Writing Arguments in New Media

PI: Krista HomiczFaculty Mentors: Dr. Barry Fishman, Dr. Carl Berger, Dr. Anne Gere, Dr. Anne

Curzan

Presentation OverviewContextual Background Study Design

My graduate program and teaching

Approaches to teaching argument

Teaching composition with technology

Research questions Methodology –

context, participants, measures and instruments, timeline

Student examples PPI pilot design and

results

Joint Ph.D. Program in English and Education

JPEE doctoral students pursue interdisciplinary interests in the fields of both English and Education and design their own pathways for integrating each into their work.

Throughout their doctoral work, JPEE students teach in both fields to research and practice their evolving philosophy of teaching.

My work combines both the theory and teaching of composition in English departments and the designing of educational curriculum to help others teach writing with technology.

University Writing Courses Most universities require students to

take writing courses in their undergraduate curriculum with the expectation that these courses will help students practice the expository and argumentative skills that will help them to write for other university courses and to be productive communicators within society.

Required Writing CoursesAt the University of Michigan, students are

required to take two writing courses:

Lower level: English 124, “College Writing: Writing and Literature" or 125, "College Writing," which focus mainly on expository writing skills

Upper level: English 225, "Argumentative Writing," which focuses mainly on the elements of evidence and argument

Approaches for Teaching Argument Formal Logic Rhetoric Informal Logic Stasis Theory Visual Rhetoric

Texts that Make Arguments

Words

Hypertexts

Still Images

Moving Images (Video)

In a media-driven society, arguments come in many forms of media.

For students to be productive communicators and contributors in a media-driven society, they need to learn how to “write” arguments in these new media.

“What are we likely to carry with us when we ask that our relationship with all technologies should be like that we have with the technology of printed words?”

(Wysocki and Johnson-Eilola, “Blinded by the Letter”)

“For students who have grown up in a technology-saturated and an image-rich culture, questions of communication and composition will absolutely include the visual, not as attendant to the verbal but as complex communication intricately related to the world around them.”

(George, “Visual Communication in the Teaching of Writing”)

Images from http://www.adbusters.org

Recommendation for Module Design for Teaching Writing Arguments with New Media

I propose an “image-text” approach to teaching argument that asks students to inquire into the relationship between the image and the text.

Students should be producers and not just consumers of new media.

Questions for Research

Will an “image-text” approach to teaching argument writing facilitate students' learning about how to creatively and responsibly write arguments in new media?

Can I create materials that allow other instructors to teach this approach to writing arguments?

Methodology

Context: 5 sections of English 225 Participants:

75-110 undergraduate students (total from 5 sections)

5 Instructors with experience in teaching English 225

Key Evaluation Indicators and Instruments Student Attitudes

Participant Perception Indicator (PPI) Student Learning

Rubric-driven analysis of artifacts students create

Instructor Attitudes Interviews

Classroom Enactment Observation

TimelineFall ’03 Developing and piloting materials with my own

English 225 class Recruiting instructor participants for Winter ’04

Winter ’04 Pre-activity with instructors Pre-activity with students Pre-test, mid-test, and post-test of student attitudes

(PPI) Observation during classroom enactment Interviews with instructors Artifact analysis

Examples of Student Work

Image-based argument

Image-based argument

Image-based argument

PPI Pilot Design and ResultsAssignment Objectives

Students will learn how to employ: Strategies of argument Images for visualizing argument strategies New media for creating and composing

images Ethical standards of argument

Question 1: Compose a visual argument

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Question 2: Maintain a balance in the visual argument between truth and persuasion

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Question 5: Present visual information in a manner that shows that the information is credible

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Question 20: Be strategic about the arrangement of image(s) and text on a page

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Question 16:Shape ideas into a visual argument

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Works Cited

George, Diana. “From Analysis to Design: Visual Communication in the Teaching of Writing.” College Composition and Communication 54 (2002): 11-39.

“Jammer’s Gallery.” Adbusters. Accessed Dec. 1, 2003: http://adbusters.org/creativeresistance/jamgallery/index.html.

Wysocki, Anne Frances, and Johndan Johnson-Eilola. “Blinded by the Letter: Why Are We Using Literacy As a Metaphor for Everything Else?” Passions, Pedagogies, and Twenty-First Century Technologies. Ed. Gail Hawisher and Cynthia Selfe. Utah State UP, 1999. 349-68.