Literature-with-Exposition:
A Critical Thinking and Writing Assignment*
Gita DasBender
I. Background
While most first-year writing programs consist of a two-semester sequence of expository writing, the practice of teaching literature in composition courses has not completely disappeared. In 1993, Erika Lindemann argued against literature-based writing courses, claiming that such courses �focus on consuming texts, not producing them� (Lindemann 1993: 313) and criticized programs that perpetuated this practice. Lindemann�s central concern was that literature-based writing courses did not provide students with an opportunity for �evaluating sources, reading critically, interpreting evidence, [and] solving problems in writing� (p. 313). In addressing this disciplinary divide between rhetoric and literature, Gary Tate responded to Lindemann by proposing that writing courses include all types of resources � literature and non-fiction � that would help us �adopt a far more generous vision of our discipline and its scope�that would exclude no text� (Tate, 1993: 321). For those of us in writing programs where literature is valued, the task of re-imagining ways of teaching literary texts in the composition class is a challenging one indeed. How to align the goals and purposes of expository writing with literary interpretation and analysis?
While the disciplinary debate between literature and composition is well established, there is also the view that �despite the historically aggrieved, yet symbiotic relationship of composition studies to English studies,� a movement that brings the two closer is perhaps inevitable (Berkenkotter, 1991: 157). Composition studies is a �hybrid field� (p. 165) that reflects inter-disciplinarity, and if we are to embrace this marriage of disciplines pedagogically, then we need �to articulate the models of knowing that inform our practice� (p. 166). At first glance, the goals of literary interpretation seem to be far different from, if not opposed to, those of expository writing. While literature demands that writers experience, appreciate and interpret literary texts, expository writing demands that writers engage with ideas and arguments in non-fiction texts so as to be able to pose well-reasoned and carefully-evidenced arguments of their own. The gap between appreciation and exposition, however, can be bridged not by excluding literature or essays but by including both in the writing class as long as the �model of knowing� that underlies such practice is clearly understood. When non-fiction essays are used as a reference point or as framing texts for understanding and interpreting �imaginative literature� (Steinberg, 1995) students can produce essays that meet the expository goals of developing coherent, compelling, and well-supported arguments by analyzing literature.
Though the goal of first-year writing is to improve academic writing skills in general, the course and assignment this chapter addresses also expects students to develop critical thinking and analytical writing abilities. It is possible to foster critical thinking in the composition class by developing an interdisciplinary curriculum taught by teachers who emphasize reading, writing, and discussion (Comley, 1989; Brookfield, 1987; Myers, 1986; Shor, 1987). By reading and responding to short stories and poetry alongside essays that are thematically connected to the literature, students not only learn to interpret literature but also to draw larger conclusions about their meaning in the context of the essays which serve as perspective-generating texts. In effect, students learn to engage with literary texts by critically analyzing them but ultimately write expository essays that reflect universal ideas.
The subject of this chapter is an assignment sequence designed for a first-year writing course that uses works of literature along with non-fiction essays to help students develop strong ideas in their writing. The central purpose of the assignment is two-fold: (i) to introduce students to literature so that they can experience, analyze and interpret these texts in the context of related non-fiction essays and (ii) to help them write compelling analytical essays which use literary interpretation for expository purposes.
The main goals of the assignment are:
- To appreciate, analyze and interpret works of literature;
- To engage in critical thinking through close-reading and interpretation;
- To draw connections between and integrate ideas from fiction, poetry and non-fiction texts;
- To generate ideas and writing in stages and to address one complex writing task at a time;
- To revise by synthesizing pieces of writing to form a complete essay;
- To develop strong, compelling, and original arguments.
