From the Workplace to Academia: Nontraditional Students and the Relevance of Workplace Experience in Technical Writing Pedagogy Abstract: This article compares initial drafts of job application cover letters written by nontraditional students in an introductory professional writing course to those written by traditional students to determine if prior workplace experience of nontraditional students improves the quality of rhetorical adaptability in their writing. Although one might expect nontraditional students to display more rhetorical adaptability, the study found no difference. These results suggest that minor changes in pedagogy may help nontraditional students take advantage of their workplace experience when confronted with workplace-oriented …show more content…
Research demonstrates that this can be a difficult transition—accustomed to writing within an academic culture, students find themselves writing in an alien rhetorical situation where the consequences, good or bad, of their writing go well beyond a grade (Beaufort, 1999; Breuch, 2001; Flower & Ackerman, 1994; Spinuzzi, 1996; Winsor, 1996). For traditional students, whose workplace experience is often limited to part-time, and who have rarely identified themselves with their job (“I’m a waitress” versus “I’m a student who waits tables”), the workplace culture and the rhetorical assumptions implied within that culture must clearly be …show more content…
This trajectory assumes that the student’s exposure to the workplace culture is fairly limited. We assume that TPW programs must concentrate on helping students adjust their writing skills to reflect the new, unfamiliar rhetorical situation of the workplace. With the influx of nontraditional students, TPW programs may now have significant numbers of students with quite a bit of experience in this workplace culture. Even if this experience did not involve much writing, the immersion into the culture itself may have given these students a different perspective on workplace writing compared to a traditional student with relatively limited background in the working world. What happens to typical assumptions about the transition from academia to workplace, and the central mission of TPW programs, if our students were in the workplace before entering
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.
Sam Dillion wrote “What Corporate America Can’t Build: A Sentence” for an audience of college students, employees and corporate people. In his article, Sam points out that companies are spending a lot of money annually on remedial training. According to Sam, the writing problem appears in e-mails, reports and texts. He is informing his audience to brush up on writing skills before entering the corporate world, in order to avoid remedial training. Companies like to hire employees with excellent writing skills but many of employees and applicants fall short of that standard.
In this article written by David Bartholomae, the author discusses problems basic writers make and about how they must use the discourse (communication style) of the academic community they are writing to, to be an effective writer. Bartholomae believes that “Inventing the University," is being able to assemble and mimic the universities language(5). Which means, if a student wants to be an efficient writer, he or she must be able to speak the language of his or her audience. Bartholomae writes that a common mistake of basic writers is that they don’t use an authoritative voice, and tend to switch into a more passive voice. This could be due to the fact that students have difficulty establishing their mindset or attitude for an audience
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.
Both of the articles “Dancing with Professors” by Patricia Limerick and “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott resolve the issues faced by college students when writing papers. The first article, “Dancing with Professors,” explains why college professors expect more elaborate papers even though they assign dull and un-motivational reading to their students. On the other end of the writing spectrum, “Shitty First Drafts” explains how valuable the first draft is to students, and why students should not feel weary about writing them.
Murray, Charles. “Are Too Many People Going to College?” They Say/I Say: The Moves That Matter In Academic Writing. Ed. Gerald Graff. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2012. 222-242. Print.
Thomas, Cal. “Is the American Dream Over?.” They Say I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing. Graff, Gerald. Birkenstein, Cathy. New York. London: 2012. 569.
Thomas, C. (2011). Is the American Dream Over? They Say, I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing (2nd ed.). New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company.
When I scheduled my classes last winter, I knew I had to fulfill my requirements for general education and take English Composition II. I had heard from my oldest daughter that Comp II was no fun at all and when she took it, she was bored to tears. Not knowing any better, I took her word and prepared myself for a rather boring and uneventful semester of “robot writing”. The kind of writing that was dull and made one’s eyes cross from boredom. I soon found out that this didn’t have to be the case. Academic writing and research could be enjoyable and it was not at all boring.
Burciaga, Jose Antonio. “Tortillas.” Patterns for College Writing: A Rhetorical Reader and Guide. 12th ed. Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. Boston: Bedford, 2012. 507-509. 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.
Dual Enrollment English was the first real college-level class I ever had. I actually have taken other college-level classes before it, but Dual Enrollment English was the only course that gave me an accurate representation of how college will really be like and what it will expect of me. My journey through Dual Enrollment English began with a sense of fear and self-defeat and ended with a sense of satisfaction and confidence with many highs and lows along the way. This portfolio catalogs the evolution of my writing during my two semesters in Dual Enrollment English including seven different types of papers as well as each of their respective drafts and tutor feedback.
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.
Graff, G., Birkenstein, C., & Durst, R. K. (2009). The Growing College Gap. "They say/I say": the moves that matter in academic writing : with readings (p. 379). New York: W.W. Norton & Co.
According to the researchers, “conceptualizing this transition as a social/cognitive act of entering a discourse emphasizes both the problem-solving effort of a student learning to negotiate a new situation and the role the situation will play in what is learned” (p. 222). The view that writing is typically a socially situated, communicative act is later incorporated into Flower’s (1994) socio-cognitive theory of writing. In the social cognitive curriculum students are taught as apprentices in negotiating an academic community, and in the process develop strategic knowledge. Writing skills are acquired and used through negotiated interaction with real audience expectations, such as in peer group responses. Instruction should, then, afford students the opportunity to participate in transactions with their own texts and the texts of others (Grabe & Kaplan, 1996). By guiding students toward a conscious awareness of how an audience will interpret their work, learners then learn to write with a “readerly” sensitivity (Kern,