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Drawing on teaching at the University of Arizona across Spring 2004, Fall 2004, and Spring 2005, it explains course context, assignment design, and the rationale behind moving beyond argumentation. Student feedback from anonymous evaluation forms shows that such writing helps learners explore complex issues while keeping dialogue open across differences.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":15,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/literature/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/the-cea-forum-summerfall-2007-building-intercultural-empathy-through-writing-reflections-on-teaching-alternatives-to-argumentation/597803/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/the-cea-forum-summerfall-2007-building-intercultural-empathy-through-writing-reflections-on-teaching-alternatives-to-argumentation/597803.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"SANS","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-22","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":19},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What purpose do nonargumentative writing assignments serve in the article?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"They are designed to prompt students to explore complex issues while leaving space for dialogue across cultural and personal differences.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"Where and when were these nonargumentative writing assignments taught?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"They were taught at The University of Arizona during the Spring 2004, Fall 2004, and Spring 2005 semesters.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What courses were involved in introducing the alternative to argumentative writing?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"The article describes implementations in English 306 and English 109H within the university writing program.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},597803,1792382726,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":14,"category_name":15,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":19,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":46,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144},962090760505,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_155a257f0dc6eb9ab79c44ca47cae57d","The CEA Forum  \nSummer/Fall 2007: 36.2  \nBUILDING INTERCULTURAL EMPATHY THROUGH WRITING:  \nREFLECTIONS ON TEACHING ALTERNATIVES TO ARGUMENTATION  \nKaren P. Peirce  \nWriting assignments that focus on nonargumentative discourse can take many forms. Such assignments can prompt students to produce individually constructed writing, or they can be more collaborative in nature. They can focus on traditional formats, following MLA citation guidelines, using Times New Roman 12-point font, maintaining one-inch margins, and following standard rules of English grammar, for example, or they can stray from such ink-on-paper guidelines and allow for a broader definition of what constitutes text. The decisions made when crafting an assignment that focuses on nonargumentative discourse will depend on, as with anyother assignment, the goals of the course, the tastes of the individual instructor, and the proclivities of the particular student body. What I provide here is my perspective on teaching nonargumentative writing to students at The University of Arizona in the Spring 2004, Fall 2004, and Spring 2005 semesters. I explain the context surrounding the courses in which I taught this assignment, describe the assignment and the rationale behind its construction, and share student reactions to the assignment from feedback on anonymous teacher evaluation forms. What I show is that through such an assignment, students learn how to explore complex issues without closing the opportunity for dialogue across difference. As such, I suggest that teaching students to write nonargumentatively can help achieve the goal of reaching empathic understanding across cultures.  \nContextualizing the Particularities  \nMy teaching of nonargumentative writing took place at The University of Arizona, a public land-grant university with a student body in fall 2004 of 36,932 students ( UA Factbook 2004-05) . Of these close to 37,000 students, 28,368 were undergraduates, 8,564 were graduate or medical students, 26,520 came from Arizona, 7,819 came from other US states, and 2,593 came from other nations ( UA Factbook 2004-05) . The ethnic makeup of these  \nstudents was as follows: 63.9% were identified as White Non-Hispanic, 13.6% Hispanic, 7% Nonresident Alien, 5.4% Asian or Pacific Islander, 2.7% Black Non-Hispanic, 2. 1% American Indian or Native Alaskan, and the remaining 5.4% were of unknown ethnicity ( UA Factbook 2004-05) . The mean SAT score of the 2004 incoming freshman class was 1118 ( UA Factbook 2004-05), and the average GPA of all undergraduate students on campus in Spring 2005 was 3.013 ( Greek Life) . For the incoming class of 2005, students graduating in the top 25% of their high school classes were guaranteed admission to the University (Entrance Requirements), and of the incoming class of 1998, 57% had graduated by 2004, or within six years (Frequently Asked Questions) .  \nAs a graduate instructor in the English Department, my teaching took place in the University's writing program, which focuses heavily on first-year composition but also offers several upper-division writing courses (see Appendix A for descriptions of the Writing Program's course offerings for the 2005-2006 school year) . The curricula of many of these courses was highly prescribed by the writing program administration with somewhat more flexibility allowed of instructors in a few of the courses offered. Course goals were clearly stated in all the course descriptions, and in those courses in which more flexibility was allowed, as long as instructors were aiming to meet these goals, the shape of individual writing assignments could be customized according to each instructor's tastes. It was in two of these more flexible courses, English 306 and English 109H, that I introduced my alternative to argumentative writing assignment.  \nAt the time I was teaching it, English 306 was open to any student who had completed first-year composition and was designed to introduce students to “[   ] cla","cbCaibHGsyCNMYvS","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaibHGsyCNMYvS","pdf",77463,"English","# The CEA Forum\n## Building Intercultural Empathy Through Writing: Reflections on Teaching Alternatives to Argumentation\n## Writing Assignments and Nonargumentative Discourse\n## Contextualizing the Particularities","[{\"question\":\"What purpose do nonargumentative writing assignments serve in the article?\",\"answer\":\"They are designed to prompt students to explore complex issues while leaving space for dialogue across cultural and personal differences.\"},{\"question\":\"Where and when were these nonargumentative writing assignments taught?\",\"answer\":\"They were taught at The University of Arizona during the Spring 2004, Fall 2004, and Spring 2005 semesters.\"},{\"question\":\"What courses were involved in introducing the alternative to argumentative writing?\",\"answer\":\"The article describes implementations in English 306 and English 109H within the university writing program.\"}]","The CEA Forum - Summer/Fall 2007 - Building Intercultural Empathy Through Writing - Reflections on Teaching Alternatives to Argumentation | PDF",1792085735,31]