Paragraph Cohesion Activity

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Assignment by Joshua Scheidler, Bedford New Scholar 2020

During the Bedford New Scholars Summit, each member presented an assignment that had proven successful or innovative in their classroom. 

Josh: This activity asks students to consider how paragraphs work with one another at the sentence level. The goals of the assignment are two-fold: I want students to practice working with another to solve writing problems, and I want to play an enjoyable game in class with students to give them individualized instruction when they need it. This activity approximates the peer review students will engage in with each other to determine what works in writing. It also lets me practice working with students somewhat individually, despite being in groups. This activity is something I do near the beginning of the semester as students are still developing relationships with one another and with me, and it has helped students to become comfortable working with one another.

Purpose and Directions

This activity lets you apply what you’ve read about crafting cohesive texts in the textbook to organize 7 fragments of text cut from a unified whole—each piece varying in length—into what your group agrees is the original state of the pieces. Consider the text fragments as pieces of a puzzle.

You can decide as a group how you want to begin. You can take turns reading the 7 puzzle pieces to yourself or someone can read aloud. Then, you get to discuss what each of you have taken away from your reading of the pieces with a focus on the ways in which sentences connect, repeating subjects, the author’s references to subjects, and conceptual relationships between parts of the text.

As you work through iterations of arranging the pieces to find an arrangement that is agreed upon, share with one another what you are doing, and similarly, use the describe, evaluate and suggest model as you begin working through the positioning of the puzzle pieces. Note these movements and discussions of purpose. Why do you think two pieces may or may not go together? You get to discuss this. You can write out notes to document the rationale for the final placement of the pieces.

Once your group has finished, the completion of the puzzle can be verified, and we will discuss the organizational decisions of your group. If you complete the puzzle on the first attempt, then your group will be given time to compose a unified composition that describes the choices you made for such strategic decisions (using evidence from the text). You will then get to present your conclusions to the class!

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How to Use This Activity F2F: Print it out, cut the pieces (carefully trimming so the pieces won’t fit back together as neat little puzzle pieces), and then hold them together with a paper clip. In a class of 21, I typically have seven groups of 3. However, I like to have eight sets (one extra just in case).

How to Use Online: Via classroom meeting app group students into Teams (breakout sessions) and using OneNote have them rearrange the pieces similarly. Ask that they let you know when they need help or when they think they’ve finished. Instructors can observe students as they work in both their conferencing session as well as through OneNote.

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Text used (others might work better): Gottschall, Jonathan. The Rape of Troy. Cambridge UP, 2008.

To be more specific, I believe that commentators have rarely appreciated the extent to which Homeric disputes trace back to conflicts over women.

Of course, scholars have recognized that many conflicts touch on rights to desirable women.

They have usually suggested, however, that winning women is merely a proximate goal masking more important motives: Greeks and Trojans fight not over Helen but over honor; Achilles and Agamemnon fight not over an alluring young woman but over prestige; Odysseus and the suitors fight not over his lovely wife but over wealth and political power. In short, critical explanations of violence in the epics strongly downplay Homer’s incessant point: women are a major source of conflict among men. 

The Rape of Troy does not deny that Homer’s heroes compete obsessively over honor, power, status, and material goods.

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In fact, this competition is absolutely central to its case. Nonetheless, an evolutionary perspective suggests that commentators have typically had things backwards.

For Homer’s heroes, as for ordinary men, women are not a proximate route to the ultimate goals of honor, political power, and social dominance.

On the contrary, honor, political power, and social dominance are proximate routes to the ultimate goal of women.

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Answer Key

I wrote this with students the last time I used the activity. It might need some work.

To be more specific, I believe that commentators have rarely appreciated the extent to which Homeric disputes trace back to conflicts over women.

• “Commentators” is important because it is the subject—the “who” that has rarely done the appreciating
• Notice the “conflicts” over women as thematic—this becomes repetitive

Of course, scholars have recognized that many conflicts touch on rights to desirable women.

• “Scholars” references the who that is “commentators” and now we know who “they” are; there is a reiteration of the concept of conflicts over women

They have usually suggested, however, that winning women is merely a proximate goal masking more important motives: Greeks and Trojans fight not over Helen but over honor; Achilles and Agamemnon fight not over an alluring young woman but over prestige; Odysseus and the suitors fight not over his lovely wife but over wealth and political power. In short, critical explanations of violence in the epics strongly downplay Homer’s incessant point: women are a major source of conflict among men.  

• Here we see “conflicts” become more personal with the term “fight” and then return to “conflicts” after the more specific examples of fights between individuals
• “They” is another reference to the “commentators” and the “scholars” and is keeping with the goal of the writing which is to compare ideas by first offering a summation of the stories in order to make his own point in contrast with those nameless “scholars”

The Rape of Troy does not deny that Homer’s heroes compete obsessively over honor, power, status, and material goods.

• We see “conflicts” (or fights) between heroes turn into competing
• With referencing the title of the book, the author is able to bring the conversation completely back to making the case for the value of his perspective on the topic

In fact, this competition is absolutely central to its case. Nonetheless, an evolutionary perspective suggests that commentators have typically had things backwards.

• And then compete becomes “competition” and there is another reference to the “who” the author is summarizing and comparing ideas with the “commentators”
• The mention of the “commentators” again suggests that the author is going to allow their ideas space so that he can contrast them with his, which occurs in the following sentence

For Homer’s heroes, as for ordinary men, women are not a proximate route to the ultimate goals of honor, political power, and social dominance.

• This depicts the status quo as known from the assertion of its backwardness (see prior line)

On the contrary, honor, political power, and social dominance are proximate routes to the ultimate goal of women.

• Contrasted with the prior sentence, understood as the author’s idea of what “should be” compared to the backwardness of commentators referenced two sentences back
• “Contrary” informs the reader of the author’s position 

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