II. Description of Activity
This essay is taught in the second semester of a first-year writing sequence as the second writing assignment of three. It is a writing course that uses literature, and the general theme of the course is �Literature and the Natural World.� While the three assignments are not interrelated, the first essay sets the tone for the course and the level of textual engagement students will need to succeed in the class. The assignment is described as follows in the course syllabus:
Essay Progression 1: Of Man and Beast
In this essay, I expect you to explore an interesting idea about our place in the natural world so that your readers can understand something new and different about how we interact with other creatures. For the assignment, you will read several short stories, poems, and essays and learn to draw interesting connections between texts of your choice. The goal of the assignment is to read and analyze literature and non-fiction essays so that you can write about what the texts mean and how the ideas from one can deepen our understanding of another. In particular, you will use ideas from an essay to illuminate our understanding of a short story and use a poem as a piece of evidence for your developing argument. Keep in mind the topic of the essay — �Of Man and Beast� — as you approach the assignment; your central ideas need to reflect this topic. You are also required to summarize the texts and to incorporate quotations into your writing as supporting evidence. The essay should be about six pages in length and should include a Works Cited page in the MLA format.
Readings:
Fiction: Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis,” Gabriel Garc�a M�rquez�s “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings.”
Essay: Loren Eiseley’s “Judgment of the Birds” and Charles Darwin’s “The Struggle for Existence” from The Origin of Species. (These are available online in Blackboard.)
Poetry: Henry Reed�s “Naming of Parts,” Paul Muldoon�s “Hedgehog,� Marge Piercy�s “A Work of Artifice,” Emily Dickinson�s “I dreaded that first Robin, so” and � ‘Nature’ is what we see,” D.H. Lawrence�s “Snake,” and May Swenson�s “The Universe.�
The assignment sequence begins in the second week of classes after the department diagnostic test has been administered to ensure proper placement and to gauge the level of writing proficiency, and after students have been introduced to the course and to each other. The class meets twice a week for an hour and 15 minutes, and the entire sequence — including discussion of readings and completion of the final draft of the essay — lasts for approximately four weeks.
Week 1 (Day 1)
For this first week, students are assigned the short story �The Metamorphosis� by Franz Kafka from their textbook Literature: Approaches to Fiction, Poetry and Drama (DiYanni, 2006). Since students need to be oriented to the ways of approaching fiction as they read the story, they are also assigned a section from the textbook entitled �Understanding Literature: Experience, Interpretation, Evaluation.� The instructor begins class discussion by first going over this section so that students begin to get a sense of the processes involved in reading and responding to literature and also to provide them with the specific vocabulary associated with these processes. Students then write an informal response to two questions �What is interesting to you about Gregor Samsa’s character? What does his transformation represent to you?� for about ten to fifteen minutes. This allows them to do some preliminary thinking about the main character, Gregor Samsa, before the class moves on to a large group discussion where students are encouraged to read from their responses.
Week 1 (Day 2)
The discussion of �The Metamorphosis� continues on the second day but becomes more in-depth as students explore details and try to grapple with how the details contribute to the overall meaning of the story. The following is used to generate responses for a large group discussion:
Identify five or six details that struck you as interestingly related while you were reading the story and write down what inferences you make from these details. For example, you may select sections of the story where Kafka describes Gregor and explain how these details help create a portrait of the character and his deepening alienation from the world. Or you may gather details about Gregor�s father to examine the sort of relationship he has with Gregor and how (or why) this affects Gregor�s transformation. Focus primarily on Gregor’s physical and mental condition and attempt to interpret his transformation.
Week 2 (Day 1)
Students come to class having read Gabriel Garc�a M�rquez�s short story �A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings,� which is a shorter text than �The Metamorphosis� so the entire class period is devoted to discussion of the story. Small groups of students (no more than three in a group) work together on a prompt that helps them both discuss and write about the story. The prompt is as follows:
Gabriel Garc�a M�rquez�s short story is written in the style of magic realism, a form of writing that fuses commonplace details of everyday life with fantasy and blurs the line between the real and the imagined. As complex and confusing as the story might be, upon close examination, certain clear themes about human behavior emerge from this vividly written tale. What do you think these themes are? Consider the details of the story that struck you most (quote briefly from the text) and write about some of the issues that Garc�a M�rquez tries to emphasize.
