Find the Student Excerpt

Problem: One of my goals in my college writing classes is to make students more attuned to the intricacies of academic discourse. Talking through "academic phrases to know" and "discourse-specific vocabulary" can be dull for students, though. How to make this interactive and relevant to students' lives?

Solution: The new-and-improved multiple choice. Next time I try to teach a concept (academic introductions, say), I'll display four introductions. Three of them will be from academic articles, illustrating a variety of both identifiable and more "fuzzy" academic characteristics. In the mix I'll put one student introduction--a good one, but not an 'academic' one--from the current draft students are working on. We'll then try to pick out which one is the student example, and why.

Commentary: I like that this gives me the opportunity to teach specific concepts but also simply teaches via osmosis (students see three academic examples and learn to discriminate). This activity could easily be conducted online, where students read the excerpts on a discussion board and then vote and argue for which one they think is the student excerpt.