The College Writing Toolkit - Tried and Tested Ideas for Teaching College Writing - Martha C. Pennington
7. The "Delayed Thesis" Essay: Enhancing Rhetorical Sensitivity by Exploring Doubts and Refutations
The College Writing Toolkit - Tried and Tested Ideas for Teaching College Writing - Martha C. Pennington
Sara Pauline Hillin [+]
Lamar University
Description
Sara Hillin’s chapter, “The ‘Delayed Thesis’ Essay: Enhancing Rhetorical Sensitivity by Exploring Doubts and Refutations,” is based on teaching argumentation to advanced composition students, and, in particular, teaching rhetorical sensitivity and awareness of opposing points of view. The activity which Hillin uses to facilitate such awareness is a short “delayed thesis” essay, written as a preparatory exercise for a longer research-based paper. As Hillin points out, this is not simply a matter of changing the organization and moving the thesis to a later part of the essay. Her assignment requires the student writer to conceptualize opposing audiences and seriously discuss the claims such audiences might present before moving into counterclaims and refutation. The comments of Hillin’s students on the value of this exercise are illuminating, and it is worth considering how the activity could be adapted to less advanced classes to encourage all writing students to use doubting as a tool of persuasion. The value of a developed ability to explore doubts and refutations as a way to enhance rhetorical sensitivity not only inside but also outside the academy – from disputes between family members to international negotiation – can hardly be overestimated.