Since this is a group project, students are required to first talk about the story so that they can begin to get a sense of the plot (�what happens�) and then to come to some agreed-upon understanding of the meaning (�why� it happens) of the text. After the discussion, each group collaboratively writes a response to the prompt which is then shared with the whole class. A whole class discussion of the short story then follows.
Week 2 (Day 2)
This is when non-fiction essays are introduced to the class. Students are familiar with the non-fiction genre having already taken the first-semester writing class focused on expository writing. Nevertheless, some have difficulty comprehending complex ideas and arguments and the assigned essay, �The Judgment of the Birds� by Loren Eiseley, is not an easy read. To make the transition from one genre to another, the instructor reviews some basic characteristics of non-fiction and clarifies the distinction between fiction and non-fiction before moving on to discussing the essay. By writing an informal response to the essay, students begin to develop an understanding of parts of the essay as a basis for eventually making sense of the whole. The instructor assists in this reading comprehension task by creating a question that focuses on a central idea and its relation to the rest of the text. Students focus on what an abstract idea such as �see[ing] from an inverted angle� means by explaining it in reference to concrete examples that Eiseley uses throughout the essay. As they engage in this task, students develop a deeper sense of Loren Eiseley�s main point, and they are encouraged to use the informal writing they produce in the actual writing assignment in a revised form. Students write a short response in fifteen to twenty minutes and then share their responses, which leads to a group discussion of the essay.
Interpret the following from “The Judgment of the Birds” and state how it relates to the rest of Eiseley’s essay. What idea is Eiseley talking about?
“To see from an inverted angle, however, is not a gift allotted merely to the human imagination. I have come to suspect that within their degree it is sensed by animals, though perhaps as rarely as among men. The time has to be right; one has to be, by chance or intention, upon the border of two worlds. And sometimes these two borders may shift or interpenetrate and one sees the miraculous.”
Week 3 (Day 1)
Students come to class having read an excerpt (the first eight paragraphs) from the chapter titled �The Struggle for Existence� from Darwin�s Origin of Species. They have also read all of the assigned poems. Discussion begins with the Darwin selection and the instructor guides the conversation by asking what students had the most difficulty with. Central points about the struggle for existence and the need for interdependence among species are discussed in reference to the two short stories. Students brainstorm connections between Darwin�s essay and the stories and then begin to test arguments from the essays to see if they apply to the works of fiction. Finally, each poem is discussed briefly so that students get a sense of their meaning and relevance to the essay assignment. The goal of this lesson is to introduce students to the notion of intertexuality; although individual texts are meaningful in themselves, putting texts in conversation with each other can help students develop powerful original ideas.
Week 3 (Day 2)
Students now begin to write short assignments that gradually lead to a draft of the essay. The instructor spends some time in the previous class explaining this method of essay writing and helps students understand how the essay will be written in steps. The essay is produced gradually, progressively, so that the various writing tasks � summary, analysis, connection, and development of ideas � are attempted one at a time and focused on individually. Each prompt is assigned for homework and is reviewed in class before the day it is due. The assignment due on this day is Writing Exercise 1:
Choose a short story as the primary text that you will analyze for the essay you are writing. Focus on character development, symbolism, or any other aspect of a short story you find worthy of analysis. Your writing should try to get to an interesting interpretation of the story by examining specific parts of the text that serve as evidence. Make sure you quote directly to support your points. Limit yourself to two double-spaced pages.
This course consistently used Blackboard for all coursework, so all writing assignments were submitted into Blackboard�s Discussion Board, which is viewable by all. Homework is required to be submitted into Blackboard before class so that all responses are available for discussion and feedback in class.
Week 4 (Day 1)
The essay progression now moves to the more complex stage where students focus on creating connections between texts. This homework assignment (Writing Exercise 2) explains what students need to do and also provides some guidance on how to approach making connections between texts.
