MICHAEL B. SHERRY AND ANN M.
LAWRENCE
Put Me in the Game:
Video Games and
Argument Writing for
Environmental Action
I (Michael) first learned to drive a stick shift in an
empty parking lot. As I circled among rows of
cement stoppers, my dad barked feedback from
the passenger seat: “Ease up on the gas. Now
put it in second. Not too heavy on the brake!” Gain-
ing confidence, I shifted into third gear and spun the
wheel as I whipped around a concrete island. Unfor-
tunately, I had cut it too close, and the car jolted as
my left, front wheel bumped over the curb.
I spent that summer mowing lawns to pay for a
wheel alignment repair.
Ironically, I also spent that summer playing a
video game called Super Mario Kart. Now a Nin-
tendo classic, the game puts players at the wheel of a
go-­kart that races in laps around a course with obsta-
cles. Each time I hit a speed boost or a turtle shell, I
remembered my ill-­fated turn in the family car and
wished I had played the game sooner.
Would Super Mario Kart have helped me
avoid the accident? Perhaps not. However, research
remains to be done on how video games can provide
experiences for students with immediate feedback,
and with the consequences of their problem solving,
as they develop written arguments. In this article, we
begin this inquiry by describing our research with a
class of middle school writers who played Quandary,
a free online educational game designed to teach
argumentation, as part of a unit on writing argu-
ments for environmental action.
In 2008, a Pew Research Center study found that
97 percent of teens reported playing video games.
EJ_July_2019_B.indd 69
Playing an online
game, students
received responses
from virtual characters
and experienced the
consequences of their
arguments before
writing letters to the
governor about a local
environmental issue.
In 2018, Newsweek noted that the highest grossing
media title of all time is a video game, Grand Theft
Auto V, which has sold more than 85 million copies
and earned $5 billion—­double the box office sales of
James Cameron’s film, Avatar (Hetherington). More
recently, a crowd of 667,000 people (enough to fill
the world’s largest stadium four times over) tuned
in to watch celebrities team up with a professional
gamer to play the popular first-­person shooter game
Fortnite (“Ninja’s”). The misogyny and the violence
in these games are disturbing (e.g., attacking prosti-
tutes)—­as they are in other popular media. Never-
theless, video games are an important area of interest
for today’s youth.
Accordingly, teachers and researchers have
sought to harness this interest for educational pur-
poses. Several large-­ scale, international research
syntheses have suggested that “serious” games—­or
“edugames”—­can support students’ learning across
subject areas (Clark et al.; Mitchell and Savill-­Smith),
particularly when games are used in combination
with other instruction (Wouters et al.). For exam-
ple, simulation games that parallel real-­world issues
can be used to encourage problem solving (National
Research Council).
Regarding the subject area of English language
arts (ELA), research has tended to focus on the inte-
gration of digital, online games in reading instruc-
tion. For example, teachers can use texts based on
digital, online games to encourage struggling read-
ers (Jolley). Games with rich storylines provide
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 Put Me in the Game: Video Games and Argument Writing for Environmental Action
opportunities to explore narrative features such
as setting, character, plot, and genre (Ostenson).
Indeed, games often use multiple genres, engag-
ing students in reading complex, multimedia texts
(Adams). Moreover, games can provide opportuni-
ties to develop critical literacy when students analyze
games and gameplay as cultural artifacts, much like
other novels, plays, and poems (Burwell).
Less attention has been paid to how digital,
online games might be used to promote students’
writing. Hannah R. Gerber and Debra P. Price have
provided a notable exception, offering ideas for using
specific games to prompt expository, persuasive, and
narrative writing in
Like young adult accordance with the
novels, games text types distinguished
can provide rich, by the Common Core
complex worlds for State Standards for
students to write English Language Arts.
about that may feel Argumentative writ-
more relevant to ing receives a special
their experiences place in the Common
than other Core State Standards
classroom texts. across disciplines and
grade levels. However,
the National Assessment of Educational Progress
(NAEP) “Writing Report Card” recently found that
only 27 percent of eighth-­and twelfth-­grade students
performed at the “proficient” level on argumentative
writing tasks (NCES). How might digital, online
games support students’ argument writing?
WRITING ABOUT AND
WRITING IN THE GAME
Gerber and Price have suggested that students can
write about the moral and ethical issues raised by a
game like BioShock or the power dynamics of Grand
Theft Auto’s portrayal of women. And Catherine
Burwell has shown that popular genres such as the
“Let’s Play” video, in which players record game-­play
with voice-­over commentary and invite subsequent
responses in online discussion forums, require anal-
ysis, interpretation, and uses of evidence similar to
those taught in school writing genres. In these situa-
tions, the game is the subject of the written argument
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EJ_July_2019_B.indd 70
(much like another piece of literature). Like young
adult novels, games can provide rich, complex worlds
for students to write about that may feel more rele-
vant to their experiences than other classroom texts.
Alternatively, games can invite students into
a scenario that requires argumentation, much as
Michael’s experience with Super Mario Kart might
have inducted him into the dynamics of driving
(for better or for worse!). In an essay from Good
Video Games and Good Learning: Collected Essays on
Video Games, Learning and Literacy, James Paul Gee
describes how some games are designed as “prob-
lem spaces” in which the “fun of the game is learn-
ing how to solve problems and gain some degree of
mastery over both the problems and the tools that
compose the core of the game” (143). That is, games
can require that students use argumentation as a tool
to solve a problem in the game. Although problem
solving within the game does not necessarily require
the ability to articulate one’s knowledge that is often
required by educational activities, Gee points out
that such explicit learning could be done “out of
game, with related activities” (144). Indeed, design-
ing educational experiences that may include video
games and that require skillful—­and fun—­problem
solving, using (academic) tools such as argumenta-
tion and writing, are among the principles behind
game-­based curricula or “gamification of instruction”
(Kapp). In this kind of teaching, problem solving in
the game can be explicitly related to addressing larger
challenges within and beyond the classroom. This
relationship between game and community was cre-
ated in the classroom we studied: students composed
arguments to solve problems in the award-­winning
educational game Quandary (Learning Games Net-
work), which was designed to teach argumentation,
and students subsequently connected those argu-
ments to writing for community advocacy and envi-
ronmental action outside of school.
SEEING GAMES AS VEHICLES
FOR SOCIAL ACTION
Available online for free at www.quandarygame.org/,
Quandary asks players to assume the role of space
colony captain on faraway planet Braxos. When the
6/9/19 5:39 PM
 Michael B. Sherry and Ann M. Lawrence

