Graduation Semester and Year

2014

Language

English

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in English

Department

English

First Advisor

Timothy R Morris

Abstract

The main focus of my thesis is to uncover what students know about conclusions (from current pedagogy, composition textbooks, questionnaires and classroom research). I analyze what instructors are taught about conclusions and how this advice is based in the teachings of ancient rhetoricians. Then I detail how conclusions are covered in American college textbooks. Seeing the need for instructor material to teach conclusions, the next chapter gives multiple lesson plans teaching students to compose stronger and livelier conclusions. In the next chapter, I summarize my research employing some of these lesson plans and analyze student texts created before and after they heard me lecture on how to write conclusions. I then analyze the endings of texts these students produce both before and after they learn about writing conclusions. My rousing conclusion calls for more research to be done on lesson plans for students on writing conclusions and revisits some of Quintilian's advice.

Disciplines

Arts and Humanities | English Language and Literature

Comments

Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington

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