Lu and What makes a Real Writer

"In my "literature" courses for junior- or senior-level college students or "writing" courses for first-year students, students learn to talk with considerable eloquence about the politics of stylistic decisions made by "real" writers, especially those writing from the borderlands by choice or necessity"(445)

It just seems like the politics of choosing a text is a "necessary evil." We would like our students to learn from the master(?) But at the same time, we want them to write in their own style and not sound like a text book. So we work around the problem by letting them select their own topics, believing that they will use their own voice in a written form. We want to have our cake and eat it too(I think some one on this blog has made an allusion to this teaching philosophy): we want them to write "academically" but when the form is too experimental, their content will suffer(?).

Writers, "real writers," use the English language in their own way, adding spice to their finished product. But that, for the most part, is what we see: a "real writer" presents a polished version of his experimental writing. This leaves the door wide open for deconstruction because a text is never finished, literature is never finished, its always being adapted, relived, reread, re-appropriated by professional and amateur writers alike. So what the hell is a "real writer?" In Lu's article, she gives two anecdotes  of professional writers who were criticized about their supposed misuse of the English language: these critics were editors of some kind. One writer chose to take the advice of the editor and one didn't; which one of the writers is a real writer? is the writer's integrity somehow changed? And if these two writers were used in a composition class, we dam well better know that there were editors telling the writers to appeal to a mass audience and their words were being manipulated.
My opinion: a real writer can recognize another writer; their form matches the content and their content matches the form.

    

Writing through the years

"Out of the woods: emerging traditions in the teaching of writing” by Ann Raimes. This article discusses how writing instruction has changed over the years, and how with each decade there is a new focus. In the 1960s, language instruction, content and knowledge are given so that students only need to apply the information, not create or analyze any critical information on their own. When there was a push for composition writing in the 1970’s, the idea of process essays evolved and there was a focus on creating and constructive knowledge like invention and collaboration. With the advent of the 1980’s, there was a focus on using personal experiences in writing and concentrating more on content. Teachers also had more control over what they taught, so that allowed them to create courses focusing on their chosen content matter. In the late 1980’s there was a focus on the reader and the expectations that come from audience. This focus on the reader determines the idea of “academic demands” and “academic discourse community” (412), in which students can determine the audience and then teaching forms and structure so that students can use it for that audience. Raimes discusses that she teaches writing in two ways in her classroom, once as “writing for learning” and the other as “writing for display”. While students need to pass a test, they do not to know that writing is a tool they will need to know in their lives.

Form vs content

“The Focus on form vs. content in teaching writing” by George Hillocks, Jr. This article discusses the obsession with formatting and how teachers of writing depend on teaching the “forms and devices of writing” while not focusing on the content (240). The reason for this is the assumption that once students know different forms of writing, they can then just add content. However, what is problematic is that knowing the format of a writing structure does not equate to knowing the subject matter, which makes a coherent essay. Hillocks explains that there are three reasons why teachers teach form: effective writing requires just a few rules, there is pressure on teachers to help students perform on tests, and methods that are being influenced by state writing exams. Hillocks expands on this by asserting that state mandated testing influence teachers to teach form because even though support is valued, it does not require that the support is high quality or detailed. In order to change the emphasis on form, teachers need to  be taught to focus on the same writing quality that colleges expect, teachers need to change their own teaching, and the state tests need to include information so that students can use actual data and textual support instead of simply stating general ideas.

I can use this article for my paper because it connects to timed writing. In doing a 45 minute timed write, students sacrifice content for style, making sure they have the 5 paragraphs. If we are to teach students to move beyond the 5 paragraph essay, I don't know if making students write under such a short time limit will allow them the creativity and time to do so.

