Business Ethics (KPU)
Writing and Reading Workshop
This summer I teach a business ethics course at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. And in the middle of the term I held a special session, a writing and reading workshop, to prepare them for the term paper. I did two things with them at the workshop.
(1) Basic Rules of Writing
I gave them a list of basic rules of writing. For instance, state the main thesis in the introduction, describe in the introduction the problem/issue under discussion, start each paragraph with a topic sentence, limit each paragraph to making only one point, write short paragraphs, always explicate an argument in great detail before evaluating it, etc.
(2) Thesis Statement and Topic Sentence Identification
I then gave them excerpts from the articles that they have read for the course, and asked them to identify the thesis statements and topic sentences, if there are any. Some of the excerpts are good examples—the authors state the thesis clearly and at the beginning of the paper, or there are clear topic sentences at the beginning of a paragraph; some of them are bad examples—unclear or no thesis statements and/or topic sentences.
This workshop aims to kill two birds with one stone. First, the basic, easy-to-follow rules combined with the excerpts show them how they should write. Second, the activity of thesis statement and topic sentence identification shows them how they should read: that they should try to identify the main thesis when they read an article, and chances are it is in the introduction; and that they should try to identify the topic sentence when they read a paragraph so that they know what the paragraph is about.
The feedback I received at the end of the class was largely positive. They found the workshop quite helpful. One of the purposes of this workshop is to use it as a trial for reading exercises. I will incorporate more reading exercises in my future reading. Reading is an important skill. It is an important skill that is crucial for students’ success in university and that they should develop in university. But students may know not how they should read, particularly when it comes to tensely written philosophical texts, and universities do not seem to give students much of such training. I want to help my students develop their reading skill.
One worry I have is this. Obviously one session on reading and writing is far from enough because they receive a lot of demonstration and practice, so students may not be able to learn much in just one session. However, I have qualms about having more than one session on reading and writing in one term. Things may get repetitive in the second session. This is certainly something that I have to consider carefully in the future when I incorporate reading exercises into my teaching. One possible solution is that hold a reading workshop early in the term, maybe even the very beginning, and then do regular reading exercises throughout the term.