colony’s public well becomes contaminated by a local arguments. In their letters, students could advocate
parasite, the captain must consult the colonists, sort- for one of three potential responses to the Kaleido-
ing facts, opinions, and potential solutions, before scope incident:
selecting two possible courses of action to present 1. Should Kaleidoscope pay to dig new wells
to the colony, and then recommending one solution for local residents?
(with arguments for and against) to the Colonial
2. Should residents have to pay for clean water?
Council back on Earth. Potential solutions to the
water contamination problem include the following: 3. Should those residents with clean wells share
their water?
nn Convince the Colonial Council to pay for
the digging of a new public well. Thus, Quandary’s conflict paralleled the local
dilemma. As students composed arguments to solve
nn Allow the colonists to pay for clean water the problem in the game, they also prepared to write
from an uncontaminated well that belongs arguments for social action beyond the classroom—­
to one colonist, the construction chief. arguments for an authentic audience and purpose.
nn Take over the construction chief’s well and Students engaged in peer response and optional
provide all colonists with free access. writing conferences with their teacher before turn-
ing in final drafts of their letters. At the end of the
Quandary’s science-­ fiction “water war” scenario month, they also filled
(one of several dilemmas that the game offers) has out a post-­ unit ques- As students
national relevance after the water crisis in Flint, tionnaire that asked composed arguments
Michigan, during which lead and other toxins them to rate their expe- to solve the problem
tainted the drinking water of residents as a result of riences with the game, in the game, they
cost-­cutting measures by the city government (Ken- with peer response, and also prepared to
nedy; Smith and Bosman). This national crisis has with writing confer- write arguments for
continued to unfold in other cities such as Newark, ences and to describe social action beyond
New Jersey (Leyden). Thus, problem solving via what, if anything, had the classroom—­
argumentation in Quandary is an opportunity to changed about their arguments for an
compose arguments about a larger social issue. writing as a result of authentic audience
However, the connection was more immedi- these activities. As
and purpose.
ate for the 114 seventh-­grade students (five classes) researchers, we helped
at the southern, suburban, public school where we design the assignment and materials but did not par-
conducted our one-­month study of a unit on writ- ticipate in the teaching of the unit. In addition to
ing for social action. Two months earlier, an acci- collecting students’ writing and their post-­unit ques-
dent at the nearby Kaleidoscope fertilizer plant had tionnaires, we conducted interviews with students.
leaked millions of gallons of acidic water laced with We focus here on one student who changed his posi-
radioactive byproducts into the ground, potentially tion on the water contamination issue after playing
contaminating not only the water supply of the sur- the game.
rounding community but also the state aquifer. (All
names of people, places, and local institutions have INVITING AUDIENCE FEEDBACK
been replaced with pseudonyms.) Unfortunately, neither the state governor nor the
After playing the game, students wrote advo- department of environmental protection responded
cacy letters to the state governor and the department to the students’ letters. This lack of response is, in
of environmental protection, using recent sources our experience, a common challenge of approaches
from news outlets such as NPR.org and the Pulitzer-­ to teaching writing that try to provide a real audi-
prize-­winning South City Times in composing their ence for students’ writing beyond the classroom and

