1. UIL Ready Writing Workshop
Workshops for Ready Writing Coaches
Dr. Thomas Barker, TTU UIL RW Contest Director
Dr. Rich Rice , TTU Assistant Professor
Technical Communication

2. Training Exercises for Ready Writers
Lay the groundwork
Teach the nature of exposition Exercise
Focus on prewriting and organizing strategies Exercise
Use winning ready writing essays
Lay the groundwork
Make training sessions focus on the elements of RW rather than the entire process. Give them the tools that they will use at meets.
Assemble the raw materials:
books, movies, poems, songs, heroes, current events,
Ask: What themes do you see in your readings and other materials?
Result: Students will gravitate toward generalizable themes that they can then use in their essays.
Tie readings into themes:
Heroes: as reflections of our values, examples of human achievement/weakness
Loss of innocence: rite of passage from childhood to adulthood
Deterioration of society: crime, violence, gangs, drugs, terrorism
Individualism: the lone individual, group influences, peer pressure
Environment: how we’re trashing it
Media and entertainment: trends, ideas
Students can assemble their examples under these themes:
Heroes:
Current event: 911 and the way we made firefighters into heroes
Etc.
Teach the nature of exposition
Has a clear thesis
original, simple, strong, opinionated, like a rant, like a long poem about what pisses you off, has attitude
Shows organization
uses an outline, shows topic sentences
Shows development
shows off learning
Uses strong language
shows that the writer cares
How to teach “elements”: Example of the thesis...
Have students write a thesis
Exchange and critique:
“How would you revise the thesis to make it clearer?”
“Where do you expect the essay to go after reading this thesis?”
“What words seem strong or weak in the thesis?”
What questions would you ask about the “outline,” the “development” the “language”
Focus on prewriting and organizing strategies
Read past essay prompts and make meaning of them. Generate theses through extemporaneous discussion.
Have students read the prompt.
Ask: What do you think this prompt means? What’s the subject or attitude in this prompt?
Ask: How many ways can you agree or disagree with this prompt?
Result: Students will become comfortable with the prompt and begin to form ideas about it.
Use these questions on a sample prompt.
Find a thesis.
Ask: What do you think about the ideas in the prompt? What do you care about? Does it make you angry? What are your feelings about these ideas? How can you relate?
Organize the essay.
Ask: What themes do you see associated with the ideas in the prompt?
What three or four ideas do you see associated with the prompt?
How do the ideas relate to one another? What’s the progression from one to another?
Do the ideas build from simple to complex? From first to last? Do they suggest: growth of a plant, climbing a mountain, spreading of a disease, downhill slide, gathering storm, quest for a holy grail, sin/redemption, lost/found, tension/release? Other?
Result: students become “ready to write.” Do this over and over taking 30 minutes each time.
Use winning ready writing essays
subject versus reader or self
The first rule of good writing, fiction or non-fiction, (whichever you choose to describe yourself) is SHOW, DON'T TELL. If a conversation with your grandmother taught you something important, just recount what was said. The "moral" of the story is implicit and should be left for the reader to discern without being "told" what he or she has learned.
Writing “Essays with an Attitude”
Writing an essay with an attitude is about taking a position and backing it up. It's a sustained, rehearsed argument with a parent, friend or teacher, newscaster, magazine writer, advertiser, or the broader society. I begin by asking students: "What makes you angry? What gets on your nerves, under your skin? What makes you want to scream when you see a movie, a commercial, or the news? Are there times when you want to shake someone in the middle of a conversation? Are there things about school that you just can't stand?" (This one is always good for one section of the black board and a stick of chalk.) Linda Christensen
Focus on issues that matter

3. Responding to Ready Writers
This workshop segment is an activity.
Read the sample essay
Respond using the rubric
Compare responses with others
Compare responses to “suggestions”
Good questions:
What is the thesis statement?
What makes the essay interesting?
What examples have they used?
How well is the essay organized?
Does the style detract?
Does the essay have attitude?
Old slide:
Avoid “exam” questions
Go for timeless topics rather than timely ones
Select prompts offering different interpretations
Use shorter/longer, simpler/more complex prompts
Focus on subjects of perpetual interest and concern for mankind

4. Recruiting Ready Writers
Select the best Ready Writing candidates
Highly intelligent
Well read
Distinctive writing style
Involvement in other extracurricular activities
Love of challenge and competition
Reliability
Limit writers to 6 per year
Build subject-area files: “sociology,” “education,” “the nation,” “family and lifestyle,” “science and the environment”
Activity: Coaches discuss ways to recruit Ready Writers and the process of training and coaching.
follow a process of invitational meets and district contests
what can and can’t you teach?
teach Ready Writing, don’t assign it
readers, thinkers, talkers, questioners

6. Teaching Elements of Exposition
Have students write a thesis
Exchange and critique:
“How would you revise the thesis to make it clearer?”
“Where do you expect the essay to go after reading this thesis?”
“What words seem strong or weak in the thesis?”
Exercise:
What questions would you ask about the “outline,” the “development” the “language”
Training Exercises for Ready Writers

7. Prompt for the Day
“An Athenian citizen does not put his private affairs before the affairs of the state; even our merchants and businessmen know something about politics. We alone believe that a man who takes no interest in public affairs is more than harmless—he is useless.”
Pericles’ Funeral Oration Athens, 5th century BC
Shaping an Essay
Training Exercises for Ready Writers

8. Shaping an Essay
What three or four ideas do you see associated with the prompt?
How do the ideas relate to one another?
What’s the progression from one to another?
What shaping strategies might apply? growth of a plant, climbing a mountain, spreading of a disease, downhill slide, gathering storm, quest for a holy grail, sin/redemption, lost/found, tension/release? Other?
Prompt for the Day
Training Exercises for Ready Writers