The CompScholar Rhombus

The CompScholar Rhombus replaces triangular attempts to illustrate the writing situation.  The rhombus, diamond shaped, fits the four cornerstone concepts of the writing situation: time, topic, writer and writing.

The CompScholar Rhombus revolutionizes geometric representations of the writer's situation. The beautiful diamond shape of the rhombus, like a wedding ring, unites geometry and writing in harmonious marriage. Keep in mind, for no particular reason, the mathematical fact that every square is a rhombus, but not every rhombus is a square.

The rhombus rocks these cornerstone concepts: time, topic, writer and writing. A little alliteration (topic-time and writer-writing) only enhances the thrill of the rhombus. In this Information Age, these are the factors writers must consider if they are to write successfully.

To be practical, educators cannot idealize students' writing process. Getting students to allocate hours and days to each assignment is certain failure. But students will produce more successful writing if teachers challenge them to work like project managers who are busy and who lack resources.

Like project managers, writers must seek success by determining the quality that can be achieved in the time allotted given the available resources. The best project managers know that they never have enough time and hardly ever get enough resources, so they aim to complete the work creatively so quality doesn't suffer.

Here is a likely experience for a writer with Rhombus factors (in bold):

The time frame is the first factor a writer must consider (time). Then the writer needs to have awareness of how many pages, or how many words, she can produce in such a time (time/writer). I recommend a writing race early in the semester so students can discover how much they can write in one hour and at what level of quality.

The next matter is the writer's knowledge of the topic (writer/topic). The topic might require some research, which affects the time frame (topic/time). Time, so important, will affect the degree of focus the writer will take on the topic (time/writer/topic). A writer with only 5 hours for an essay might need two hours for research, leaving a three hour window for composing. Three hours for the essay could mean a tight focus: perhaps just two pages so some revision and editing can happen.

The focus results in a thesis (topic/writing). Once begun, the writing and the writer battle (writer/writing). The author struggles to solve problems to produce the essay composed of word choice, sentence length, paragraphing, structure, style, tone and purpose (writing). Not all parts of the product are decided consciously. Tone often just happens as a result of an early word choice that dictates how subsequent sentences are written. But, young writers improve anyway through repetition and ideally discussion of their process and focused feedback.

The CompScholar Rhombus doesn't represent the great institutions by allowing quality to suffer when time and resources are taxed. But the rhombus represents reality. Should writing teachers force an impossible situation on students or teach them on their home courts? That is, teachers too must do what they can given the time and resources available: all too brief semesters, course-load flustered students and useless textbooks preaching impossible process.

Time: Some honest students would start with a small window of writing time: 3 hours the night before the paper is due. Such planning might not please the professors and parents of the world, but it is realistic. The key is to know that schedule and plan a paper that can be written in that time frame.

Topic: Topics will be treated according to a writer's existing knowledge of the topic and their access to useful information about it. The most important question about a topic is focus: How can I compress this topic--what part of the topic can I feature in an essay?

Writer: The person doing the writing matters. The writer might default to certain attitudes about a topic. Controversial topics like gun control cause most writers to think and feel for or against them. the feelings and opinions of the writer will affect their motivation to complete an assignment. The writer might be a high achiever, focused on good grades, or the opposite: a person happy with an average grade. (For more on grades, see the meta section below*.)

Writing: The triangular models tried unsuccessfully to fit writing issues into that silly three-sided shape. It was doomed from the start because factors like purpose and tone are too elusive to be pinned down by the corner of a mathematical figure. Writers will grow to know those concepts, but more immediate writing concerns for students are words, paragraph length and essay size: word count or page count.

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* Key Question About Grades: If students manage an assignment like a project and have little time, they might set realistic expectations, knowing, for example, that by the due date they will have only three hours to produce a two page paper that would earn a B or B+. But if right, producing such a B-level essay, shouldn't they receive an A on the project?

I also have some questions that might help writers if you comment below and answer them:

1. Why does framing the writing situation help writers?
2. With only a few in English, what is your favorite "rh-" word--is it rhombus?

Here are links to related content:

• The Rhetorical Situation
• Writing Decisions

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