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How Do I Teach Writing? | Sample Syllabi | College Writing: Some Basics
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“In their complaints about student writing, academics hark back nostalgically to a golden age of academic community where Johnny could both read and write the ‘plain English’ that purists enshrine. But that golden age never existed in the modern university (and writing per se was not valued or even evaluated in the old college). As Daniel P. and Lauren B. Resnick have observed, ‘There is little to go back to in terms of pedagogical methods, curriculum, or school organization. The old tried and true approaches, which nostalgia today prompts us to believe might solve current problems, were designed neither to achieve the literacy standards sought today nor to assure successful literacy for everyone—there is no simple past to which we can return.’”
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Resnick & Resnick, “The Nature of Literacy: An Historical Exploration” Harvard Educational Review 47, 1977, p. 385 qtd, in Writing in the Academic Disciplines, 1870-1990: A Curricular History. David R. Russell, Southern Illinois UP, 1991. p. 22.
As this quotation suggests, nostalgia for the "simple past" where writing instruction "worked," is misplaced and counter-productive. If our goals are simply to have students achieve mastery of the rules of English grammar and to raise standardized test scores, then old-school drills and multiple-choice tests are adequate pedagogical tools. If, however, our goals include helping students become critical thinkers and skillful wielders of language, then our pedagogies must likewise be more sophisticated and thoughtful.
But, How Do I Teach Writing?
First: acknolwedge to yourself, your students, and your colleagues that there is no "silver bullet" or immediate solution to "the student writing problem." In fact, there can't be a solution like that: writing is not a single task that, once mastered, accomplishes everything for everyone. (Similarly, no single writing course serves as an innoculation against "bad" writing.) Think about how you approach a new writing task. How do you identify what genre is required? For whom are you writing? Where can you view models or examples? What kind of feedback can/should you expect? Your students are facing these same questions when they are confronted with writing for academic audiences.
Then: read, talk, listen, and experiment. Read published materials (like those contained in the links below); talk to other teachers of writing; listen to your students and the questions they are asking you; experiment with new explanations and exercises. When you find things that work, keep them in your "toolbox." When something fails, call it a "teachable moment" and try something new.
Finally: continue to reflect on your teaching. Revisit your teaching philosophy statement. Continue to discuss your teaching experiences with your colleagues (but don't forget that students are also a great resource - ask them what's working and what's not). Pay attention to the connections between the assignments you give and the work your students produce - these are, after all, interconnected genres, the latter following directly from the expectations (implicit, explicit, or confused) of the former. Remaining a "reflective teacher" is the surest way of becoming a successful one.
Sample Syllabi
Although I will not provide a simple (or single) answer to the question of how we should teach writing, the following samples provide starting points for new teachers of composition.
College Writing: Some Basics
See also the Building Blocks for Academic Writing section of the Writing@Case website.
- > Gail Stygall's textbook Reading Context (Thompson/Wadsworth, 2005) contains three introductory chapters that outline college writing in (I think) very useful ways. These chapters contain sample student writing and commentary, in addition to clear descriptions of how college writing differs from high school writing. Chapter 1: Introduction to College Writing provides an overview; Chapter 2: Rhetorical Reading discusses how writers read texts; Chapter 3: Argument in College Writing identifies the keys to succesful argumentation.
- > "Why (and How) We Teach Writing" comes from Beth Finch Hedengren's A TA's Guide to Teaching Writing in All Disciplines (Bedford/St. Martin's, 2004), and it provides a nice overview of "writing to learn" (the catchphrase of Writing Across the Curriculum programs) and "learning to write" (the catchphrase of Writing in the Disciplines Programs). SAGES moves from the WAC model to the WID model across the four years of a student's education.
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