The student who is preparing for preservice or inservice teaching in any field must answer two crucial questions: “What is learning?” and “What is teaching?” The student preparing to teach writing must also answer the question, “What is the purpose and the value of writing?” Writing is a subject area in which the teacher cannot easily state why writing itself is valuable or what purposes are served by learning the “art and craft” of writing, except as a tool for communication in other subject areas. In his article “Who’s Afraid of Subjectivity,” Robert P. Yagelski (1994), offers some answers to these questions about knowledge, education, and writing, as well as addressing related questions concerning individuality.
Current writing pedagogies value writing and writers in different ways. Yagelski compares the underlying epistemology of expressivist approaches with postmodern epistemological theory. Expressivist theories claim that knowledge is found within the individual, and writing is a form of self-discovery. “Process-oriented” writing instruction is connected with this pedagogical approach. Postmodern theorists define knowledge as the fluid, shifting, and selective perceptions of reality that are tied to particular times, places, and cultures. Proponents of postmodern theories claim that expressivist practices reproduce ideologies that conceal both power structures and the position of students within these structures. Such practices are also thought to reduce awareness of social differences related to gender, class, and race between individuals in the classroom. By encouraging only constructive criticism and harmonious group work, expressivist teachers avoid confrontation over real-world issues. For postmodernists, writing is...
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... rather than, in Keats’ words, “remaining content with half-knowledge,” and I think that an epistemology and a pedagogy that embraces paradox is rather well suited to the postmodern world.
References
Keats, John. Letter dated Dec.21st, 1817. Cited in The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory (1991) by J.A. Cuddon. New York: Penguin.
Kluth, Paula. 2000. “Community-Referenced Learning and the Inclusive Classroom” Remedial & Special Education 21.1 (Jan/Feb): 19-26.
Macrorie, Ken. 1988. The I-Search Paper. Portsmouth,NH: Boynton-Cook
Phelps, T.O. 1992. “Research or Three-Search?” English Journal 89.1: 76-78.
Yagelski, Robert P. 1994. “Who’s Afraid of Subjectivity: Postmodernism and the Composing Process.” Taking Stock: The Writing Process Movement in the 90’s, edited by Lad Tobin and Thomas Newkirk. 203-217. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Wardle, Elizabeth. "Identity, Authority, and Learning to Write in New Workplaces." Wardle, Elizabeth and Doug Downs. Writing about Writing A College Reader. Boston: Bedford/St.Martin's, 2011. 520-537. Print.
In Donald M. Murrays’s essay “What is Practical Education” he explains his reasoning behind why he allowed his students to write badly. He shares his own experience with police-like teachers who drove him to hate writing. In hopes of helping his students find their voice he allows his students to write the words down as they come, no matter how awkward they sound. Often times they find out that they have more to say then they thought. Rhetorical devices are used to help the readers relate to his point of view on writing.
“Although both articles are exploring writing and the change that needs to or that does happen, Peter Elbow’s idea of growth in writing is a more naïve and simplistic approach to writing, where as Somers and Saltz’s article, while still very general, takes a more realistic point of view at the writing experience for students and new writers”.
In Downs and Wardle’s article, they argue and identify the flaws in teaching writing in college. Demonstrating the misconceptions that academic writing is universal, but rather specialized in each case. Citing studies and opinions from esteemed professionals, Downs & Wardle state their points and illuminate the problem in today’s many colleges.
"John Keats." British Literature 1780-1830. Comp. Anne K. Mellor and Richard E. Matlak. Boston: Heinle & Heinle, 1996. 1254-56. Print.
Burnham and Powell overview the field of expressive pedagogy and its writer-centered approach by discussing viewpoints from expressivist and mainstream theory and practices. Voice is a vital component to expressive pedagogy because it provides a mode of “psychological, social, and spiritual development” for the writer” (113). Practitioners of expressivism, Murray, Macrorie, Coles, and Elbow wrote “anti-textbooks” opposing the reductive current-traditional model of writing curricula because the model devalues the writer by removing his/her authority from the writing they produce. Brittons’s expressive function in language (spectator and participant roles)
Keats, John. Life, Letters, and Literary Remains, of John Keats. Ed. Richard Monckton Milnes Houghton. Vol. 2. London: E. Moxon, 1848. Google Books. Web. 27 May 2014.
In “Writing to Learn: Writing across the Disciplines,” Anne J. Herrington finds different sources stating that writing is to be taken serious. Janet Emig says, "writing represents a unique mode of learning-not merely valuable, not merely special, but unique” (1) meaning that writing is far more essential than we ought to make it seem. Anne Herrington wants educators teaching in economics, history, chemistry or any other subject to guide their students into understanding why progressing their writing skills will be more helpful to them. At the end of the day, it all comes down to the educator; whether he/she wants their students to use writing as a way for students to adapt to different disciplines.
