ERWC Module Threatening Stereotypes

Writing and Post-writing

Marina Armstrong
OConnor
Honors English 9
9 May 2016
Remember to add notes and evidence of your thinking to this document using a different color
or style font to make your work easily visible.

Activity 15: Getting Ready to Write

In your small groups, discuss the following questions:
1. Who is your audience, and what is your argument?
The audience is to the general public and to other students and our argument is that stereotype
threats downgrade performance.
2. What types of evidence and appeals does your audience value most highly?
Our evidence is from our interviews with other fellow high schoolers and the article which we
read. The audience will value facts the most which can be found from the reading.
3. How can you establish your own authority to address this issue? What credibility do you
have with this audience?
My credibility is that I conducted an interview, I read a scholarly article, and overall I am around
stereotype threats every day.
Activity 16: Getting Ready to WriteComposing for Rhetorical Purpose
You are going to collaboratively write an article that captures the task outlined in Activity 13. As
you begin your composing, revisit the rhetorical analysis of Vedantams article from Activity 10
(Rhetorical and Style Analysis) and Vedantams article itself.
Activity 13 TASK: Now that youve read Shankar Vedantams piece about stereotype threat for
the Washington Post, you will investigate stereotypes at our school and write an article
like Vedantams of your own. You will gather evidence as a class. Each of you will interview at
least two peers at the school and share your results (anonymously) with the class. Then, you
will use the classs evidence to write your own article. Model your article after the rhetoric in
Vedantams article, shaping yours as he does his, so you use similar techniques, writing for
similar purposes and a similar audience.
1. Use that analysis to list criteria for what makes a successful version of the kind of article you
will be writing.

2. Look in the article itself to find example sentences for the kinds of claims, evidence, analysis,
and transitions appropriate to meeting the rhetorical demands of such a text.
I noticed that Vendantam focuses on scientific studies and the different types of stereotype
threats.

Writing Rhetorically - Entering the Conversation

Activity 17: Considering StructureOrganizing the Essay (Article)
1. Looking back at your rhetorical analysis of Vedantams article, what should be your rhetorical
purpose?
2. What stance will you take with respect to the topic?
3. How does Vedantam begin? Does he explicitly state an overall point in his introduction?
Should you?
4. On what topics will you focus the chunks of your article?
I will focus on describing how stereotypes threaten people and make them perform worse,
stereotypes at my school, and how to fix or at least help get past these stereotypes.
5. What sources will you use? How much will you reference Vedantams article? Other articles?
6. How formally should you write? What level of vocabulary will you use?
7. How does Vedantam conclude? How will you?
I will conclude by stating that stereotype threats need to be solved or else there will be a
continuation
Use Vedantams article and your answers to these questions to help you compose a first draft of
your article.

Revising and Editing

Activity 18: Revising Rhetorically (Complete in class on MONDAY)
You now need to work with the organization and development of your draft to make sure that
your essay is as effective as possible.
Peer Group Work
Your group will share your essay with the other groups and you should read, consider, and
complete Part I of the Evaluation Form for each essay. (You will get a copy of this on Monday)

Collaborative Group Work

1) Work in your groups to decide how you want to revise the problems that group
members identified.
2) Revise the draft based on the feedback you have received and the decisions you
have made with your partners. Consider these additional questions for individual work:
1. Have I responded to the assignment?
2. What is my purpose for this essay?
My purpose is to inform and educate the reader about stereotype threats and how they bring
down the performance of others and that we must do something to stop them.
3. What should I keep? What is most effective?
4. What should I add? Where do I need more details, examples, and other evidence to
support my point?
I should consider adding more statistical data.
5. What could I get rid of? Did I use irrelevant details? Was I repetitive?
6. What should I change? Are parts of my essay confusing or contradictory? Do I need to
explain my ideas more fully?
7. What should I rethink? Was my position clear? Did I provide enough analysis to convince my
readers?
I should think about adding more info proving that stereotype threats really do affect the
performance of people and our society.
8. How is my tone? Am I too overbearing or too firm? Do I need qualifiers?
9. Have I addressed differing points of view?
I have not addressed very many different points of view because the article is more one
directional and proving that stereotypes are negative.
10. Does my conclusion show the significance of my essay?
11. Have I used key vocabulary words correctly to represent the ideas from the article? Have I
used words that refer to specific facts from the text?
Activity 19: Reflecting on Your Writing Process
Quickwrite: Please respond to the following questions. When you have finished, prepare to
share your ideas with the class.
1. What have you learned about your writing process?
I have learned that it is fairly easy to put together a piece of writing if you have all of the
information. This was shown through my writing process which had the information and data
from the article but also from the sticky notes that we took in class.
2. What were some of the most important decisions you made as you wrote this text?

Some of the most important decisions was knowing what information to include and what
evidence would be most persuasive towards the reader.
3. How did writing about your writing influence the way you developed your text?
Writing about my own writing helped me clearly understand the topic and be able to efficiently
write about stereotypes.
4. In what ways have you become a better writer?
I have become a better writer in the way that I understand how to use statistical information and
intertwine it into my writing and what information will be able to convince the reader.