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Teaching college writing to first year students is like herding cats. It's difficult and sometimes I question why we do it. This is not my way of questioning why we teach students to write, because I believe every student has an inner writer. But I know that not every student in my class is going to need to write a personal narrative. Not every student is going to need to know MLA style. In fact, I really question the validity of this system.
So, why is teaching them how to write an English thing? Why isn’t there writing in the discipline course for each major? Since most students are not English majors, why is writing specifically an English course? Do we think that a college writing course, designed to hammer out the mechanics of grammar, syntax is sufficient? I don't.
Every discipline has their own writing style and technique, so why don’t grad psych students teach psychology writing 101 and 102? In almost every major, the possible exception being the English major because writing is considered a part of the English discipline, students enter their major without knowing how to "talk the talk" so to speak. They know there is a language of their discipline, they’ve seen it, come close to understanding it, and find themselves near drowning in it. Students get that there is something called "good writing" but they don't know how to do it and because they don't do it perfectly the first time they think they never will.
Pardon my gender stereotyping for a moment, while I make a point.
It’s like a little girl watching her mother put on make up. The results when the child attempts to make up her own face are bound to be near comical parodies of her mother’s careful actions. However, with practice, and a bit of fashion sense, the poor child will stop fixing herself up like Bobo the clown or Mimi from the Drew Carey show. She'll develop her own style and it will become as natural to her as breathing. However, if her father (without begging gender or sexual orientation questions) were to teach her, she might not ever learn how to properly use make up. Why? Because her teacher was not an expert in the subject. Writing is like this. We need the right teacher so that when we make the mistakes we can be corrected so that we can learn how to do it properly.
If each major had a writing course and let their students write from that perspective, their writing would be more focused and could develop with an eye to their future career. I could picture this model working so well. We know there is a need. We could do one semester of college writing, a general overview of the nuts and bolts of writing, then send the students to more specified writing courses. This would ease them in to their professional or academic language much more effectively then our current method.
This idea seems logical. I guess that's why it has no place in higher learning.
Sigh. And we wonder why the humanities are struggling?
**Legal Disclaimer: This post does not reflect the opinions of the University of Louisiana, the English Department, or anyone else who might think I'm putting words in their mouth. This post is intended to get students thinking about why all majors take a basic writing course in the English department. It is not challenging any university or departmental policies.
I agree with each discipline teaching their own writing style and technique. Trying this method everyone will be able to do well and excel in their future careers. I also understand why colleges haven't adapted to this approach. Not only do you use english at school and work, but you also use it in everyday life.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with the fact that each different discipline writes in their own way. Sometimes the broad English writing classes do not quite cut it. Yet, even with that in mind, i believe that learning how to write and be creative in general is very important no matter what discipline the student plans to encounter. I do agree that possibly opening up the curriculum a little to allow of an adaptive change in the way writing is taught could very possibly help. But I also believe the system we have now is great because it teaches the student to write and speak with proper English skills.
ReplyDeleteI can see where you are coming from with this but some majors only need like two English classes so putting them in a specifically designed class for their major could be a good thing and a bad. It could be good because it would take all the non English majors and put them together and all the English majors together. This would be good for the English majors because they would be able to get deeper into the English language.
ReplyDeleteAs stated above each major does have their own writing perspectives, some may think its "stupid" or others who love to write may think "Wonderful". Since we are all American and possibly voted , dont quote me on this because my facts are just hear say, one
ReplyDeleteCont of previous .... of the worse education systems in the world should we change? I believe that since we are not a communist community and that we dont have a set path in life we can take it for the better or worse the current system of Language Arts is suffecient, IF we update it to fit todays needs and not those from the 1800's. We need a system that allows us to take as many paths that are available to us, not just the currrent but for the future as well. We switch majors and have mid life crises, I dont know about you but I'd rather not retake english everytime I wanted a new job. More to come possibly this is a redue because the computer earased my last post that took me 30 minutes to write:C
ReplyDeleteI definetly agree with what you have said about teaching freshman college students how to write is like herding cats! If I were in your shoes I would get so frustrated because like you mentioned above, everyone has their own style, and let's face it...not everyone enjoys writing! If writing an essay was geared more toward our majors it would be of great help because I really believe that we would become more passionate and confident in what we write. But also, at the same time writing is much like a form of art. We use it to express ourselves. It would be interesting to see how I could combine creative writing with writing about nursing!?!?
ReplyDeleteI agree with all of what you have stated, yet i also think maybe we should have both types of writing classes. Maybe at a freshmen level they should take 101 and 102 just to get them started on trying to write. Then they should follow up with writing classes dealing with their major in higher levels like a junior or so. A lot of freshmen, like myself, change their major; so if ,for example, i had to take my Chemical engineer writing class instead of 101 or 102 and i changed my major shortly after and have to take more english classes for my new major, it would be horrible. I also agree with what has been previously said about creative writing and how important that is.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Tyler. English in general is butchered each and everyday in our society. Therefore, I do think that an introduction to advanced English writing is necessary to aid any student in their further learning. Every student has to write papers outside of English class, and personally I think that English 101 and 102 have an impact on how well each student writes, where as it's for their major or just another paper.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everyone else that has posted. Every discipline does have it's own writing style and techniques. It wouldn't be fun if each class had a writing course because of other conflicts it can cause. If you decided to change majors, you'd fall behind because you'd have to take the writing course for that major.
ReplyDeleteHaving English 101 and 102 has helped develop my writing and give me the basis on how to write a good paper. I changed my major and lost a total of seven credits. If not for 101 and 102, i would have been taking an English class for a major that I am not in anymore and I would have lost even more credits. Your must write papers to learn how to make your writing better so even if you are not writing about your major or something that pertains to what you want to do with your life, you are still learning a valuable skill.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to note that UL is thinking of changing English 360 to a discipline specific course. I hope it helps each student learn to speak in the language of their field.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with what Lanie posted. Although each class we take is going towards our major, English 101 and 102 shouldn't be a course on learning how to "talk the talk." These classes are simply just teaching us how to better our skills when writing a paper. Higher level english classes should have more to do with our major so that we don't lose any credits if we switch majors while being a freshman or a sophomore.
ReplyDeleteEnglish 101 and 102 do not necessarily go with our ciriculum but they are just learning tools to help us grow with our writing skills. They are very useful in the case that if you switch your major, you wont lose any of those credits, and that saves time and stress on everyone.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Tyler has posted. I have changed my major and luckily is didn't affect my courses and transferred. I also think that these classes are to help us write better but I just wish they would focus on our majors more.
ReplyDeleteThis is just my opinion and I'm speaking soley from a future engineers perspective, but i think writing on a more basic level is a good thing. True one day I will hopefully be in the company of high esteemed engineers and will need to understand the language of my peers; however, as an engineer I am also required to talk to contractors in order to get the work done. Now I'm not attacking the proffesion of a general worker or anything, but facts state that most general labor hands are not at a college graduate level. As an engineer i will be required to write out plans that a "common man" can understand. This is why in my opinion a basic writing class can prove to be more useful to me in getting my job done effectively. Having said all that I do beleive that a higher level class specefic to my department should be offered if only to keep me from sounding incompetant to fellow engineers.
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