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 Put Me in the Game: Video Games and Argument Writing for Environmental Action

to, thereby, empower them to use writing for social perspective” into consideration might seem over-
action. As proponents of these approaches ourselves, stated, it is worth noting that middle school marks
we wonder: How can students learn to use writing a transition in the Common Core State Standards
effectively for advocacy when their audiences (peo- from writing opinion pieces to writing arguments
ple in power) do not respond? Luckily, Quandary that begin to consider counterclaims. These ques-
furnished opportunities for students to test out their tionnaire responses seemed like first steps toward
arguments on multiple audiences within the world a more nuanced understanding of how real-­world
of the game. arguments can incorporate conflicting perspectives
Students commented on this experience in their and address multiple audiences.
post-­unit questionnaires, in which they rated their Quandary allowed students to test potential
experiences with the game and completed two open-­ solutions to the “water war” dilemma, with facts
ended prompts: “After playing the game, I realized that might serve as supporting evidence, on various
that . . .” and “What changed in my writing after this characters in the game to gather arguments for and
was . . . .” A majority of students rated the game as against their eventual recommendation to the Colo-
both highly enjoyable and useful. Across five classes nial Council back on Earth. Figure 1, from screen-­
and 114 students, one hundred wrote in their post-­ capture recordings of students’ game-­play during this
unit questionnaires that the game had made them stage of the unit, shows Dr. Canon, the colony’s doc-
more aware of different audiences’ perspectives on tor, responding to potential solutions (blue circles)
their arguments. supported by facts (red pentagons) that a student has
The following are examples of students’ inserted in the corresponding slots.
responses to the prompt, “After playing the game, I In this way, students received a variety of reac-
realized that . . .”: tions from different characters to their developing
nn “Not everyone agrees, but I
think that’s good.”
nn “Many people have different
ideas and a compromise will
not always be made.”
nn “I should take everyone’s ideas
into consideration, not just
those I agree with.”
nn “You have to take all
perspectives into view when
you plan your writing/make a
decision.”
nn “I have to appeal to difference
audiences with different
information.”
These understandings came through
hearing reactions to their arguments
FIGURE 1.
from multiple characters with differ-
In this screenshot from Quandary, students test combinations of
ent perspectives in the game. While the solutions and facts, receiving feedback on their arguments from the
idea of taking “all ideas” and “everyone’s game’s characters. CREDIT LINE TO COME.

