The Structure of Ideas in Freshman Composition.

Students in college courses are expected to produce unified, coherent discourse, yet often composition classes provide few resources for creating effective organization. Or they offer rigid patterns of operation which force every writing task into the same structural mold. Students need tools for underst and ing structure so they can discern it in what they read and create it when they write. To focus on key pedagogical issues, I examine two approaches to teaching structured writing: William Kerrigan's Writing to the Point: Six Basic Steps and Peter Elbow's Writing Without Teachers. This comparison reveals the necessity for tapping students' implicit ability to create diverse (even conflicting) structural connections. Writing is then seen to involve two broad stages, the first a heuristic process aimed at discovering a central idea, the second (growing out of and interacting with the first) an explicative process aimed at developing and molding an idea for presentation. In order to increase their control over unifying structure, students must develop an underst and ing of its nature and function and become familiar with the variety of structural patterns available to them. I use a triangular model to reveal and explore the kinds of connections in discourse. As an abstract image, it illustrates the interconnections between levels of abstraction necessary to meaningful communication, the unifying role of the main idea as it relates to subordinate ideas and examples, and the linking function of the various segments. As a working model it assists students in the discovery and creation of structural relationships. I also consider how structure is translated into the linear sequence of discourse. Writers must create an arrangement pattern and provide sufficient clues so a reader can comprehend the multiple connections implied by the triangular model of structure. By analyzing essays a college student might read, I illustrate the factors which affect the choice of a linear pattern and suggest how analysis of reading material can contribute to students' ability to identify structure and use it effectively.PhDLanguage artsUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/158944/1/8224896.pd