Caroline Van Kirk

Professor Zisa

Writing 2

March 21, 2023

FINAL PORTFOLIO

Enticing Student Writers to Develop Their Writing Skills Though Social Media

This project features pictures of the Instagram page, pictures of the posts and captions I created,
the text of the captions, and a works cited page
Posts
 Captions

Caption of “What makes the formation of an argument good or successful in academic writing?”:
1/7
Welcome to the 10th edition of the Student Writing Review! Each week we produce a new
edition, or set of posts, and take a deep dive into a question from our followers about anything
related to Academic Writing! This week’s topic is what makes the formation of an argument
good or successful in academic writing submitted to us by @carolinevankirk. Caroline is a
student at UCSB and is taking Writing 2. She shared that she is interested in what makes a good
argument in academic writing as she is a philosophy major. We will be looking at five different
works and listening in on the existing conversation on this topic. Stay tuned as we will address
each of these works one day at a time for the next six days (seven days total)! Turn on your
notifications for The Student Writing Review so you don’t miss out on the informative and
exciting 10th edition of the SWR!

Submit questions you have to the SWR via DM to be featured in one of our next editions!

#studentwritingreview #collegewriting #univeristy #writingstudies #10thedition #week10

#researchbased

Caption of Medvedeva and Recuber Post:

2/7
In the article Developing an Original Argument: A Strategy for College Writing, Maria
Medvedeva and Timothy Recuber address what it takes to develop one’s own original argument
and propose the use of concept mapping, with the conceptual triangle, to do so. Concept mapping
is a pedagogical strategy developed out of Joseph Novack’s research in the 1970s. Medvedeva
and Recuber write about the usefulness of concept mapping as “The aim of concept mapping is
to detail and visualize relationships between ideas. Research has shown that concept maps are
associated with increased knowledge retention and stronger critical thinking” (140). In relation to
the argumentative essay, this allows students to create their own arguments through this
framework and to organize them and to incorporate supporting evidence.
@mariamedvedeva @timothyrecuber

For more information follow the link in our bio to read an in-depth examination of this work and
to access it directly.

#studentwritingreview #originalarguement #conceptmapping #conceptualtriangle

Caption of Knudson Post:

3/7
In the article College Students’ Writing: An Assessment of Competence, Ruth E. Knudson
conducted a two-part study examining essays of potential UC students and examining the works
of three high school writing classes before and after instruction by Knudson. Knudson found that
the highest rated essays by potential UC students were the ones that developed an argument
along logical, emotional, or philosophical grounds with supporting evidence. She explained the
importance of providing evidence as, “Giving supported evidence requires using a wide range of
strategies to make an effective presentation and sequence important evidence; gaining the
readers’ confidence by establishing common values or principles; arguing with strong, logical
reasons and well-chosen evidence; recognizing valid arguments; arguing against invalid
arguments; and raising and answering question persuasively” (15). The high school level
students tested better across most areas after the instruction by Knudson. The instruction
Knudson gave included the topics of summarizing, synthesis, and argumentation. The fact that
the students wrote better after instruction on these topics suggests that adequate instruction is
required of students for them to produce results teachers wish to see. Additionally, an
argumentative essay in college is successful with the proper instruction prior to the collegiate
level.
@rutheknudson

Thinking towards the Sunday summary… Comment below what you think @mariamedvedeva
and @timothyrecuber would have to say in response to @rutheknudson!

Don’t forget to DM us your questions about academic writing for the 11th edition before the
weekend!

For more information follow the link in our bio to read an in-depth examination of this work and
to access it directly.

#studentwritingreview #researchstudy #supportingevidence #properinstruction

Caption of Hyland Post:

4/7
In the work Directives: Argument and Engagement in Academic Writing, Ken Hyland writes
about how directives are used and the authority they carry in the context of argument in
academic writing. He addresses directives across subgenres of academic writing such as research
articles, textbooks, and student reports. In terms of academic essay writing, Hyland mentions,
“Arguments have to be made with expected procedural and citational support and framed to
project suitable authority and plausibility. One important means of accomplishing this goal is the
use of directives, defined here as utterances which instruct the reader to perform an action or to
see things in a way determined by the writer” (215). In this quote the reader can understand how
directives can impact the meaning of piece of writing and emphasize an argument. Ultimately, he
concludes that all writers are by default “socially situated” which contributes to how directives
can be viewed as a part of the way a writer interacts with their audience and why the writer does
so.
@khyland

Thinking towards the Sunday summary… Comment below if you think that @rutheknudson
would agree or disagree with what @khyland had to say about directives!

For more information follow the link in our bio to read an in-depth examination of this work and
to access it directly.

#studentwritingreview #directives #proceduralarguments #citationalsupport

Caption of Evans Post:
5/7
In the work Constructing an Argument, Sian Evans discusses a framework for essay writing that
places emphasis on the construction of an argument and the thesis statement as the springboard.
Evans mentions the two important ideals in essay writing, “In asking a pupil to write an essay
about a text, we are asking them to show not just that they have read, understood and appreciated
the text; but also, that they are able to look at it critically, acknowledge what the writer is trying
to achieve, and make an informed decision about its effectiveness in achieving this purpose”
(32). This quote provides students with an understanding of what is being asked of them when
writing an essay. He writes about how he thinks that teaching students to argue should precede
any essay writing. Evans includes a specific paragraph structure that focuses on the thesis
statement. He epitomizes this idea by explaining that the basis of an essay is having something to
argue or an answer to a question which is answered through a thesis statement. This emphasis on
the thesis statement helps to address how an argument can be successful in academic writing.
Evans summarizes his own work by writing, “Essentially, a good essay will provide a clear and
convincing argument in response to the question at hand” (32).
@sianevans

For more information follow the link in our bio to read an in-depth examination of this work and
to access it directly.

