Destination: Invention Exercises

Foundation

Invention has held a significant place in approaches to composition since Aristotle. An excellent in-class activity for the computer classroom is to have students do some invention for a writing assignment. Though invention can certainly be done with pencil and paper, performing the activity on the computer seems to energize and focus students' efforts. You can expect these characteristics and differences for invention in the computer networked environment:

• since the activity is done via typing into a keyboard, the invention can be saved for later review or completion

• saving invention exercises to a network location makes them available to the whole class. Some students may review the inventions of their peers to gain direction (if they are lost) or for other ideas.

• students seem to be more focused for a longer period of time by working on the computers

Practice

Invention in the computer classroom can take a number of different forms and approaches depending upon the stage the student is at on a writing topic:

Topic Discovery:
If your goal with the invention activity is to have students determine their focus for writing (at least the general subject if not the thesis), conducting an online real-time synchronous discussion (chat) is an excellent way to flesh out the possibilities of a topic. You might have students follow this sequence for discovering their own topic: 1) online chat, 2) individual review of the chat transcript, 3) bulletin board post with their tentative focus for writing.

The transcript as well as the tentative topics of the whole class are available for later review by students if they decide to change their minds or if they were unable to develop their own focus within the confines of a single class meeting. (see real-time class discussion)

Topic Exploration:
To deepen and discover more of what students want to say on a general topic they have decided upon, you might want to have them answer a number of invention questions. These invention heuristics could take the classic form of things like Aristotle's Topoi or Burke's Pentad, but you probably will generate your own prompts for invention.

Three main methods exist for guiding students through these invention prompts:
1) Post the questions as a file in the PubDoc drive or as a web page. Each student opens the file (even as a "read" copy) and does a FILE and SAVE AS to rename the template of questions for his or her individual work. If the inventions prompts are on a web page, you could have students copy and paste these questions into a word processing file. If you want students to share their inventions, they would then copy and paste their completed work to a bulletin board.

2) Post the questions as a message in a bulletin board. Students REPLY to do their own answers. When students send their completed invention exercise, it is instantly available for review by other class members or the teacher.

3) Use Daedalus' excellent invention tool called INVENT. What makes it superior is that it sequences students one question at a time through the prompt series, and it offers an explanation button for more information about any single question. The drawback of Daedalus is that it is LAN-based, so students would only be able to access the inventions on campus, and it is hard (but not impossible) to share student inventions. If your focus is for the single class activity of invention (without the after-class review possibilities), Daedalus is your best option. The program has a wealth of invention prompt series already available, but it is also easy for you to create your own series.

Thesis Refining:
Start this single class activity with a review of what makes a good thesis--maybe with some good examples included. Then have students post their own tentative thesis as a new message within a bulletin board. Divide the class into groups of from six to ten, and then tell each student that for their group members they are to read their tentative thesis and reply: 1) with a general comment on how well the thesis is working and 2) with a new version of the thesis using different words (even if the thesis is in good shape). Once students complete replying to their peers' tentative thesis statements, they look at the replies to their own thesis. After reviewing these replies, each student then sends a new message containing a revised version of his or her thesis. If you wish and time permits, you could have students review and reply to this new thesis version.