Refiguring Prose Style

examples from the essay. Her style is vibrant; her tone is ironic and direct. Another student identified one major theme in the essay and listed examples to substantiate his point: “Themes of consumerism ran rampant throughout the essay, including the Cadillac SUV’s and the gigantic yacht owned by Paul Allen.” A third student poignantly observes an almost existential stance of the essay: “Frank learns that nothing has changed about our society after September 11th despite the newfound unity in Americans; everything will always be centered on money.” The original framers of the content strands meant for them to be “circular,” not “linear.” The strands, when implemented together, should overlap and supplement each other. I have been conscientious about this while adapting them to my classes. Again, the purpose of these exercises is not to train aspiring artists. The purpose of these lessons is to teach students how to write more effectively and clearly through an arts-centric rubric. These strands have helped me to guide students through the writing process in an open yet structured context. As a result, their formal argumentative and persuasive papers have assumed a richer texture of language and purposeful development of ideas.