Frakenstories & The Writer's Practice

IV: Research and Argument

In The Writer's Practice, research is a crucial component of many writing experiences. Students learn to find, evaluate, and integrate sources effectively. The nature of Frankenstories means the research phase typically happens before the game begins.

This arrangement allows for two possible approaches:

  • Use these prompts as the culmination of serious research work, helping students shape their findings into effective writing
  • Take a more playful approach where students invent their "research" during the game, focusing on mastering the forms and structures of research-based writing

Both approaches are valid, depending on your goals. The first builds traditional academic skills, while the second helps students understand how research-based writing works without the cognitive load of managing real research.

This experience develops the crucial skill of understanding and responding to others' arguments:

  • Identifying main claims and supporting evidence
  • Distinguishing between claims and evidence
  • Summarising complex arguments accurately
  • Developing their own responses

This experience helps students transform academic research into accessible content (or communicate this content without the pressure of an academic register). Students can focus on:

  • Understanding different audiences' needs
  • Translating complex ideas into clear language
  • Maintaining accuracy while increasing accessibility
  • Using examples and analogies effectively

The YouTuber framework provides a relatable way to think about audience and presentation.

This experience develops critical evaluation skills. The individual steps follow the format presented in The Writer's Practice, which is itself an adaptation of the three-step process recommended by Mike Caulfield, a professor and director of blended and networked learning at Washington State University Vancouver:

  1. Check for previous fact-checking work
  2. Go upstream from the source
  3. Read laterally

In this game, students practice:

  • Assessing source credibility
  • Tracing information to its origins
  • Understanding how information spreads
  • Making informed judgements about sources

Customise this prompt

We've chosen "You only use 10% of your brain" as an example of the kind of "crazy facts" that get passed around, but you can swap that for something more current or specific.

This experience introduces academic argument through a low-stakes and maybe-impossible question. Students learn:

  • How to define terms precisely
  • The role of criteria in categorical arguments
  • How to use criteria & match reasoning and evidence effectively
  • The importance of addressing counterarguments

This experience introduces proposal-based arguments through personal concerns. Students develop:

  • Problem analysis
  • Analysis of the rhetorical situation including audience and stakeholders
  • Practical proposal writing

The prompt has two versions:

  • V1 asks students to think in terms of school
  • V2 asks them to find problems in the wider community/world

Customise this prompt

If you play one of these games as a group, players will need to choose one issue to focus on.

You can use the first round to pitch ideas and focus in the second round, or you can agree beforehand on the issue that you are going to focus on.

You can also change this from a problem-solution focus to an opportunity-impact focus.

This experience helps students discover personally meaningful topics:

  • Topic selection skills
  • Question development
  • Research planning
  • Personal investment in writing

Teaching tips

  • All of these prompts benefit from longer writing times and character limits. Increase the default settings!
  • If using these prompts with real research, help students see how their research findings can be shaped for different purposes and audiences.
  • If taking a more playful approach, encourage creativity while maintaining focus on writing techniques and structures.
  • Help students notice how different forms of argument require different approaches to evidence and reasoning (cause & effect vs criteria & match).
  • Adapt these experiences for specific content areas using subject-relevant questions and debates
  • Use these structures with current events or school/subject-specific issues
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