One thing that I like to do when having students write an argumentative paper (researched, non-researched, OpEd, etc.) is have everyone get in a Google doc and I have them write their tentative thesis on separate lines. Then I have them write underneath each others’ theses contrary arguments. I encourage them to be as antagonistic as possible in order to highlight the counterarguments. Because the workspace allows for anonymous feedback and posting, they can be as free as they want. And since everyone is participating they can see it as a fun and not a hateful enterprise. This facilitates more thorough discussion of counterarguments, as well as discussions of the ethics of web-based, anonymous writing.
One thought on “FIght Club”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
I’ve tried things like this before and it did’t go well for me, mostly in the organizational aspect. Getting all 20 of my students in the same doc and try to edit parts made the thing chug along and confused my students about who was editing where. You seem to have a method for limiting scope (ie placement) of the comments, so I can see how that would work better. I also remain worried that comments could get nasty. I’d like to know more about what you say to them about “ethics of web-based, anonymous writing.”