Textuality

A teacher friend of mine sent me "home" to Missouri with several textbooks (well, only 3) which she thought would be useful in my teaching of the definition paper. (I decided to teach this with the hopes that it will promote critical thinking, help prepare them for the textual analysis, and bring them oodles of writing enjoyment). Already this semester, I have found that these texts are valuable resources for information and examples about prewriting, paragraph development, introductions and conclusions, outlining, organization, thesis, narrative writing...and definition writing.

All of that is to say, though I enjoy the readings in the Lunsford text, it seems that a textbook offering professional writing, student writing, and some basic writing "instructions" and background on types of writing would be more useful for both teacher and student. For people who have been teaching for some time, using a book like Lunsford "just" as a source for supplementary readings likely works fine. However, I think that with most of MSUs ENG 110 courses being taught each year by first time teachers, a textbook with more (and better) explanations of the basics of writing and of critical thinking would be of use.

Of course we all have internalized the "basics" of writing and critical thinking, but sometimes when making a lesson plan the day or night before class when we're trying to finish an assignment for one of the classes we're taking, it would be helpful to have an ENG 110 textbook which discusses writing strategies a bit more. (I know that Hacker offers some strategies for writing, but overall, I find that textbook more useful as a punctuation/mechanics and MLA reference book for students).

The text that I am particularly impressed with is called Steps to Writing Well. It has sections on prewriting, thesis statements, paragraph development, drafting and revising, effective sentences, word logic, critical reading, exposition, argumentation, description, narration, research writing, writing in-class exams, writing about literature, writing about film, writing in the world of work, and grammar, punctuation and mechanics. For each chapter about types and genres of writing it includes strategies for writing and both student and professional examples of the kinds of writing/papers described in that chapter. Also, there are additional professional readings in the back which include not only professional samples of the various modes discussed in the book, but also essays for further analysis by MLK Jr, Peter Fish, and Alice Walker, literature for analysis by Aurora Morales, Percy Shelley, and Steven Crane, and essays on writing and language by Gretel Ehrlich, Lewis Thomas, and Amy Tan.

I know this particular book may not work because of the types of papers we have our students write, but something with these sorts of resources might be a good pick. We could always find our own supplemental readings if needed.

Celebrating Mediocrity?

Recently discussions in another course have given me pause as I consider my teaching philosophy and methods. Talk of emphasizing the students' self worth to improve their writing, of not criticizing their work so as to protect their fragile self esteem, of not recognizing (or at least not admitting) any variation in writing ability among students, of not having standards, of calling "inexperience" "need of practice" and "failing" "not passing" seems to me to lend to a celebration of mediocrity.

Obviously, we must always keep students in consideration when grading their papers and adjust our comments accordingly. We must be kind to them and respectful of them, addressing them in a way that we would like to be addressed and treating them as fellow writers, scholars, human beings. I feel that by addressing students' failures, oversights, mistakes, illogical thinking, or gasp, incorrect grammar we show them respect. It seems patronizing to me to assume that the student is too fragile for constructive criticism or too inept to learn to address both higher and lower order concerns simultaneously. It seems that students often know when they have written poorly, and when they don't realize there are problems in their writing, it is our job to help them identify their deficiencies and to help them fill in their gaps.

In my estimation, self-esteem and self-worth cannot be endowed upon students; students have to develop this for themselves. Perhaps this development of self-worth comes not from undeserving praise on a paper, ignoring problems, or refusing to call problems and deficiencies problems and deficiencies (though we should be able to find some element which we can comment positively about in every paper), but rather from constructive criticism and encouragement that lead to improvement and a sense of accomplishment. Comments which point out problems in the writing do not have to tear students down; there are ways to show them that you value them as human beings, students, writers without giving them a false vision of where they are in their development as writers.

I know that I am working under the assumptions that there are standards, that there are good and bad writers (though I don't use these terms in such a way so as to suggest that a person cannot move from being a bad writer to being a better, good, or even excellent writer), and that recognizing lack, problems, even failures is not necessarily wholey harmful. I cannot accept that there are no standards (although I can accept that these standards may be deeply internalized and difficult to "nail down"). If there are no standards, then what are our classes about? Why does Introduction to College Writing exist? Why are we in graduate school studying composition? Why are we teaching it? How can we grade writing?