This is a two-part strategy. The first part asks students to locate information. The second places requirements on their writing, which is based on the information they find.


Part 1

          Ask students to visit any one of these listed Internet sites dealing with a controversial issue and collect information for an opinion paper supporting or opposing a position.

          Ask students to review the information on the site, take a pro or con stand, and then write the first draft of a one-page opinion.


Part 2

          Next distribute Artist's Structural Palette II to students and review the examples of parallel structure. Explain that their task will be to revise their opinion drafts by injecting at least two structures found on the palette.

          Perhaps I am very ill, I thought. Perhaps I am imagining things. Perhaps I am a little delirious. --- Roald Dahl

Repeated Clause Structures
(subordinate/coordinate conjunctions, relative pronouns)

          Near the banks of the Muscatatuck where once the woods had stretched, dark row on row, and where the fox grapes and wold mint still flourished, Jess Birdwell, an Irish Quaker, built his white clapboard house. --- Jessamyn West


Repeated Phrases
(absolutes, appositives, participles, prepositions, noun and verb phrases)

          Without the hatchet he had nothing---no fire, no tools, no weapons. --- Gary Paulsen

          Beyond the tennis courts and the big oval track, beyond the stand of pine trees that bordered the school campus, a charming lake emptied into a wild, white river. --- Caroline Cooney

          With this palette teachers may want to distribute the list of prepositions, subordinate conjunctions, coordinate conjunctions, and relative pronouns to help students create structural patterns. So students can see a few examples of these techniques used by other students, pass out these samples:

          When man starts to respect himself, when man and nature come together, and when all of mankind live in harmony, only then will there be peace. --- Micki Keyser

          In his mind he can create them. In his soul he can believe them. In his heart he can feel them. He is a writer, one who shows fact and fiction to the world. --- Katie Chapell

          Listen to the trees. Listen to the birds. Listen to the winds. Listen to nature. --- Meredith Bucur

          Beseeching were his eyes; fretting were his folds. Unwavering was his demeanor. But behind his sorrowful gaze lies a mind more complex than you perceive, more deadly than he'll ever know. --- Keir Marticke

          Although there has been no research into using structural palettes with writing, the use of these formats for imitation would seem to help students develop a subconscious repertoire of grammatical techniques.