presentation on having students write dialogues

plain type = presenter [] = me "" = commenter.

Students don't see writing as a communicating exercise--writing for an audience.

[he's doing this because he's giving up on getting anyone to write a good essay??]

his research is on Plato and genres of philosophical writing.

We assign essays because our academic communication is in essay form.

Leibniz has dialogues.

He tells students to think of dialogues as a scene in a play.

"I work with young children. and they respond very well to dialogue"

"Stephen Law writes for youngsters on philosophy in dialogue form."

"Matt Lippmann writes in effect dialogues for children"

George: "I've had trouble with students who simply turn their essays into dialogues with one character per paragraph"

"How do you handle citations in the dialogue?"

They don't have to make references, but if they want to they can do that anyway they want. [that's what I do.]

Georege: "I require my students to refer to the text. They can have the characters be students talking about a text."

I tell my students they can't quote, they have to paraphrase.

"I have my student write in FAQ format and then have them turn the FAQ into an essay"

"I hear students own voice better in dialogues than essays"

"Do they pick characters from the reading and have those be characters" Yes.

George: "This is a great way to teach sympathy for different viewpoints."

[He has students writing dialogues about the Critique of Pure Reason!!!]

George: "I used to have them write dialogues as preparation to writing essays. But now I drop the last step of turning it into essay form"

Speaker: I used to to essay, then dialogue. now I start with dialogue.

This is an unplagiarizable assignment. Assignments more fun to mark.

[Everyone agrees students are more open about their believes and selves in dialogue form]

I tell my students not to have characters badger each other with several questions all at once.

[I should write a bunch of short, student length dialogues on subjects in the course, to distribute during the class, to present models of a wider variety of dialogue styles. Also, it would be really fun.]

"What criteria do you use in grading dialogues"

First of all, truth to the characters from the readings. Second, grammar and punctuation. [This is limited as hell][he always has the characters being famous phils from the reading]

"Faithfulness to the dialogue format, the strengths of it."

"Dialectic vs. heuristic dialogue (colabrative vs combative) in the ancient tradition"

I tell students this is a debate, not a discussion.

I ask students to be conscious of how they end the dialogue.

I tell students to be more flexible with realism and character in order to conform to the needs of argument and debate.

[for him a short dialogue is 600-800 words, longer is 1000-1200 words]

I tell them minimize scene setting and introductory part of the dialogue

He doesn't like the Simpsons and Philosophy.