I'm teaching an essay class, and I'm looking for some powerful ideas that my students can use in many of their essays.
For example, I've taught them about the Apollonian/Dionysian dichotomy. If I ask students "If you could change one thing about your country, what would you change?" they can answer something like, "In my opinion, Korea is too Apollonian. I say this because we study too long, because we are expected to dress in uniforms, and because there is little to do in order to have fun. If I could change something about Korea, I'd build more game rooms for children, so we could have some way to bring interest back into our lives." or something like that.
This dichotomy is very useful, because it can be used in almost all TOEFL-style essay questions: about family, school, life values, etc.
I've also taught students to quote-mine and reference famous ideas from historical figures: "The great Albert Einstein once said. . . " and so on.
Can someone recommend other important literary or philosophical devices that might be important enough to form a couple classes' worth of lectures and writing practice around?
For example, I've taught them about the Apollonian/Dionysian dichotomy. If I ask students "If you could change one thing about your country, what would you change?" they can answer something like, "In my opinion, Korea is too Apollonian. I say this because we study too long, because we are expected to dress in uniforms, and because there is little to do in order to have fun. If I could change something about Korea, I'd build more game rooms for children, so we could have some way to bring interest back into our lives." or something like that.
This dichotomy is very useful, because it can be used in almost all TOEFL-style essay questions: about family, school, life values, etc.
I've also taught students to quote-mine and reference famous ideas from historical figures: "The great Albert Einstein once said. . . " and so on.
Can someone recommend other important literary or philosophical devices that might be important enough to form a couple classes' worth of lectures and writing practice around?
