Early-stage Conference
Purpose: These strategies are intended to help facilitate the early-stage conference; they particularly focus on invention, outlining, and thesis development. For this reason, they might operate better at the 1101 level.
Description: Sometimes, conferencing a very early version of a student paper can be as productive as conferencing a later version of a paper. Early-stage conferencing helps build strong foundations for students to construct their papers and can head-off potential problems before they occur. Even if you require students to come to a conference with a working draft, some will only bring with them an outline or their thesis paragraph completed. Students should leave the conference with concrete ideas for their papers and (hopefully) feeling motivated and excited about their projects. The early-stage conference also emphasizes that writing is a mulit-stage process.
Suggested Time: 15-30 minute sessions
Procedure:
Invention:
1. Brainstorming: Brainstorming for a paper can take several forms. For a conference, however, the activities should be interactive. One of the best strategies for brainstorming is as simple as asking questions and having the student write down ideas. The “5 W’s and an H” (who, what, where, when, why, how) questions are particularly useful. The instructor’s job during this process is to help facilitate the development of the student’s ideas.
2. Nutshelling: Sometimes students have a lot of ideas, but no cohesive thesis. This activity asks students to describe their idea in two to three sentences (or in a nutshell). The objective is to have students develop their ideas concisely and specifically.
3. Burke’s Pentad (for creative assignments): Have students answer the following questions:
Act: What is the action?
Agent: Who is doing the action?
Agency: How was the act done?
Purpose: Why was the action done?
Scene: Where is the action taking place? What is the background for the action?
4. Tagmemics: This strategy asks the student to look at their idea through three different perspectives:
As a particle (or a single isolated entity). What is unique about the idea? What are the characteristics of the idea?
As a wave (or as something that changes over time). How has the idea changed over time? How does it reflect change?
As a field (the larger system or context). What is the context of the idea? How does it fit into the larger context?
Outlining:
Once the student has a concrete idea, the student and instructor can outline the paper together. The instructor should help guide the student and ask pertinent questions or point out potential weaknesses. Another option is that the instructor can require students to bring a detailed outline to the conference. If you assign students to bring outlines, consider how detailed you want them to be. For example, should students have already identified potential quotes or sources? Do you want completed thesis paragraphs and the body of the paper outlined? Make the review of the outline interactive. Ask student questions or have them elaborate on specific points. The student should leave the session with specific goals about how to proceed with the paper.
Thesis:
Because the thesis is the most integral part of the paper, the instructor will want the student to leave the conference with as clear a thesis as possible. Both the instructor and student should work through the following questions: Is thesis statement a thesis or just an observation? Is the thesis too broad? Does the thesis have stakes? Can the thesis withstand the ‘So What’ question? Does the thesis on the page reflect the student’s intentions for the paper? These questions should help the student clarify the argument of their paper. Hopefully, the student can leave the session with a thesis statement in hand. If time runs out, the instructor should make sure that the student understands how they should revise their thesis statement and why.
*Inspiration for these activities came from Dartmouth’s Writing Website and Hunter College’s Writing Websites. More activities can be found here: