Writing a “Live” Essay in Class
John Thompson
Department of Sociology
St. Thomas More College, University of Saskatchewan
I find writing hard work. So do many students, though they seem to attribute their difficulty to personal
inadequacy. During my first five years of teaching sociology, I sought to improve students’ writing by making
extensive comments on their essays. My efforts, however, brought meager results. What students needed, I
reluctantly concluded, was my example of actually writing an expository essay in front of them. “Much of the
aversion that many students feel toward written assignments stems from a lack of knowledge about what goes
into producing a good paper” (Lowman 1983:180). It would surprise few faculty that I found such a prospect
threatening. This essay tells the story of my writing an impromptu essay.
When I first seriously considered composing an essay in class, I felt what can be called anticipatory stage
fright. Could I risk letting my students see me fumbling to write an essay? Could I actually compose a
halfway coherent essay impromptu? What if I failed? Even if I did succeed, would it make any difference
for students? What claim did a sociology instructor have in demonstrating composition? The college myth
that confines composition to the preserve of English departments gave me a face-saving manoeuvre.
Without facing my fright, I abandoned the prospect of composing an essay in class.
At a 1980 teaching workshop, Fred Campbell, a University of Washington sociologist, unexpectedly
assuaged fears of risking my professional self-image in attempting a live essay. Campbell proposed that
we redefine our teaching role as a “live sociologist at work.” Among the implications, I saw the need to
focus my teaching toward extended examples, toward allowing students to see me actually thinking in
front of them. Writing an impromptu essay seemed place to start.
In that definition of teaching, I found the nerve to risk doing a “live” essay the next Fall. Although neither
that first anxiety-filled impromptu essay nor any of the more than thirty-five that have followed would vie
for a Pulitzer, writing these essays allowed students to see a “live sociologist at work,” thinking aloud
about a topic of their choice. Students have seen that I consider writing an essential tool both for
expressing as well as discovering meaning. Students need to observe that struggle first hand.
To narrate my approach to staging a “live” essay as an impromptu drama with structured verbal routines, I
have organized this essay as five scenes in three acts.
Live sociologist at work
dramatis personae: sixty students and one nervous sociology instructor
time: fifth week of the academic term (after the first set of student essays has been marked and returned)
props: fifteen 3 x 5 cards, laptop computer, word processing program (with six files preset at 24 pt font
size), data projector, screen (or a chalk/white board with two colours of chalk or markers)
act one, scene one: starting with titles
I ask students to suggest topics for an essay. After typing their suggestions in the first file so they are
displayed on the screen, I ask students to indicate by a show of hands which topic they prefer. I then copy
and paste that topic to a second file, “tentative titles.” After composing ten to twelve titles, I ask students
in previously set up discussions groups of five students to write titles on the same topic. They write each
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of the titles on 3 x 5 cards which I have distributed as they broke into their small groups. After three
minutes, the recorder from each group announces one title to the whole class. Briefly I comment on the
strengths as well as the different views of the topic suggested by the titles. After the class has heard the
titles, I point out that writing titles first allows us to brainstorm as a starting point for an essay. (For a
further exploration of starting with titles, see “Trying Titles First” also by John Thompson.)
act one, scene two: focus on thesis
I next copy one of my titles from the screen and paste it to a third file, “working thesis statement.” I probe
and expand the title I have selected into a complete sentence in the form of an assertion or thesis. I
explain to students that this is a working thesis which will guide and focus my exploration of the topic as
I plan and develop the essay. Next, I ask students in their small groups to formulate a working thesis from
the title reported to the class and write the working thesis on the back of the 3 x 5 card. Again, I have each
group report to the class the title and its formulation as a working thesis statement. I briefly comment on
each statement as a thesis and as a sociological thesis. Students are free to comment, too, and do.
act two, scene one: an outline
I then copy both the title and the working thesis and paste them to another file, “working outline.” I then
insert an outlining format and hit Enter to generate the number “1” at the left hand margin. I tell students
that outlining as the next part of the essay writing brings exploration and planning into an essay from the
beginning. I compare outlining to drawing an initial working blueprint for designing a building. It is there
to think about how to get the job done. The value of the outline is to be judged by its usefulness for
actually writing an essay, not whether the final essay conforms to the original outline. As I construct the
outline in point form, I tell students about the elements, the structure and argument form of an essay,
based on the working thesis statement.
