Topical Invention
Today in class students were given time to complete their Initial Planning Sheets. The reason why the form is called IPS is that it is often the first stop in the invention process. This means that what you write here can and often does change (smile).
If what you write initially here does not reflect completed the final draft of your paper, do not feel that you have to rewrite the plan to fit the completed essay. The IPS is just a tool.
That said, Topical Invention is also a tool. Just as one uses clustering and mapping and listing and outlining as a way to interrogate one's topic, topical invention is a more sophisticated methology I shared with students in English 1A 8-8:50 today. See Hacker (1b page 13-23).
There is a handout taken from my graduate school notes. It is optional. I just want students to know how to use this tool. With topical invention we develop four decalrative sentences that respond to questions asked to generate them.
What is it/was it--definition
What caused it/did it cause/will it cause--consequence
What does an authority say about it--testimony
What is it like or unlike--analogy
All of these questions can be looked at in an historic context, as we did regarding Mrs. Rosa Parks, our topic this morning.
Definitions, analogies, consequences and testimony come from this invention process, thus the name: Topical Invention.
Notice how Rosa Parks's name is in all the sentences.
We started with a brainstorming or mapping session on the board to see what we knew about Rosa Parks, the topic of our study. There were other topics we could have chosen given the scope of Theoharis's book, but as her task was to share a political biography of Mrs. Parks, then we chose Rosa Parks as the topic rather than "the Civil Rights Movement," "the Bus Boycott," or "rebelliousness" (which was a bit too broad for our purposes)
The sentences developed are as follows:
In her political biography, TRLofMRP, CUNY professor, JT, states --MRP's work grew from. . . " (--).
RP's early recollections of being bullied by white kids set her later life in motion.
Mrs. Rosa Parks's activism stems directly from her first hand experience with segregation.
MRPs is more than a poster child for the CRM.
MRP's legacy burns brightly eight years after her death.
If what you write initially here does not reflect completed the final draft of your paper, do not feel that you have to rewrite the plan to fit the completed essay. The IPS is just a tool.
That said, Topical Invention is also a tool. Just as one uses clustering and mapping and listing and outlining as a way to interrogate one's topic, topical invention is a more sophisticated methology I shared with students in English 1A 8-8:50 today. See Hacker (1b page 13-23).
There is a handout taken from my graduate school notes. It is optional. I just want students to know how to use this tool. With topical invention we develop four decalrative sentences that respond to questions asked to generate them.
What is it/was it--definition
What caused it/did it cause/will it cause--consequence
What does an authority say about it--testimony
What is it like or unlike--analogy
All of these questions can be looked at in an historic context, as we did regarding Mrs. Rosa Parks, our topic this morning.
Definitions, analogies, consequences and testimony come from this invention process, thus the name: Topical Invention.
Notice how Rosa Parks's name is in all the sentences.
We started with a brainstorming or mapping session on the board to see what we knew about Rosa Parks, the topic of our study. There were other topics we could have chosen given the scope of Theoharis's book, but as her task was to share a political biography of Mrs. Parks, then we chose Rosa Parks as the topic rather than "the Civil Rights Movement," "the Bus Boycott," or "rebelliousness" (which was a bit too broad for our purposes)
The sentences developed are as follows:
In her political biography, TRLofMRP, CUNY professor, JT, states --MRP's work grew from. . . " (--).
RP's early recollections of being bullied by white kids set her later life in motion.
Mrs. Rosa Parks's activism stems directly from her first hand experience with segregation.
MRPs is more than a poster child for the CRM.
MRP's legacy burns brightly eight years after her death.
posted by Professor Wanda's Posse at 9:38 AM
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