People all over the place are talking about student writing. (Or I might have said, people all over the place are procrastinating about grading the papers that they've assigned to their students - hee!) What has been so interesting about this conversation that's developing is that it's happening across disciplines and that people in different disciplines are thinking about how to address writing in their classrooms, even if they don't technically teach a "writing class." Actually, of all the people to whom I link, I don't think we've got a single composition specialist in the bunch. That, my friends, is exciting to me, not because the composition and rhetoric crowd doesn't have a lot of great things to say about the subject (they do) but because I think it sucks when the discussion only happens in that crowd.
But anyway, you may be wondering what all of this has to do with my department rocking. Well, I just got an email from Fantastic Colleague, the director of our writing program, asking me to take part in a coffee hour where people from across the university from different departments will come together to talk about how most effectively to address writing in their classes. Isn't that cool?
12 years ago
10 comments:
Just because people in other departments don't talk about it doesn't mean they don't think about it. I used to teach sessions for grad TAs on helping students to write better and I would have people from business, the sciences, the humanities and the professional schools. The inability to write clearly is a problem that affects us all. Those of us in non-rhetoric disciplines struggle with how much we do, and should, have to teach the writing process itself on top of the stuff we have to teach in the field. MHO only.
I didn't mean to imply that people in other disciplines don't think about this issue - I do think, though, that the conversation about it across disciplines is incredibly valuable. When only the specialists talk about this stuff, I think that's when a lot of valuable voices don't get heard and it actually perpetuates the problems caused by relegating the teaching of writing to composition courses (or to the English department, which isn't the same thing, but which is often conflated with composition).
I love this idea -- it is a great way to have a conversation about writing across the curriculum. As a non-comp instructor, the biggest worry I have is that I am not helping my students to be better writers.
The Uni that I just left is dealing with this by making it mandatory for students to received 6 writing-itensive course credits in their major. While on some level this makes sense (it addresses some of the issues raised in the posts that you link, such as the "writing goals in different disciplines are different" issue), in a practical sense it is a nightmare to execute. It will never really happen this way because many departments can't even staff classes small enough to teach writing effectively.
More importantly, though, the other point that many people have raised about how ill-prepared many professors (or GTAs) are to teach writing was never addressed by this new rule. No training plans were put in place, no particular learning outcomes were identified. In short, if the rule is implemented, it will be a big fucking mess.
Coffee with people who teach writing and want to improve writing across the curriculum is a FAR more productive exercise if you ask me.
Yeah, Fantastic Colleague is really great at putting this sort of thing together, and I always volunteer when he does this stuff, not just because it's easy service (though of course, it IS easy service) but because it never feels like a waste of time. Also, I'm in a pretty big department and it's easy never to interact with people in other depts. of the university, so this sort of thing is a way to get to know people in other disciplines. Maybe when the thing actually happens (next month) I'll post about it.... Perhaps this is something people at other universities would want to do, too? But they don't necessarily have a model for how to do it?
As a comp-rhet person, I agree that we all need to talk about writing pedagogy. What I find funny is that you find people equating English with composition - I'm always running into people who equate English with literature and are shocked to find out that some of us work with other sorts of texts (of course, I also work with children's lit., which people also often leave out of their ideas about "English."
Aayor - we cross-commented :) SIX writing intensive courses? That's insane. I like the writing-intensive course idea in theory, but only if it's like one or two - not SIX. There is no way any department could support such a thing. And if there's no training as to HOW to run such a thing, it's better not to do it, I'd say.
I also like the coffee idea. There's some institutional backstory that goes with what the writing program ultimately aims to happen, but the plan is that people would go along with that ultimate aim voluntarily - that it wouldn't be a top-down sort of decision that people (or departments) would then be forced to go along with. I think that's the key with anything at universities, really, that things need to be faculty and student driven.
:-)
K8 -
It may be my particular university culture that equates English with writing, but yes, it's the norm here. Maybe because it's a regional comprehensive sort of place? In my part of the world, it takes a lot of energy to explain to people that what I do is not "teach grammar" or "teach students how to write." (Though, of course, I do those things, even if it's not my field of specialty.) I never encountered this at my R1 grad school.
Wow, amazing! I wish my undergrad program (or even Master's) taught me how to become a better writer.
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