Style over substance

”Style over Substance” by John. S. O’Connor. This article discusses timed write using a prompt from the SAT a few years ago, “Style is more important than substance.” This essay begins arguing that the timed write is seen “as a snapshot of student writing at that moment,” and that “writing is not a process, but is in fact measurable in discrete stages” (52). The timed write assumes that students do not need to revise their writing to become better, but that what they wrote is already sufficient and correct. It pays no attention to the content and using the correct examples, instead focusing on the writing. The timed write sacrifices quality if the paper is coherent. Furthermore, O’Connor states that a timed write also adhere to specific implicit rules, such as no profanity, no pictures, and an address to the omniscient reader. O’Connor supports these ideas with an example of a student who wrote about Godzilla, using text and images. The student failed the assignment because the graders decided that he did not follow the traditional format and that he did not pay attention to his audience. O’Connor argues that the student did address the prompt, but in an alternative style rather than the expected 5 paragraph essay. The problem with scoring timed write is that each scorer is looking for different things and that there is no common standard to assess timed writes. 

I have always been a proponent of substance over style, though substance is much harder to teach. It depends on the students' comprehension skills and reading skills, while style can be reduced to certain sentence stems and structure students can reproduce on their own. A matter of teaching substance is having teachers focus more on content also, but where is the time to do it in our education system nowadays.

No apology for the timed write

 “An Apologia for the Timed Impromptu Essay Test” by Edward White. In this article from NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English), written in 1995, the author discusses the rise and pitfalls of the timed writing tests. While it was heralded as an “effective, responsible, and teacher-supportive assessment” (White 30), there are many reasons why it is limited in terms of grading writing. White states that the timed writing test was a response against multiple-choice testing because it specifically focuses on writing instead of simply choosing a correct multiple-choice answer, which is a passive action.  Some reasons why timed writing tests are a valid indication of college class placement is that we can be sure that the essay is the work of the writer himself, and that it offers insight into the “focus and concentration” (34) of the student. The goal is not to seek a perfect multi-draft essay, but to see whether the writer can read and write coherent sentences (33). In contrast, portfolio assessment allows the reader to see growth and value in a variety of writing pieces (37), it uses multiple measures of grading such as self-assessment (38), and it defines the writing as a process instead of simple “first-draft writing” (36). The emphasis on timed writes focuses more on completion rather than content. What the author suggests is that instead of one timed write, students should respond to at least two questions so that the test can be a sort of “abbreviated portfolio” (44). He insists that all tests have restrictions, but the timed write is not bad.

June Jordan and Literature in a Composition Class

Jordan’s essay blended so many genres and issues in exploring the prejudice against Black English in and outside of the classroom. What’s ironic is Jordan’s quoting of her students’ own responses to The Color Purple: “Why she have them talk so funny. It don’t sound right” “It don’t look right, neither. I couldn’t hardly read it”(161). Jordan captures her student’s responses very well; they can speak up once the elephant in the room-Black English- is brought out into the open. It’s that self awareness, the aha moment, when I saw how immersed the student’s were within the traditional pov of literature, that it has to sound and look a certain way.

But I could definitely relate: reading idiomatic language can be so hard; one example comes to mind from Wuthering Heights, some of the “rustic” language in there is so hard to get through. But there’s  a place for the colorful word imagery of cultures who use the English language and literature is a great way to break the ice on these types of issues. Student’s can start to think about characterization and why the author decided to let her characters talk a certain way.

But the final manifesto isn’t a response to fiction, it’s a very real situation. What’s great about the piece is that it also blurs the lines: it starts out with exposition and creates a very analytical argument with transition sentences; it’s almost as if Willie is solving the case for us by following a very procedural outline for his brother’s murder. One of the resistances to Black English, to any hybrid really, is the view that it is vulgar: “Rule1: Black English is about a whole lot more than mothafuckin.” It’s interesting that Willie does not use Black English in his essay, but he does use a well timed “BULLSHIT” to call it like it is.

In a composition classroom, the source materials we select are sometimes seen as secondary-the learning outcome is first and foremost. But there is something to be said about the specific literary needs of a classroom.