Explore the connection or pattern of ideas that you believe brings two texts together, a short story and an essay. Look deeper into this connection by reflecting upon specific aspects of the pieces. Consider how the ideas of the essay explain or illustrate the message and meaning of the short story. The goal of your essay is to develop an idea about the relationship between humans and the natural world. Limit yourself to two pages. Here are some questions you may consider:
1. What does Gregor Samsa’s transformation symbolize? How does it represent a struggle for existence? At what levels does Samsa struggle to survive (Darwin)?
2. Who exactly is the very old man with enormous wings? Use specific details from the short story to support your argument. What is the man’s purpose in the story and what does his struggle represent (Darwin)?
3. How is the presence of the old man �miraculous� (Eiseley)?
4. How does Garc�a M�rquez employ irony to convey his message? How does this message resonate with the essays you’ve read?
5. Eiseley claims that sometimes “the mundane world gives way to quite another dimension” for those “who have retained a true taste for the marvelous.” How does this idea apply to the situation in either “The Metamorphosis” or “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings?”
In class, students work in pairs reading their writing to each other and gathering feedback on how their writing is developing. This is a critical stage for peer review and instructor feedback because the central idea or argument of the essay depends on the ideas students begin to develop in Writing Exercise 2. As they formulate the relationships between an essay and a short story, students are required to use brief direct quotes from the texts, and are encouraged to incorporate them within their own sentences. Block quotes are generally discouraged because when students quote extensively in this form, they expect the quote to speak for itself and often fail to elaborate on or explain the quotations. Instead, they are taught to infuse crucial words and phrases from the text into their own sentences to demonstrate that they not only understand the text but that they are able to engage with it to articulate their own ideas.
Week 4 (Day 2)
Students have completed Writing Exercise 3, which requires them to use evidence from a poem that enhances their developing argument:
Select a poem whose ideas provide evidence for the essay you are writing. For this assignment choose a quote or two from the poem and write a page reflecting on the relevance of the quotes to the ideas you�re developing.
Class time is spent on examining the use of a poem as evidence. Students work in groups of three reviewing the main connection drawn in Writing Exercise 2 and the new piece of evidence that the poem affords. The essay progression is complete with Writing Exercise 3 so the instructor discusses the process of putting the pieces together in draft form. While students are tempted to copy and paste the individual exercises, the instructor carefully explains that the essay should not be viewed as a math formula in which the exercises add up to the final product. Rather, the instructor uses the metaphor of a puzzle to explain how the pieces (the writing exercises) need to fit together in a particular way in order for the essay to be a coherent whole. Transitional sentences (and perhaps even short paragraphs) may need to be created, and a thoughtful conclusion needs to be written. Students work on these elements of their writing for the latter half of the class. For their reference, the instructor posts a sample student essay culled from a previous class in Blackboard so students can have access to a model essay as they draft their own. On the rough draft due in the following class, the instructor provides detailed written feedback which students refer to as they revise for the final essay. In class, students review and respond to each other�s rough draft by using the following peer-review prompt:
Read your partner’s draft and respond to the questions below:
1. How clearly has the writer interpreted the short story? How accurate is the representation of the story? What is missing from the interpretation?
2. What is the connection that the writer draws between the short story and the essay? What idea about “man and beast” is the writer trying to develop?
3. Does the draft have enough evidence in terms of direct quotations and paraphrase? Which parts of the draft do you think need more direct evidence?
4. How does the writer incorporate the poem into the essay? Do the quotes from the poem fit well with the overall argument of the essay?
5. What suggestions for improvement do you have for the writer?
III. Implementation
This assignment sequence has been taught for several years in the second (College English II) of a two-semester sequence of first-year writing at Seton Hall University. While College English II is not a true Writing in the Disciplines course, four theme based versions of the course are offered with readings from other disciplines. The four versions of the course are: Literature and the Humanities, Literature and the Natural World, Literature and Public Life, and Literature and the Human Psyche. The assignment sequence presented here was developed for Literature and the Natural World.
