Teaching Analysis to Professional Writing Students: Heuristics Based on Expert Theories

Teaching Analysis to Professional Writing Students is designed to help the professional writing teacher design appropriate analytical activities for the classroom. Students with no experience with a particular kind of analysis may "borrow" expertise in one-page heuristics that name categories for analysis. Students then form their own internal category/instantiation pair, extending their knowledge and gaining practical experience at the same time. As support for this theory, Smith uses cognitive load theory and diagrammatic iconicity theory (first developed by C.S. Peirce) to explain how visual elements of the heuristic relay information about the relations between the ideas represented. Students use the heuristics to extend their web of knowledge further while performing original analyses at a skill level higher than on their own.