Aristotle wrote the famous “Poetics.”

All successful writing has a sense of flow, or as many writing instructional texts (including the CATW rubric)  suggest, a “beginning, middle, and end.”  You already look for this when you watch a movie or watch a TV show.  You may not consciously sense this as you read, but if you are reading carefully, you would likely notice if the end was cut off of a novel or an essay.The Greek philosopher Aristotle (pictured above) mentioned this in his famous treatise on writing and criticism, Poetics: “Now a whole is that which has beginning, middle, and end.”How does this translate into writing an essay?  In tutoring, we discussed this as a sense of structure in writing.

• Five or six paragraph essays have an introductory paragraph, body paragraphs, and a concluding paragraph.
• Each paragraph has( to some exten)t a topic sentence, support for that topic, and a concluding sentence.

There are many ways to structure each paragraph, but a sense of the role that each paragraph plays is important in presenting the reader with a profound sense of “beginning, middle, and end.”  Additionally, transitions create a sense of flow between the beginning, midde, and end.  These visible divisions on the page (paragraph divisions and the transitions within paragraphs), make your argument clear to your reader and frame your ideas.

Pages: Analysis and Development; Structure

The first task in the CATW and other college writing and reading assignments is learning how to read and ANALYZE  effectively.  So what does the word ANALYZE actually mean?

WHAT:
The Free Dictionary online defines “analyze” in this way:
ANALYZE: tr.v. an·a·lyzed, an·a·lyz·ing, an·a·lyz·es
To examine methodically by separating into parts and studying their interrelations.

WHY:
When reading for analysis, a text is broken into parts to better understand the whole.  In biology lab, you know that when you look at a cell for a first time through a microscope, you only see a cell as a “whole.”  With a trained eye, you begin to see the individual parts of the cell and to understand how those parts work together.  If you like to cook, you first taste food as a “whole,” but as you understand different ingredients, you begin to taste and see evidence of certain parts of a recipe and to understand how ingredients create reactions that work together.

Reading for analysis is also the process of seeing the parts of a whole text and understanding how those parts use reaction of the reader to create a whole. With a more trained and experienced eye, you will begin to see how writers approach the same writing tasks you now must do as a college writer and reader.  You will understand what a writer is proving and to diagnose how other writers are setting up their ideas (for example, by using introductory and concluding sections and transitions) so that you, the reader, understand not just a thesis or idea but the argument that supports that thesis.

HOW:
There are many reading strategies!
Among those discussed in tutoring sessions are:

1.  As you read, look for a writer’s thesis (main point of the overall essay).
2. Notice how she or he uses the introductory and concluding sections of a text to set up the thesis.
3. Notice how he or she sets up supporting points to support that thesis and transitions in between these points.
4. Annotate: Underlining won’t help you when rereading.  Note what you think are important points in the margins.  Note your personal reactions and associations you may have with the text.

This blog will have (eventually) pages offering explication of and strategies for the following categories of concerns for first year college writing:

1. Analysis and Argument
2. Paragraph Development
3. Structure and Transitions (Essay and Paragraph)
4. Language Fluidity
5. Grammar and Mechanics
6. MLA Format
7. The Secret Lives of Words

Comments or suggestions welcome:
wordshavelives@gmail.com