Say it short, say it loud! Stimulating writing with bumper stickers

Excerpted and edited from a 2005 YWP article
By Elisabeth Arnold, Milton Junior/Senior High School, and
Nick Brooks, Williston Central School

Every day people make statements about who they are, what they believe and what they care about. Some people do it in private — a conversation with a close friend or an entry in a diary. Some do it in more public ways — speaking at town meeting or writing a letter.

Others express themselves in a common – and very public – way: with bumper stickers. Looking at the back of someone’s car, we can sometimes tell for whom a person voted, whether they support the war or gay rights or the environmental movement. Sometimes we know which NASCAR driver they prefer, what organization they support or, even, that their children do well in school. Bumper stickers can be funny or hostile or cute or outrageous or relevant to the issue of the moment or a threat to the world.

Bumper stickers are, ultimately, well-edited persuasive thought: a number or a few letters or a word or a short phrase that sums up positions or priorities or beliefs.

Using bumper stickers in the middle school classroom is a fun way to introduce students to persuasive writing. By examining the messages contained in bumper stickers, students are able to see this type of writing as something they encounter in their everyday world.

Bumper stickers are visual and show that having opinions and being passionate about a point of view is OK, fun and even cool. They are a direct way to make a public statement about your opinions and yourself. This exercise helps encourage a more literate and culturally-conscious climate in our own classrooms.

1. Gather and expose

Students and teachers should begin by gathering examples – tangible examples when possible -- of memorable bumper stickers. Allow students to process these images in peer groups. Analyze the bumper stickers: What issues – and implied issues – do the bumper stickers key on? What is the tone? What is the audience? What is the opposing view?

2. A direct connection

Students are quickly engaged when reading bumper stickers which are often bold or witty or something of a puzzle. Get students to find a direct personal connection to the stated issue or organization or statement. This can be both personal experience or a deep reaction to the message of the bumper sticker. A more personal engagement will foster more sophisticated arguments.

3. The other side

Bumper stickers are clearly linked with one side of an issue. Thus, using them helps students to understand the point of view of the person who displays the bumper sticker. It also helps show how issues have two sides, and other points of view. Get the students to write counter arguments to a bumper sticker: What would you say to a person if you wanted to convince them to take the bumper sticker off their car?

4. Finding voice

After talking over a variety of bumper stickers and the related issues, get students to select an issue to write about. Remind students that they want to eventually boil their thought down to something that would grace a bumper sticker. Remind them, too, that bumper stickers are relatively permanent: Not many people would put one on their car if they didn’t feel strongly about a particular issue. This helps students to focus on an issue they feel particularly strong about.

5. Outside the walls

Craft a formal argument in the form of persuasive essays. Additional forums and other outlets can be included in this project. Some particularly successful extensions may include classroom debates, family issue surveys and bumper sticker reporting and gathering from their communities. But a fun part of the process is getting the students to create a personalized bumper sticker that represents their own arguments on the issue.

6. The debate continues

Talk about the process, about how to find rich writing topics by examining current issues through something as commonplace as a bumper sticker.

notes: written for teachers?