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 Michael B. Sherry and Ann M. Lawrence

arguments. Within the game, these different audi- their recommendations to the Colonial Council. For
ences’ reactions served as feedback about whether an example, despite warnings from the colony historian
argument (solution + relevant facts) was convincing. that “two wells might connect to the same water
For example, one student, DJ, changed his mind source,” many students initially recommended that
about which solutions to recommend after hearing the Council pay to dig a new public well. Figure 2
the colonists’ reactions. Initially, he had proposed to shows a possible ending based on this solution, in
have colonists pay for clean water, reasoning that to which colonists bemoan the fact that the new well is
take over the construction chief ’s private well would similarly contaminated.
be unfair. But DJ was surprised at the construction “After playing the game, I realized that, if Kalei-
chief ’s reaction: “It’s that guy’s well, and taking it doscope did dig new wells, they would have to find
over when he had it built at his own expense, that a different water source,” wrote one student in her
didn’t seem right to me . . . I mean you should pay post-­unit questionnaire. Or as DJ put it in his letter
for clean water if it’s not yours. But . . . he said, ‘If to the state governor, “If you don’t do anything about
they don’t want to pay me then they don’t have to, this, then the waste could affect the [state] aquifer,
but if they want to pay me then pay me.’” which means all of [the state].” Seeing the conse-
In his post-­unit questionnaire, DJ wrote that quences of this decision in the game thus had impli-
after playing the game he had realized “that you need cations for the arguments students made in letters to
to look at all viewpoints before jumping to a conclu- the governor about political action in response to the
sion.” Other students also changed their arguments Kaleidoscope leak.
after playing the game. Another student wrote, In their post-­unit questionnaires, more than
“What changed in my writing after this was . . . one-­third of the students also wrote about realiza-
my solution. It wasn’t the best for the people in the tions concerning the consequences of their decisions.
game, so it probably wasn’t the best for the people in For example, students wrote the following responses
[our] county.”
In the world beyond the class-
room, not all voices carry equal
weight, and some audiences are not
disposed to listen. Quandary, too,
offers characters whose reactions
are more indifferent. Nevertheless,
the game invites students, acting as
space captain, to consider the differ-
ent perspectives of all twelve colonists
before presenting their decision to
the Colonial Council. And as their
comments suggest, a willingness
to hear other perspectives, and to
change one’s mind, may be import-
ant for those who will be future citi-
zens and perhaps leaders in their own
communities.

SEEING CONSEQUENCES
FIGURE 2.
Quandary also allowed students to In this screenshot of one ending to Quandary, students get to see the
see the consequences for the colony of consequences of a possible argument. CREDIT LINE TO COME.

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 Put Me in the Game: Video Games and Argument Writing for Environmental Action
to the prompt, “After playing the game, I realized
that . . .”:
nn “Certain choices that could be good at the
moment, could be bad the next.”
nn “The outcome of what would happen if the
[state] government made a decision.”
nn “Having an issue like bad water is a bigger
deal than I thought it was.”
nn “How the Kaleidoscope accident could do a
lot of damage to the people around them.”
nn “That I should be very careful about how
and when I use my facts.”
These realizations came from seeing the conse-
quences in the game of their arguments about the
water contamination problem. Meanwhile, the
actual consequences of the Kaleidoscope leak may
take years to play out in real time.
CONVINCING WITH EVIDENCE
Perhaps most importantly for teachers, Quandary
encouraged students to carefully select convinc-
ing evidence. And though the game awarded play-
ers points for distinguishing facts from opinions or
for choosing facts relevant to their solutions, it did
not prescribe which solutions would “win.” Indeed,
every argument met with both support and opposi-
tion from the colonists, and every potential solution
led to mixed consequences.
Rather than discouraging students, this spurred
them to make their arguments more convincing (in the
game and, later, in their letters). “I tried to match up
facts that would change their opinions or strengthen
their opinions,” said DJ of his attempts to persuade the
colonists. “Every opinion matters, I guess? And opin-
ions can change with evidence and reasons.” Like DJ,
more than one-­third of students explicitly mentioned
their use of evidence and reasoning in their answers to
the post-­unit questionnaire prompt, “What changed
in my writing after this was . . .”:
nn “My claims and evidence.”
nn “Adding more information and appealing to
other readers.”
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EJ_July_2019_B.indd 74
nn “My claims are much stronger, and I started
to add counter-­claims to balance my letter.”
nn “More info . . . it’s going to the Governor,
so I need more info.”
nn “I put just enough evidence, and the
evidence related to my topic and supported
my reasons.”
In the game, using evidence became a means of ral-
lying support or addressing counterclaims—­and of
solving a problem on behalf of the colony. Students
also received comments about their use of evidence
from peer review and from writing conferences with
their teacher. But in their responses above from
the post-­unit questionnaires, students linked these
changes to playing the game and to the opportuni-
ties it provided to test out their arguments on mul-
tiple, diverse audiences, as well as to see the conse-
quences of those arguments for the community.
CONCLUDING
Digital, online games, like Quandary, can provide
not only material for students to write about but also
invitations for students to write in the game to solve
problems—­problems that may have real-­world rele-
vance. This is good news for teachers as they search
for resources to develop students’ “argument liter-
acy” (Graff). As initiatives like the College, Career,
and Community Writers Program (National Writ-
ing Project) collect resources for teachers that pro-
mote respectful, community-­ engaged argumenta-
tion, digital online games such as Quandary may be
an important addition.
Some teachers have already begun to connect
writing with games to issues beyond the classroom.
When Lucas Gillespie, composer of an English lan-
guage arts curriculum built around the popular
game World of Warcraft, learned that his students had
found a way to cheat another player out of his gold,
he opened an ethical debate; students eventually
agreed to return the gold and write an apology—­and
received a response from the other player commend-
ing their honesty (Helms).
Similarly, serious edugames can provide occa-
sions for ethical arguments as well as opportunities
6/9/19 5:39 PM

