FISH FOR BOBBER

As I was going through Middle and High School, I thought that the reading and writing I was being taught, was to prepare me for college level writing.  That was the system for elementary to middle, middle to high school was, boy was I wrong.  College level writing has many expectations from the students, even though the students didn’t learn them where they should have.  Many don’t even know what the expectations are for writing, which isn’t helping our future generation to become successful.


when kids need to learn

Stanley Fish thinks that teaching his students sentence structure will improve the student’s success in writing.   Stanley thought that teaching how to write sentences would be helpful and make a structure for writing.  Stanley said “By all the evidence, high schools and middle schools are not teaching writing skills in an effective way, if they are teaching them at all.”  If students were able to be taught a better way in the younger year’s maybe college writing wouldn’t be so difficult for students.  Stanley Fish has a good point in teaching college students the structure for sentences, which turns many sentences into paragraphs and paragraphs to essay.  I think that adding his idea to a more detailed list would make it more productive in the classroom for college students. 

When I was reading this article, it reminded me of the research paper I wrote on “What is college level writing”.  One part of my research was in the writing studio at OSU Newark, OH, where I observed a couple of students working on their college papers.  I had seen a structure with different types of sentences that makes the introduction structure, the way sentences makes paragraphs, also what types of ways to make sure that all the sentences make sense to flow correctly.  Using these has helped me in writing papers for college, and has helped other students, that maybe didn’t realize it at the time. 

Teaching what type of sentences to write in the introduction helps the student by attracting an audience, helps show what the paper is going to be about, and creates a structure for the rest of the paper.  The first type of sentence is to attract an audience, something interesting, which is called the hook.  There should be a sentence that shows why someone should care to read the paper.  The last sentence show what the whole paper is going to be about, which is called a thesis.  Using this shows what the paper is about, also helps the student have a structure of the paper.  Each paragraph here after is to show or prove what the thesis is, and why. 

funny example of topic sentence

Every paragraph has many sentences that tells about a topic, but if not correctly using the sentences then it doesn’t improve the paper.  With paragraphs the information in them is completely different, but they have a structure that makes them similar.  Teaching this structure of sentences helps improves how the thesis is explained in the rest of the paper, also helps with a layout of how a paragraph can be structure.  The first sentences should show what the topic of that paragraph is going to be about, then add other information that expand that sentence.  Then the last sentence is what helps bring the reader to the next paragraph, which is called the transition sentences.

There is many ways to check your paper to know if the sentences flow correctly, but learning some techniques can improve the structure of the paper.  One technique is using a sentences to see if the paragraphs are in order, you can cut each paragraph out then mix them up.  You then read the topic sentence and the transition sentences of each paragraph, they should go in order by one talking about the last sentence of the paragraph before it.  This can be used in a way that helps by check what the instructor wants.  There is also ways to check the sentence structure inside the paragraph.  It’s almost the same as the other, but cut each sentence in one paragraph at a time.  Then try to put them in order by reading the sentence using the knowledge of the topic and transition sentences.  Another way to help improve the teaching of writing.

Learning how to structure all the sentences is great, and having a book that teaches the students a way to have a structure for writing a sentences itself,   Stanley teaches his students how to write sentences, he said that “my students into the class taught by Cathy Birkenstein and Gerald Graff, whose excellent book “They Say / I Say” introduces students to the forms of argument in a spirit entirely compatible with my focus on the forms of sentences."  That book he talks about is the same book I used in my English class, it has many different ways to write certain sentences that help them sound proper.  It has templates, pointing words, and more, that has shown you the way to write and how to use words that goes best with your topic, which has helped many students.