Sketching and Arrangement

One small and extremely low-prep way to include the visual in the composition classroom is through sketching.

from DexKnows

Students often seem to have difficulty with developing a logical structure for argumentative or analytical writing, and students are sometimes reluctant to change the structure they've arrived at, even if it's not the most effective one for their work. Sketching presents an alternative way of thinking about structure, especially for students who are more naturally visual thinkers, or who are reluctant to use a traditional outline.

This post describes a few easy ways to use sketching as a way for students to think about arrangement in their writing. These techniques could be used in the pre-writing or revision stage, and I also include a suggestion for using sketching in peer review.


Questions or prompts for pre-writing or revision:

• Create a visual composition/drawing that represents your argument.
• Create a visual composition/drawing that represents the structure of your text. 
• Create a visual composition/drawing that expresses the relationship between your argument and the arguments presented by your sources.

The questions above are meant to prompt students to think about their own writing in a nonverbal, less linear way. I've found that this kind of work - asking students to switch modality or think more creatively - can help them re-assess their writing from a new perspective.

from Just Read

Any of these questions could also be used during peer review. Here, I'd ask students to create a visual composition that represents an aspect of their partner's text. Doing this encourages them to apply a new and different critical lens to the reading of their partner's work and potentially opens up new avenues for conversation during peer review. I've modified those same questions for use in peer review:

• Create a visual composition/drawing that represents your partner's argument.
• Create a visual composition/drawing that represents the structure of your partner's text. 
• Create a visual composition/drawing that expresses the relationship between your partner's argument and the arguments presented by his/her sources.