Since this was the first writing assignment of the semester, careful attention was paid to introducing students to literature. In the first two weeks when students were immersed in readings, we not only discussed textual details, trying to get a handle on the plot, but we also talked about how to make sense of the text as a whole. Often students were asked to think about the message or meaning of a story or poem by focusing on direct evidence from the texts themselves. Speculation was highly encouraged. Students could have hunches about what was happening in the text as long as the hunches were accompanied by reference to specific parts of the text that seemed to support the hunch. This often opened up the conversation and allowed students to take risks with interpretation. Still, the message and meanings of literary texts seemed elusive. It was difficult for students who were still novice readers to grapple with the sophisticated literary techniques of Kafka, Garc�a M�rquez, or Muldoon. The instructor emphasized a dual approach in textual interpretation: keep the central idea (or the meaning) of the text in mind as you work your way though the details, while making sure the details support the idea.
After students started writing the exercises the instructor read each student�s work so as to know the level of engagement and to ensure students were headed in the right direction with the assignment. However, no written feedback was provided on the exercises. Instead, students were encouraged to read their writing out loud in class and received verbal feedback from their peers and the instructor. Although initially daunted, students quickly learned to shed their self-consciousness and take pride in reading their work to the class. Also, without written feedback from the instructor, students became more self-reliant and reached out more assertively to their peers for comments. Writing was shared for many reasons: to demonstrate what the student was able to do well, to discuss and get help on what the student struggled with, and to get reassurance that the writing matched the instructor�s expectations.
The level of interest in sharing new writing intensified as the students moved on to the more complex task of connecting texts. Essentially, the idea of making textual connections texts has to do with how the observations of an essayist (Eiseley) or his arguments (Darwin) speak to the development of plot, action or characters in the short stories. The texts in this course were selected because they illuminate each other and allow readers to learn how the ideas in the non-fiction texts help us understand the meaning of literary works. Since the goal of the writing assignment is exposition and not literary criticism, making sense of literature through the lens of observations about the human condition or discipline-specific theories allows students to make interesting claims and arguments about both genres of writing. Indeed, the act of literary interpretation may become more purposeful when students attempt to understand literature in relation to profound ideas, concepts and theories that illuminate human action and our place in the world.
Much time was devoted to peer-review that helped students understand how others approached the task of connecting texts and provided new ideas about how to improve their own. The drafting stage was perhaps the most frustrating primarily because students tended to see each writing exercise as a complete �essay.� To disabuse students of this idea, the instructor reviewed a sample student essay (from a previous class) as a model that demonstrated how each writing exercise was a part of the essay and needed to be seamlessly incorporated into the developing whole. The metaphor of �play� was used to encourage revision, a true re-seeing of the exercises so that students could learn the following: that writing is not linear but recursive; that pieces of writing are not static but can be moved around depending on the effect one tries to achieve; and that the final product is often greater than the sum of its parts. To demonstrate this notion of play, the instructor helped students read through and rearrange sentences and paragraphs from the writing exercises to teach them how to �play� with their writing so that they could develop a desirable and compelling structure for their essay. In doing this students not only realize the necessity of reorganizing writing for structural reasons but also learn the benefits of good revision. This sort of play helps them rethink what they have written, and to add and delete, all necessary steps in revision.
