Surefire Class: Observation and Inference

This sequence pulls exercises and readings from different parts of the book to introduce the class to ideas of observation, inference, and audience. I always use this sequence early in the term. My first goal is to familiarize the students with the process of making observations and inferences, first by asking the students to observe visual texts and then by asking them to observe their own writing. My second goal is for students to discover the role that audience plays not only in the style of an essay but in how its thesis is conceived. Conveniently, you can reference this exercise in future classes for a concrete example of the way audience changes an essay, in addition to examples of inventive thesis-making, inferences, and observing. I love this sequence of exercises because it introduces so much, and the students practically take themselves through it. You can use the entire sequence for a longer class, or you can prune sections away if you have a shorter class. For example, I’ve turned step four into an at-home journal assignment, discussing the responses at the start of the following class. Before class:

Students should have read the book’s introductory notes on observation and inference.
Students should be familiar Roe Ethridge’s Refrigerator in Chapter 1.
Students should have completed an introductory letter describing themselves and their hopes for the class. The letter should be addressed to their classmates. They should bring a hard copy of this letter to class.

In class:

Penny Exercise. I begin the class with the “penny�? exercise from the last edition of Seeing & Writing. I ask the students to take out a piece of scrap paper and draw a penny from memory. When they are finished, I pass around some pennies, and we make a list of differences between their drawings and the actual coin. This opens a discussion about how little we look, and how inaccurate our observations of everyday objects can be. When drawing a picture, writing an essay, or making an argument, the process should always begin with observation. Just as the smallest details of the penny distinguish it yet are often overlooked, the details of an essay provide the arsenal from which to make an argument yet are often omitted or not described adequately. To become good writers, we must become good readers and seers.
Practice with visual texts: observing a refrigerator. Now we practice being “good seers�? for ourselves. I instruct the class to turn to page 4 of Seeing & Writing to the picture of the refrigerator. I then ask the class to yell out observations about the refrigerator as I write them on the board. As many as possible, and the more detail the better! The goal is to practice looking closely at a common object. After a good fifteen minutes of listing observations, I refresh them on the definition of an inference. For each observation on the fridge, I then ask for an inference that can be made about that observation. I explain that this is how theses are made: observations produce inferences, and inferences are food for thought for a thesis statement.
Practice with written texts: observing writing. The refrigerator exercise allows them to practice observation and inference with a visual text. Now I want them to take those same skills and practice with written texts. So I ask them to get out their “introductory letters.�? I had initially instructed them to consider their classmates the audience for this assignment. I now ask them to re-write the letter on a piece of scrap paper, with their new audience being Mary Sue Coleman, the president of the University. After about 15 minutes (they don’t have to necessarily finish the entire letter), I’m back up the board, again asking for observations. What are the differences between their original letters and the new ones? They usually begin by saying that one is “more formal�? than the other. I ask what they mean by “more formal.�? I emphasize details; I ask for examples of the changes in grammar, word choice, and sentence structure. Then they may mention that they omitted certain ideas or content included in their original letters—that with this new audience, their original focus or thesis may have changed. What specifically did they omit and include?
Inferring and making theses. Now we practice making inferences again. What does each difference between the two letters suggest? What is the intellectual leap that can be made from the evidence presented? This is a great gateway to thesis-making and also conveniently introduces the idea of audience for further discussion—and students have discovered it on their own. The most obvious inference, of course, is that students feel self-conscious writing to an audience that is an authority figure, and they change their writing accordingly. But upon talking more, the students come up with impressive inferences on audience and tone. For instance, one student may note that the way that they wrote their second letters not only revealed their preconceptions about Mary Sue Coleman but also their preconceptions about each other. They assumed that a casual tone would be appropriate/acceptable, or they used it because the potential for friendship and acquaintance existed with the class but not with Coleman. The inferences can quickly turn into the first half of a thesis statement, such as “When writing to a certain audience, a student often changes his or her style based on assumptions about that audience.�? Of course, this is not a fully-formed thesis, and in future classes (perhaps the next class?) you can talk about how a thesis statement not only states inferences but asks or addresses why these inferences are significant. But for now, you have illustrated for the students how one goes about taking two documents, observing them, making inferences, and developing an argument based on concrete evidence.

By Rachel Losh at Nov 8 2005 - 2:15pm | Introduction: Writing Matters | previous forum topic | next forum topic

Thesis

I like to have students look at op. ed. columns and op. ed. cartoons that are on the same topic. We start w/ a cartoon, and ask "what's the argument being made here?" Then do the same with the written piece. Only we ask, "what's the thesis?"

The idea is to connect the concept of argument and thesis. Since a good thesis needs to be arguable.

By NickC at November 18, 2005 - 11:17am | login or register to post comments

Comment for the IRM author, Dan Keller

I don’t doubt for one second that this is indeed a Sure-Fire class. I’ve done a version of “observing writing�? with my classes, but without the surrounding activities employed by Losh (and I’ll be sure to remedy that in the future since everything here sounds wonderful). In my version, I use three audiences and extend the writing into essay introductions. I ask my students to write a letter to a friend about their first week of school. Then, in class, they write the letter for their parents and then write a version for me. We follow it up with discussions of inferences and audiences, much in the same way Losh does here. And since students easily grasp the idea of different audiences in letters but have a harder time with essays, I ask them to take the audiences and ideas in each letter to write introductions to three different essays.

By Dan Keller at November 8, 2005 - 2:17pm | login or register to post comments

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