessarily mean they are wrong though. The article suggests things such as reading out loud, stopping every few paragraphs and evaluating, and writing down your ideas. The following class the article mentions having students transcribe a specific pre-chosen concept of their reading and re writing it 18 times minimum. This seems elementary for college students, but I find it interesting and see the purpose. A foundation such as this is something that is extremely important to writing successfully. The general idea of this is that the person be able to properly comprehend the information they are receiving so that they can properly translate and share their own ideas.  

Duin, Ann Hill, and Michael F. Graves. “Intensive Vocabulary Instruction as a Prewriting Technique.” Reading Research Quarterly, vol. 22, no. 3, 1987, pp. 311–330. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/747971. 

This source provides a specific method of prewriting with evidence to support it. This particular method focuses heavily on intensive vocabulary. The paper was written in response to observations from a guided study consisting of 80 students who were taught 13 “target words” over six days. This provides me with a different method that I didn’t even think was possible. This is one of potentially three methods I would like to explore and use as examples. 

Kellogg, Ronald T. “Effectiveness of Prewriting Strategies as a Function of Task Demands.” The American Journal of Psychology, vol. 103, no. 3, 1990, pp. 327–342. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1423213. 

This source immediately begins with painting the image of college students sitting in a classroom and approaching writing an essay. Some students began writing immediately and used zero prewriting time, some students crated a basic outline, and others created a “cluster” or visual graph of sorts. These are all different methods, and each has its benefits or lack of.  I feel like this source will provide me with an observation and step by step account of students writing processes. This source also discussed what types of assignments require different types of information from students and how this effects their writing processes. This opened my eyes to another factor that effects how we go about writing and preparing to write and made me realize I am going to need to expand on my research and considerations.  

For teachers to understand how to help teach students rhetoric, it is important that they understand its origins and definitions. If you were to  look up the word “rhetoric” in Webster’s dictionary it would be defined as “the art of persuasion.” This definition still held true in 2500 but what was different was the belief on whether or not it should be practiced by the common man.   Some people believe that the word “rhetoric” applies to the act of deceiving the public into believing what you believe. This was one of Plato’s fears during the classical rhetoric era. He feared that people would learn the art of rhetoric and use it to further their own personal agendas. I have noticed in class discussions that we tend to quickly argue and disagree entirely with Plato’s belief. While it is true that what he was essentially calling for was to limit the publics ability to speak for themselves and have an effect. But, what I find fascinating is the fact that what he feared holds some truth. While rhetoric is involved in every aspect of our lives, and a necessity, it is often used by people who are uneducated in their field. Having the knowledge of rhetoric appears to me to be a double edged sword. So where is the compromise? This is assuming that their is one.