Kantz tells the hypothetical story of a student named Shirley, who is writing a research paper about English history. Kantz gives a brief back round on the girl's home life, school work, and writing ability. The girl turns in what she expects to be an "A" paper, only to be given a C-. Kantz then goes into vague detail on how the girl seeks help from a friend who has more insight. Kantz repeats throughout her article that "students commonly misread texts as narratives" (pg 73). and "students expect sources to the the truth"(pg72). She uses several other students as examples, speaking on how all of the students are not answering the key questions in writing a research paper. "Who, Why, How, and So What?"(pg 78). She also speaks briefly on how students give up after one draft, and do not build on their writing to write better pieces with more detailed arguments. Kantz suggests teaching students how to properly ask and answer the questions so that they can have original arguments in their writings.
Synthesis:
In her article "Helping Students..." Margaret Kantz underlines the cause for poor writing in students is that, they try to do all their work in one draft, do not know how to ask and answer questions in their writings, and trust their sources and textbooks to be telling them true facts, rather than claims that are still up for discussion. In a previous article by Stuart Greene, "Argument as a Conversation", he states that the student is control of the "facts or claims" based on scholarly inquiry. The student will research, ask and answer questions until the find the information they feel needed. Also Kantz is quoted on page 81 stating, "creativity is what research should be about." In comparison, Greene writes " [research] is often taught as a process of collecting information for its own sake." (pg19). Both instructors have valid points, yet Kantz is less supportive and is repetitive of how facts are not facts all the time, therefore students can not trust them to aid in their arguments.
Questions for Discussions:
1. Kantz says that facts are not always in textbooks, "aren't so much inherently true statements as they are claims" (pg 67). She states that some things are facts because people believe them to be true, and agree that they are true. ex: the sky is blue. Many people agree that yes, the sky is blue. She states that textbooks and other sources are not to be trusted with facts sometimes because students misinterpret them as stories and tie the information to unrelated topics and back round information.
2. Things student do not know, understand, or comprehend:
- the difference between FACTS and CLAIMS
- sources (read as stories or narratives)
- they expect truths in their readings
- facts that are used to persuade
- WHO they are as a WRITER
- their AUDIENCE
- their TOPIC
- Gaps in their reading and their writings.
Applying and Exploring Ideas:
2. Kantz states that creativity should be the reason for research. I disagree, I believe that creativity would come from research. How can one write if one does not know the topic, or where they want to branch out with it? Much like in Michael Klein's article, students like myself do not know where we enter the conversation, therefore we must research, and do so thoroughly before entrance. Kantz does not even mention the "conversation" in her article and just states that there are questions to be asked and answered. Which is true, but we do not know what questions have already been asked and answered previous to our own unless we begin with research.
Conclusion:
I was not impressed nor inspired with Margaret Kantz's article. I felt that she was very narrow minded on how to write, at least pre-write. In all of our other articles we were instructed that research was to be done to find the tone and the place of the conversation regarding our topic. Kantz completely disregards the "conversation" aspect of writing and merely mentions that things we read while researching are not to be trusted as facts merely because most of them are claims used to persuade the reader to agree that the "fact" is true. She is very repetitive in stating constantly that students misinterpret sources as narratives and that they think that just because it is in a book that it is a fact. I do not care for Ms. Kantz ideas and input on research or writing as a whole.
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