Jago- Chapter 2

Just a thought...sometimes I think Jago's chapters are a little more applicable than Christensen's.

Continuing, here is what I think is not explained very well in Chapter 2: Chapter 2 is about how to help a student with writing a persuasive essay. Jago talks about identifying a thesis, arguments, and evidence within other critical essays as examples for her students to help in writing their own papers. Jago makes a good point by telling the reader that a student must be invested or interested in a topic before they can start writing. However, she seems to think that the great problems for the student when composing persuasive essays is the choice of the topic. Jago says on page 30 "... the problem is that adolescents are afraid of any subject that might seem 'uncool." -Whenever I read "uncool" in reference to how a teenager feels, it makes my eye twitch a little. "Uncool" is such a stupid over-generalization for the major insecurities a teenage kid feels when committing to anything academic. My greatest problems with writing were not necessarily coming up with something creative to say, it was all the stuff that was in between. It wasn't until I got to college someone even showed me how to write a good paragraph. Essays, no matter how organic, must follow a sort of formulaic pattern. Usually the best way to do that is to write what you are want to prove at the beginning of the paragraph and use examples through out to back it up. Maybe paragraph writing was supposed to have been drilled into me through out my school education but it wasn't. I am aware that this little pattern might be common sense, however I am going to spell it out for my students to help take some of the pressure off when writing essays. Personally, I never had a problem coming up with what to say, I just never knew how to say it.