Posted on 05/01/2019 5:45:27 AM PDT by reaganaut1
Freshman composition occupies a unique position in a college curriculum. It is the only class required of about 90 percent of enrollees whose diverse aptitudes and prior writing experience present a challenge for instructors every semester.
In Why They Can’t Write, instructor John Warner of the College of Charleston proposes a course he says will minimize the challenge for instructors and have students writing “clearly, persuasively, even beautifully” by semester’s end. His “dream” is to have his course “adopted in every classroom across the country,” but this classroom veteran hopes that the Warner model stays just that—a dream.
Before I say why Warner’s approach raises concerns, I’ll note that there is much to admire in his attitude toward teaching composition. A Yale professor once called the job “a torture to body and soul,” but 20 years in the classroom have not dampened Warner’s enthusiasm for teaching or his commitment to students, who may experience “overwhelming anxiety” during their college years. No other class requires as much one-on-one student/teacher interaction, and instructors who take an interest in students out of class will indeed boost their in-class performance.
Warner is also forthright about the commitment students must make if they are to improve their writing. He tells students that “writing is difficult, that it takes many drafts to realize a finished product, and that you’re never going to be as good as you wish.” He adds that writing well will “deliver lasting pleasure and knowledge” to students who do the hard work.
Prior to the mid-1980s, composition students followed a strict formula that treated writing as the “product” of an assigned topic, a due date, and a grade. Then came a new breed of scholars known as “composition theorists” who redefined writing as a “process” done in stages—planning, prewriting, drafting and revising.
(Excerpt) Read more at jamesgmartin.center ...
Public school, yes, in Texas.
Advise for the ruling class: take AP English (or equivalent) to pass out of freshman English. Saves you cerebral grief, keeps the money in your pocket, and you can finish your degree on time.
It’s true, most young people have the attention span of a coker spaniel
I am a community college librarian and I have worked in my position for twenty-five years. Over those years on several occasions I have read lots of research papers and essays students will just print out and then walk out and leave, never to return to collect. The writing quality has been on a spiral downward, especially in the last ten years.
I have student workers who ask me to critique their assignments every semester. I always tell them before giving their paper to me to read, read it yourself and imagine you were reading it like a news reporter. Would your audience be able to understand what you are trying to get across. That usually helps them to write a better product.
I have preached to my children about being able to write a coherent essay with an introduction, the body of the paper and a conclusion. I have also told them to learn basic mathematics and be able to speak to a group of people clearly and succinctly and they would be ahead of the game in the workforce.
The high schools in this country are failing miserably in the products they are graduating and now the college are having to try and teach these students just the basics of everything in regard to education.
I tend to disagree somewhat. Having worked for a leading edge engineering firm for thirty years 90% of my writing was technical documentation and instructions for users. It was parsed and parsed again. Content, structure, clarity and logic were stressed. And yet, this had to be produced so as to not sound as if it were written by a robot. Motherhood and apple pie were strictly prohibited. Personally, I found this a very rewarding field. As I advanced reviewing the technical documents, and later, signatory authority became the norm.
The decine of graduates writing ability started to become noticable in the late ‘70s to early ‘80s.
I don’t disagree at all. What I found was there is a continuum running from specificity on one end to comprehension on the other. It’s a zero sum game.
Funny. I like it.
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