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Michael Jackman
Singer-Songwriter, Multi-instrumentalist, & Poet

Tagged: teaching composition

Quick Thoughts About Writing Good Introductions

In my second-semester composition course, a student asked a question about how to write introductions to research papers. I jotted down some notes for her, so my musing today is to offer some quick advice on how to get that research paper started by writing good introductions. This isn’t a...

How to Use Sources More Critically

Overview Students using research studies often are unaware of how to apply critical attention to details. Yet some details of even the most complicated sources are within even the beginning research writer’s ability to analyze. How to Use Sources More Critically shows how you can and should question source data...

Making Claims in Research Writing

Overview A research paper, simply stated, is organized to support a claim, an assertion about the truth or falsity of something. So two of the several ways a research write-up can proceed is by stating that major claim, or thesis, of the paper near the beginning , or by first posing a research question the...

the “free speech zone” is tough

In my class I’ve been working so hard to establish a “free speech zone,” but I think I goofed up when I pressed a student for evidence to back up some claims that police brutality is the same as it always has been. I believe I inhibited the students’ feeling...