Rhetorical Pedagogy for Degree Project Supervision

This paper addresses challenges posed by degree project essay, where students new to the research process are introduced to the fundamental values and practices of a discipline. It shows how exploratory exercises featuring argument prompts and argument templates can function as heuristics during the writing process: that is, they offer students a “hands on” approach to learning how to write and reason. When incorporated into essay supervision, exploratory exercises enable supervisors to guide students through the prewriting stage of the research process, when students make important initial decisions about their projects, while also promoting their intellectual independence. The benefit to students is enhanced when supervisors engage with students about their exercise answers in computer-mediated written exchanges, conducted in real time. Written exchange enhances the generative power of exploratory exercises by challenging students to find the right words for expressing their ideas while focusing their attention on key claims and arguments. The paper gives examples of supervisor-student exchanges that show students new to research writing gaining insight into the fundamental values and practices of a discipline while formulating key arguments that can be developed further in their essays.