Overall, students produced thoughtful, analytical, well-supported, and compelling essays that went far beyond the requirements. More importantly, new and unique ideas emerged from the in-depth examination of literature and non-fiction essays. Because of the focus on generating writing for every exercise, most students were able to produce at least five to six pages of writing, if not more. In general, the structure of the student essays reflected the assignment, that is to say, the writer started with the analysis of a short story, drew a connection between the story and the ideas of an essay which was then further supported by evidence from a poem, and concluded by reiterating general ideas about human nature. Some writers were more inventive and considered the writing exercises to be enabling constraints; they were constrained by the tasks assigned but took creative control over how they responded to the exercises and constructed their essay. Here are the last three paragraphs of an essay where the student is able to integrate her observations from two texts � a short story and a poem � to articulate the general ideas about human interaction that she�s been developing throughout her essay. Her essay is titled �Learning about Humanity.�
Although our environment, rule and norms of the society influence our actions, like in the case of father Gonzaga in �A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings�, we are also influenced by our education. This fact makes us act irrationally because we just follow our fears without listening to what our heart and minds tell us. For instance, society imposes upon us the idea that snakes are bad, that �black snakes are innocent [while] the gold are venomous� (Lawrence 1151) and that they have to be killed before they kill us. As such, D. H. Lawrence in his poem �Snake� tells us that once he met with a snake and he listened to �[t]he voice of [his] education� (Lawrence 1151) that said to him: �He must be killed�/if you were a man/ you would take a stick and break him now, and finish him off� (Lawrence 1151). He has this idea in his head, although he confesses: �how I liked him/ How glad I was he had come like a guest in quiet, to drink at my water-trough/ And depart peaceful, pacified, and thankless/ Into the burning bowels of this earth� (Lawrence 1151).
One can appreciate how Lawrence is afraid of the snake, but, at the same time, he enjoyed looking at it, showing his love for nature. Consequently, the reader can realize how people feel afraid of interacting with living beings that are different from us even though they are not harmful. In �A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings�, we see that the old man is different from the rest of the people and, because of that, he is rejected and mistreated although he is a peaceful being. In the poem �Snake�, we see how Lawrence rejects the snake although it is not harmful. For these reasons, sometimes it is important to put aside what our education and traditions force us to do and follow what our mind and our feelings tell us.
As we can see, our humanity and the nature that surrounds us are beautiful. Each of us, just because of the fact that we are humans, deserves respect, consideration and love. It is very important to observe our attitudes when we interact with our fellow beings and not to allow ourselves to be influenced by tradition, laws or prejudices because they only drive us far away from what our humanity and heart tell us to do. More important, one should not ever forget that, as the world rotates every single day, our lives are rotating also and our destiny might change drastically from one day to the other, either in a positive or in a negative way. As such, one should treat the other, as one wants to be treated.
The student is able to develop these conclusive ideas because in analyzing Loren Eiseley�s essay and connecting it with Garc�a M�rquez�s short story, she wrote:
The conditions of suffering and misfortune which many of us might be living should not make us unhappy and pessimistic, but we should change our negative perceptions and see life from an �inverted angle� (Eiseley). We should also convince ourselves that each difficulty we might experience, should be an opportunity for learning and growing personally because, finally, the beauty of life �will come to the eye of those who have retained a true taste for the marvelous� (Eiseley) and those �who are capable of discerning in the flow of ordinary events,�another dimension� (Eiseley). Unfortunately, in the story, �A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings�, the people who surround the angel do not appreciate that he is a marvelous human being who needs their help. If they had seen life from an inverted angle, meeting with the angel would have been an opportunity of fortifying and nourishing themselves internally. If they had treated the angel in a different way, they would have been happier with themselves and they would have felt internal satisfaction. If they had followed �another dimension� (Eiseley), they would have enjoyed the miracles of life.
As evident, this student is not just able to notice deep connections between non-fiction, fiction and poetry but express her own understanding of the meaning and relevance of these texts in elegant, compelling language.
