Inquiry Project Refined

Upon looking over my initial contract, I feel I may need to focus more on the freshmen year in composition studies. While eighth graders are preparing to make the transition to secondary education, writing instruction at this level may not be on par with what a freshman in high school is doing. The instruction of writing itself is such a large field that I wish to narrow the focus further. Persuasive writing seems to be prevalent at institutions, whether by accident or by choice. The methods of persuasive writing among freshmen students may ultimately be the focus of this project. Persuasive writing draws heavily from the notion of audience. What does the audience need? What does the audience want? What education does the audience possess and what could be done to further that education?

At LP High School, students are asked to actively participate in these questions through the use of writing journals. In preparation for persuasive writing, students are clearly asked to identify their audience in a brief passage. Students are encouarged to identify topics imporant to the audience while at the same time articulating whom they believe that audience to be. Mrs. H. takes the activity a step further by asking for outside interaction in regard to the student's work. Other faculty members, parents, or peers of the student give feedback before. Occassionally, an associate editor through the News Tribune enters the scene as well to read some of the more serious, timely, or well-written pieces. McCullough reviews the writing and a piece may sometimes find its way to being published in the teen section of the paper. McCullough and Honicker are two of the people I expect to interview througout the course of my research since they are integral members of this process. Newspapers in Education (NIE) works with many local school districts at several levels, but I find this one the most interesting since student work finds its way to an actual audience beyond the classroom. It is not a widespread event but occurs often enough that the students are given a window to the world of journalism. It teaches the student that many considerations must be taken in considering what words to put upon a piece of paper.

The articles reach a community at large, reach that extends far beyond the classroom. Since I expect to speak with both M. Honicker and J. McCullough in the course of my research, I think it may be useful to read other uses for the NIE program or to speak with the editor of this section. (whose name I am not sure of) McCullough is an editor of the paper itself, while the "Teen Trib" as its called, has its own staff and supervisor. I am fairly certain she is a former educator herself and it may be useful to find out what impact she feels the teaching of writing has on her contributors. After all, lessons from the classroom transform into newstories that cross her desk.

Any additional articles I could find detailing student work to publication may be another resource to consider. The work of literary magazines, often supervised by English instructors, are another source of student publication. LP does not have its own newspaper any longer but continues to have a yearbook produced by students who write the content as well. This may be another useful source. All these sources have an audience participating in and evuluating student work.

Apart from talking and reading, I believe observations themselves may be most useful. Detailed logs of students interacting with each other may produce information that students are reluctant to provide. I would like to follow the process an article goes through to make it to the "Teen Trib" but that may prove too long of a period to make it plausible for this project. However, studying the process of a past article would not possess such a time constraint. How has the question of audience affected the piece?

I would like ultimately to explore persuasive voice and the matters of audience in how it relates to writing instruction. One of the best ways to do that would be to follow this process in close detail and find out all that it includes. The proposal for students to create an imagined audience in detail is also something that I would like to possibly include in the project. Apart from exploring this issue in their writing journal, I would like to find out what students themselves think of in regard to audience.