act three, scene one: introducing the essay
With the basics of titles, a working thesis and a working outline completed, I switch to the fifth file,
“introduction.” I tell the students that introducing the essay is like introducing a stranger to several
people. I copy the working thesis statement onto the file, telling students that the final sentence of the
paragraph will be the thesis statement. I move the cursor to the top of the page and begin typing without
editing. I simply try to get my ideas out. I caution students against editing at the same time they are
writing the initial draft. Using Sheridan Baker’s “funnel” structure for the introductory paragraph (Baker
1998), I write from a point that would pique an audience’s interest toward the specific focus of the
working thesis. I write until I have completed the introductory paragraph such that the already appended
working thesis statement is the final sentence. [If the essay is written on a chalk/white board, initial
writing should be in one colour and editing in a second.]
I go to the top of the paragraph and begin editing to take out unnecessary words and phrases. Then I try to
clarify expressions and improved the orderly flow of ideas. As I edit, I say aloud what I am thinking, both
as a sociologist and as a writer. Students usually contribute three or four suggestions, the merits of which
we discuss. I am not trying to teach the techniques of editing, but rather the need for editing to clarify, to
make better sense, to give focus. I emphasize editing as a process of talking to myself about what I am
trying to say.
act three, scene two: condensed outline as an overview
On the final file, I write a second paragraph based on the outline. I shift back and forth between the
outline file and this file so that students can see how I develop a text blueprint of the essay to guide the
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reader. After quickly writing the second paragraph, I again go back to edit, following the same steps as in
the introductory paragraph. By this point, I have exhausted the class period, the students, and myself. I
collect the 3 x 5 cards containing the titles and working thesis statement from each group.
Finis
What have I learned about student learning from my doing more than thirty-five impromptu essays?
Few students have observed anyone actually write an essay. More than 60% found it “very” or “quite
useful” to observe me doing a “live” essay. Students are respectful of an instructor’s obvious vulnerability
in the risk of composing an essay which is not “canned.” Through observing my struggling to write,
students seem to acknowledge as normal their own struggling efforts to write.
Students want to see examples of good writing, especially essays written by other students. I place
samples of well-written essays from previous years on reserve. I obtain explicit permission from students
whose papers I wish to put on reserve. In retyping these, I remove all student identification but type in my
comments which were originally in pen.
What have I learned about teaching from writing impromptu essays?
Writing an impromptu essay is an opportunity to show students how I think as a “live sociologist at work.”
I can actually write a string of titles, develop a working thesis statement, construct an outline, and write
and revise an introductory and overview paragraph in front of students. I can survive bad days when I
suffer mental block in front of sixty students.
Bringing writing directly into teaching has proved an effective way for me to show students by example
that writing is a process of exploration and learning.
Would I recommend that other instructors try writing an impromptu essay? Yes, though with caution.
Writing an essay “live” is an anxiety-provoking experience. A “live” essay is an ordinary “rough” first
draft. Writing a “live” essay, however, will change you as a teacher. Writing a “live” essay twenty years
ago turned out to be the decisive passage to my becoming a teacher. That day for the first time as a
teacher, I joined my students in the real risk of learning.
This (writing in public), in part, brings the beginner’s terror back to teaching and keeps me from
being bored by the sound of my own voice. But I think it does something more than that. Both
writing and reading are essentially private acts, but if we are to teach them we must find ways to
make them public. (Murray 1982:184)
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Baker, Sheridan. 1998. The Practical Stylist. 8th edition. New York: Addition Wesley Longman.
Lowman, J. 1984. Mastering the Techniques of Teaching. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
Murray, Donald M. 1982. Learning by Teaching. Montclair, NJ: Boynton/Cook.
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A revised version of this paper appeared in Learning Through Writing. Revised edition. W. Alan Wright,
Eileen Herteis, Brad Abernethy (eds). 2001. Halifax: Dalhousie University.
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