To address students’ concerns about writing their Inquiry Essay; to discuss the structure of the Inquiry Essay.
Looking critically at the sample Inquiry Essay will provide students with a model for their own essays. Discussing transitions and hooks at this stage is important for building students’ awareness of their readers’ needs, which reinforces the importance of paying attention to rhetorical situations.
To help students visualize the components of an effective inquiry, construct some criteria on the board. You might ask: What will an effective Inquiry Essay look like? Then, list criteria (of course, you have to be careful to ward off any incorrect ideas here. Otherwise, the class may become confused about the goals and requirements for the essay). Also, you may want to prepare your own list of criteria to refer to just in case students forget to include essential points.
Sample Transition: "Now that we've constructed some criteria for this essay, let's consider how well the sample essay you read for today addresses these criteria."
First, give students a few minutes to read or skim back over the student sample essay they brought in for today. Then, discuss the ways in which the essay effectively addresses the assignment criteria. Also, discuss areas in which the essay could improve.
You may find that this is an opportune time to discuss essay organization. Ask students to generate ideas on how to logically organize their Inquiry Essay. Then, if there's time, you might ask students to draft out an outline for their own paper.
Transition: Develop a transition here.
Since the Inquiry Essay guides readers through the writer's process of thinking and research, it is essential that students learn how to write clear transitions. Transitions and hooks will help a student's paper read more coherently. Use pages 342 - 343 in the PHG to develop a lesson on transitions and hooks. Once teaching these concepts, you might ask students to identify the transitions and hooks used in the sample essay.
You might remind students of the policies and workshop procedures that you’ve previously discussed.
