I have my wiki-book additions narrowed down to two ideas. As you all know, I have an interest in using literature in the composition classroom, but I'm not exactly sure how I would relate that to a student audience. If anyone has any awesome ideas about this let me know.
The second idea I have is a section on choosing a topic. From my limited experience, many students have difficulty with this. After a discussion in 603 today, many GAs said that it was the part their students hated the most and struggled with. What makes a good topic to write a research paper or rhetorical analysis about? Why do students pick the topics they do? We're starting the research paper on Thursday and I'm going to have them do a freewrite about why they picked the topic they did, mainly because I'm curious. Just something I've been thinking about lately.
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I think a wikibook entry about choosing a paper topic is a great idea, because in the end a topic could make or break a paper for many students. I am thinking back to the "Professor X" article when he describes his technologically challenged student's poor paper topic choice. Perhaps if she had had better guidance on choosing a topic, she would have been more successful.
ReplyDeleteI think you have a very original idea!
ReplyDeleteDo students pick topics they are interested in, or do they pick topics they think the teacher would like?
It also might be interesting to explore the wording and contructions of good and bad writing prompts.