to receive audience reactions and to see the conse-
quences of such arguments—­opportunities that may
not be immediately available in the “real world” but
that certainly have implications for how students
learn to participate in it. As Gee writes in Good Video
Games and Good Learning, “Scientists do science to
advance science . . . not with the sole goal of learn-
ing it, but with the goal of contributing to it.” So
students should have opportunities to compose argu-
ments not just for the sake of learning to write but
also in service of literate participation in a demo-
cratic society.
For example, the National Council of Teachers
of English “Resolution on Literacy Teaching on Cli-
mate Change” reminds us that
[s]tudents need to explore images, texts, ideas, per-
spectives, and issues; need to empathize with victims
of climate change; need to imagine consequences and
possibilities, and take action individually, locally, and
nationally. They need our guidance in learning how
to read and communicate about these vital and trou-
bling issues.
Serious edugames, such as Quandary, may help stu-
dents begin to take action by imagining the con-
sequences of arguments about high-­ stakes social
issues, including those related to the environment—­
consequences that, though they may not manifest
immediately, may be far more serious than paying
for a wheel alignment.
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 Put Me in the Game: Video Games and Argument Writing for Environmental Action

MICHAEL B. SHERRY is a former middle school and high school English teacher and has
been an NCTE member since 2008. At the University of South Florida, Tampa, he teaches
future English teachers and studies teacher response to student writing. Contact him at
mbsherry@usf.edu.

An NCTE member since 2008, ANN M. LAWRENCE is the codirector of the Tampa Bay
Area Writing Project and teaches prospective and practicing writing teachers at the
University of South Florida, Sarasota-­Manatee. Her research focuses on argument literacy,
inquiry writing, and disciplinary cultures. She can be reached at annlawrence@sar.usf.edu.

Summer Time
There is time to listen to the crunch
of the runner’s shoes as she passes the house;
there will be time later to follow in her steps.
There is time to listen to the morning’s last crickets
and tree toads chirping and croaking, their timid
voices fading along with the anonymity of dark.
There is time to listen to the words on the pages
now spread across my lap. Later I will set aside
pens and paper and with tools borrowed
from my brother, build something permanent—
but something now, too, is being built, something
that takes its own time and tools.
Later too I will take my daughter to the dentist.
I will look up—annoyed, then amused—across my book of poetry
and listen to a woman argue with her grandson over how much her pillow cost.
Later still I will mark the day off on the calendar,
filling its square with a large red X—not with the
incriminating marks of a teacher correcting students’ papers
but with the solemn mark of a pirate who knows
the value of a good map.
—GREG SCHREUR

© 2019 BY GREG SCHREUR

GREG SCHREUR, an NCTE member for most of his eighteen-year career, teaches
English at City High Middle School in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He has published a
variety of articles, essays, and stories, but he proudly displays a framed collage of
rejection slips in his classroom. He can be contacted at schreurg@grps.org.

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