Thinking towards the Sunday summary… Comment below how you think @mariamedvedeva
and @timothyrecuber might engage with what @sianevans has to say about forming a clear and
convincing argument!

#studentwritingreview #clearandconvincingargument #criticalanalysis #thesisstatement

Caption of Chaffe Post:

6/7
In the paper The Ghostly Paradigm in Composition, Alan J. Chaffe discusses the need for
addressing counter arguments in an argumentative essay. His support for this claim is twofold.
Firstly, he writes about how only writing about one side of an argument inhibits the reader’s
right to receive a complete understanding of the issue. An argument lacks “comprehensive truth
value” and “formal amplitude” when it does not address counter arguments making it unfinished
and erroneous (477). Secondly, he mentions how addressing all sides of an argument highlights
the advantages of what is being argued for. He defines a concept called the toto principal as a
principle that “requires of an arguer that he or she clearly and fairly state the position(s)
antagonistic to his or her own, and then handle the chief points of difference” (477). The toto
principle is important because it strengthens and clarifies one’s argument in relation to the
counterpoints of that argument. He discusses the Socratic dialogue, which is basically a way to
examine both sides of an argument in the context of a conversation, as a means for students to
grasp the importance of this concept and fully address all sides of the argument. To summarize,
in this paper Chaffe teaches students that they owe it to the reader to demonstrate all sides of an
argument so that the reader is fully prepared to make their own judgments, that explaining
counter arguments makes the argument a student is writing about stronger, and he discusses an
exercise, the Socratic dialogue, to teach these ideas.
@alanjchaffe

For more information follow the link in our bio to read an in-depth examination of this work and
to access it directly.

Thinking towards the Sunday summary… Comment below how @sianevans might engage with
what @alanjchaffe emphasizes regarding counter arguments!

#studentwritingreview #allsides #comprehensiveargument #socratic dialogue #totoprinciple

Caption of Sunday Summary Post:

7/7
Here it is Dear Followers, your Sunday Summary of this week’s topic: what makes the formation
of an argument good or successful in academic writing. We read about 5 different approaches or
viewpoints to this question and now we will discuss how these authors would converse with each
other’s takes.
So, Medvedeva and Recuber talk about creating original arguments through the framework of the
concept triangle. Knudson would like the way that Medvedeva and Recuber talk about forming
an original argument and that they give a framework to do so as the studies she conducted
demonstrated that students need the proper foundation of instruction to be effective writers.
Knudson would emphasize the importance of using supportive evidence in one’s original
arguments in to make them as strong as possible. From the post on Ken Hyland’s work, we
learned that he thinks directives can benefit one’s argument. So, Hyland would likely agree with
both Medvedeva, Recuber, and Knudson while adding that in order to make the means of
argumentation they discuss and the instruction, directives will only help make these things
stronger. The essential take away from Evans’s work is that a clear argument in response to the
question at hand, makes an essay successful. While Evans places the greatest emphasis on the
thesis statement, it seems as though he would agree with the takes of the other authors we have
previously mentioned. Lastly, Chaffe expands the conversation by writing about how the
strongest and most effective arguments are those that address counterarguments.
@mariamedvedeva @timothyrecuber @rutheknudson @khyland @sianevans @alanjchaffe

Stay tuned! We will be announcing the chosen follower question for the 11th edition in our stories
shortly.

Don’t forget to share, comment, like, and give us a follow if you aren’t already! The support of
our followers means everything to us, and we can’t wait to release next week’s topic very soon!

#sundaysummary #conversation #authorsengaging #criticalthinking #10theditionwrapup

#week10 #week11 #11thedition
 Works Cited

Chaffee, Alan J. “The Ghostly Paradigm in Composition.” College English, vol. 39, no. 4, 1977,
pp. 477–83, https://doi.org/10.2307/375774.

Evans, Sian. “Constructing an Argument: An Essay Framework.” English in Aotearoa, no. 95,

2018, pp. 32–34, https://doi.org/10.3316/informit.132206635893515.

Hyland, K. “Directives: Argument and Engagement in Academic Writing.” Applied Linguistics,

vol. 23, no. 2, 2002, pp. 215–39, https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/23.2.215.

Knudson, Ruth E. “College Students’ Writing: An Assessment of Competence.” The Journal of

Educational Research (Washington, D.C.), vol. 92, no. 1, 1998, pp. 13–19,
https://doi.org/10.1080/00220679809597571.

Medvedeva, Maria, and Timothy Recuber. “Developing an Original Argument: A Strategy for
College Writing.” College Teaching, vol. 64, no. 3, 2016, pp. 139–44,
https://doi.org/10.1080/87567555.2015.1125841

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