Judging by the discussions taking place around our conference table the past two Thursday mornings, I d guess he got his wish. I ve certainly enjoyed taking part in these talks. I urge you to submit your favorite text- wrestling text by Feb 26, especially if you cannot imagine teaching 112 without its inclusion in our collection. We ll be sorting selections for another week or two. To this end, he asked, Please use an essay, not a story or poem.
Students learn a lot about essay writing from looking closely at an example.
I suggest using something that s at least a little bit hard or scholarly or academic and something that has a train of thinking, since that s what we are trying for with them. For the text-wrestling essay, Peter clearly had different texts in mind from the sort we might choose to prompt another mode or style of writing among our students. He characterizes the text to be wrestled with as hard not because of its abstruse or arcane vocabulary but because it contains abstract ideas that resist quick understanding and easy reduction. To amplify on Peter s words, the text to be wrestled with does not ask readers to take sides. It does not necessarily incite the heady class discussions our students and we sometimes find so exhilarating.