In his essay, "Teach Writing as a Process not a Product," Donald Murray outlines the major difference between the traditional pedagogy that directed the teaching of writing in the past and his newly hailed model. Traditionally, Murray explains, English teachers were taught to teach and evaluate students' writing as if it was a finished product of literature when, as he has discovered, students learn better if they're taught that writing is a process. For Murray, once teachers regard writing as a process, a student-centered, or writer-centered, curriculum falls into place. Rules for writing fall by the way side as writers work at their own pace to see what works best for them.
There are various ways writers can evaluate their techniques applied in writing. The genre of writing about writing can be approached in various ways – from a process paper to sharing personal experience. The elements that go into this specific genre include answers to the five most important questions who, what, where, and why they write. Anne Lamott, Junot Diaz, Kent Haruf, and Susan Sontag discuss these ideas in their individual investigations. These authors create different experiences for the reader, but these same themes emerge: fears of failing, personal feelings toward writing, and most importantly personal insight on the importance of writing and what works and does not work in their writing procedures.
The social contextual perspective of writing looked at writing as situated in reflective processes of social and historical contexts, as well as reflections of classroom curriculum and pedagogy. Writing practices vary across cultures and contexts, and are shaped by writers’ social communications and interactions. Writing is also perceived as a nonlinear process and is closely related to social identities. Through the social contextual lens, the understanding of writing has been shifted from viewing writing as a personal activity or technique, to a mental, cognitive process shaped by the broader social, cultural and historical contexts. Given this, writing development should be considered as an activity that is tied closely to the literacy learning in the classrooms. Writing reflects the writers’ mental process and tells what they are at the specific moment that writing occurs, and is framed by the social, political, and cultural contexts at that moment. In particular, the social contextual perception of writing suggests that writing is a non-linear process so that there is no such a thing called template while learning to write. Students always bring in their own resources, prior knowledge and repertoire of language use to construct their own pieces and are inclined to apply diverse modes received from multi-media to their writing tasks in today’s writing practices. Framed by social contextual perspective, the development of written language is largely influenced by writers’ interactions and engagement in social communications, interactions, and
Throughout High School, going to English, there were always four questions that crossed my mind. Are we reading a book? Watching the movie of this book? Writing one essay on the motifs of the book? And lastly, I thought this was English so why aren’t I being taught English? My High School experience is a prime example of what Stanley Fish and Maxine Hairston mean when they say that teachers are spending too much time on things that will not benefit students writing skills. Stanley Fish wrote in the New York Times, “What Should Colleges Teach?” and Maxine Hairston wrote in College Composition and Communication, “Diversity, Ideology, and Teaching Writing.” Within both of these articles, Hairston and Fish agree with each other and my High School experience that Composition classes are not focusing on the right things.
College writing professors teach writing in a variety of ways around the United States and the world. The reason for this is that some professors are trying to teach their students a different aspect of writing an essay or a paper. Two views on this particular subject that I found interesting were Maxine Hairston’s essay "Diversity, Ideology, and Teaching Writing" and also Thomas Bray’s newspaper article "Memorial Day and Multiculturalism". These essays are two totally different views on how diversity and multiculturalism is to be applied in America or taught in the college writing classroom.
Every animal on the planet is capable of communicating, be it verbally, physically, or possibly by some means yet discovered. Writing on the other hand is a form of communication exclusive to human beings (and maybe the occasional ape). Children are taught to read and write almost as soon as they can speak. Writing becomes a part of everyday life, and because of this it is easy to forget that writing "is a means of "communication [one] must consciously learn" (Heffernan and Lincoln 3). For this reason writing in college can be a challenge for even the most skilled of writers. While the basics of academic writing may seem like common knowledge, knowing them and understanding them can prove to be quite different. In the writing center it is our job to help writers take what they know about writing, and begin to understand it. Understanding is the basis for ...
Writing is an important part of everyone’s life, whether we use it in school, in the workplace, as a hobby or in personal communication. It is important to have this skill because it helps us as writers to express feelings and thoughts to other people in a reasonably permanent form. Formal writing forms like essays, research papers, and articles stimulates critically thinking. This helps the writer to learn how to interpret the world around him/her in a meaningful way. In college, professors motivate students to write in a formal, coherent manner, without losing their own voice in the process. Improving your writing skills is important, in every English class that’s the main teaching point; to help students improve their writing skills. Throughout my college experience I have acknowledge that