Cohesive Writing: Teaching Informational and persuasive writing- Chapter 2

As I thumb through these chapters by Jago, I begin to feel as though I missed out some really important writing ideas during high school. For instance, this chapter focuses on writing informative and persuasive style essays. Jago is correct in her statement that it is hard to teach students to write cohesive analytical essays, because they do have a lack of experience with such genres.

One idea that I found very helpful in this chapter was in regard to writing a persuasive paper. For instance, I thought that it was very accurate that often times students come to a teacher in hopes that we can provide them with what they believe could be the perfect topic. I can easily relate to the struggle that occurs when trying to find something to write about, you want it to be good, and something that your peers would enjoy.

One lesson that Jago uses that I found very constructive was the use of newspapers as a way to expand their horizons and find possible writing ideas. Often times in high school I had to find newspaper clippings for specific class room assignments typically for my social studies class. However, I cannot recall ever using editorials or news stories as a way to generate ideas in an English classroom. It can be confusing to distinguish the difference between persuasive and informational writing, so by using these tools can help students learn the difference. For example, Jago uses the example of Andre using an article he found on the Lakers, and transformed it into a persuasive creative writing piece. I think that this example is important to consider because it shows how a student was able to take something they personally related to and were able to create an authentic piece of writing. I have learned over the years that if I am excited over my writing that not only will it sound better, but others will also be more excited to hear what I have to say. Instead of writing on the same topics that are most familiar for a persuasive or informative essay, I think it important that as educators we help students explore their creativity. For instance, while I did not write many persuasive/informative essays in high school I had a speech class that did similar writing prompts. While my teacher did not have us do exercises such as the newspapers we were still encouraged to step out side the box, and write on something that we were excited by. With this idea in mind, I wrote an informative speech on the tv show Saved By The Bell. I had a lot of fun with it, and my excitement was visible, which is something I feel lacks often in highschool writing. I really enjoyed Jago’s concepts, and think that the use of newspapers is one that is often underrated in today’s classroom. With the use of technology it would even be possible to use the internet in class and explore websites like cnn.com, or scholarly news articles to find topics for each student. As an educator it will be our job to motivate students to go beyond what is safe, and discuss ideas that matter to them.