While mainly designed for native speakers of English, this sequence was also adapted for non-native speakers in the ESL sections of College English II that I taught. Generally speaking, international students who are not native English speakers come with strong backgrounds in reading and interpreting literature, and are often very excited about working with fiction and poetry. They seem to be more accustomed to literary analysis than to expository writing and often adjust quickly to interpreting literary works. However, reading these complex texts in English poses a problem for those who are still in the process of learning English. Small group assignments where two to three students (with varying English proficiency) work on specific reading and interpretive tasks often helps these students develop reading competence, gain confidence to ask questions about a text, and to have some preliminary hypothesis about the meaning of the text. The key here is to encourage students to speak up and to have confidence in their reading ability. Also, when reading non-fiction texts, ESL students are given substantial time to discuss abstract or complicated ideas (for instance, the Darwin essay) that may be new to them. Some background information on the discipline that the course is linked to, whether it is the natural sciences, psychology, or political science, is helpful in clarifying and contextualizing the non-fiction essays.
Writing about complex ideas from non-fiction essays and their connection to literature also poses a difficulty for English language learners. They struggle with both content and form, that is, they have a hard time comprehending and responding to difficult texts in a coherent and structured way. A lot of time is spent in class reading student writing aloud so that whole class gets a sense of what the writer has accomplished, what still needs to be worked on, and what good writing looks like. It is particularly important to show students a model essay written for the specific assignment sequence so that the assignment seems accessible and not a burdensome task. I often show sample essays written by other ESL students so that the class is not intimidated by the polished writing of some of my native English speakers. However, there is also good reason to show essays by non-ESL students as examples of proficient writing. Ultimately however, grammar and mechanical errors, though they can be distracting, often recede into the background when students recognize the strength of interpretation and critical thinking in the sample writing and aspire to model their own writing in the same vein.
IV. Reflections and Recommendations
As an assignment that uses literature for expository ends, the combined literary and expository writing assignment was particularly gratifying to teach. Literature has so often been seen as a constraint in composition studies that teachers rarely use it in writing courses. However, as this assignment demonstrates, creative use of literary works can not only expose students to different genres of writing as resources for critical thinking but also engage them in producing extraordinary writing. That said, it is important to recognize that students found it difficult to respond to the literary texts chosen for the assignment, perhaps because such response required a level of sophistication in reading skills that they did not possess. The instructor had to remind students that no work of literature is �easy� and that the easier a text seems, the harder it is to make sense of it. Because of the students� lack of interpretive ability, the instructor also had to teach literary concepts such as symbolism, irony, allegory, and magical realism in greater depth.
More time had to be spent in class modeling and discussing writing strategies than the assignment sequence reflects. Although there was always a well-conceived lesson plan for each class, teaching became intuitive in practice because the processes of reading and writing had to be constantly unpacked. Because students were always reading, writing, or interpreting texts, they had to juggle with several cognitive tasks and they often had unpredictable questions. This is not necessarily a negative thing; indeed, it sharpened students� sense of the relationship between reading and writing and forced them to organize their writing carefully.
While the assignment sequence can easily be adapted by focusing on a different discipline and by changing the theme and the readings involved, it is important to keep the organizing principle in mind. The discipline-specific non-fiction essays need to be philosophically (or socially, politically, environmentally) tied to the fiction so that students can work on illuminating the threads of thought that hold them together. Literature is not primary here; it is used in service of ideas inherent in the essays that students are required to build upon by using literary texts as evidence. Also, the instructor must help students stitch the essay together by modeling how the pieces of writing produced in the exercises can be organized into a cohesive whole. Students are most confused at the rough draft stage because they are usually unfamiliar with the form of the essay, and they do not understand writing as discovery. It is the instructor�s responsibility to help students organize their ideas, develop a coherent structure, and generate compelling ideas.
As with any classroom practice, a good sense of what students are capable of achieving, and how far they can be challenged, is necessary for this assignment to be successful. A careful selection of texts that are not only enjoyable but also have underlying relationships is of prime importance because the assignment sequence hinges on textual connections. Regular and in-depth discussion of literature and non-fiction is also crucial to strong writing, and the instructor would do well to facilitate stimulating, guided discussions to help students develop new strategies for reading, understanding, and writing about texts. It is our duty, after all, to engage students in assignments that do not merely serve as course requirements but that allow them to discover a new world of ideas.
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