Weekly Response: Yancey's "On Reflection"

Yancey talks about reflection as a method of learning. She starts by giving a brief history much like those we read about in readings like Fulkerson and Lauer. In the 70's professors started to teach process; then they focused on cognitive writing, examining how experienced writers create texts for their audiences; then expressivism, how writers express themselves; then post-process or cultural studies, how students engage with a topic and write about it. Reflection did not play a part in this recent evolution of composition pedagogy.

Weekly Response: Nancy Sommers's "Responding to Student Writing"

Nancy Sommers asserts that writing teachers spend most of their time "responding to and commenting on student writing." Amen. I read 100 essays this weekend. Sommers begins to quantify time spent commenting on student writing. Here's the math:

Low end = 20 minutes per paper X 20 students X 8 papers per semester = 53.33 hours/semester
or, expressed in 8-hour work days, that would be approximately 7 days of work per semester.
High end = 40 minutes per paper X 20 students X 8 papers per semester = 106.66 hours/semester
or, expressed in 8-hour work days, that would be just over 13 work days per semester.

Yes, that's how it was until I discovered the beauty of both the Writing Center for responding to student writing and rubrics for commenting on final papers. Now, I'm below the low end estimates.

Weekly Response: Fulkerson's "Composition at the Turn of the 21st Century"

Fulkerson accomplishes his stated goal: to show that the field of Rhetoric and Composition has become divided into many different camps and ideologies. He offers neither guidance nor opinion as to which pedagogies or ideologies he prefers; rather, he simply explains the differing views and seems to endorse none of them. He raises various useful questions, such as what to accomplish with students, and how, while providing little guidance towards answers.

I am very interested in his views, as he is a director of a first-year college writing program, and I am a professor of first-year college writing.

Weekly Response: Donald Murray's "Teach Writing as a Process Not Product"

Mr. Murray writes this piece to convince instructors to focus on process, not product, when teaching writing. He asserts that students are often criticized by instructors who do not value their writing as literature, the field in which the instructors were trained. By teaching process, teachers will focus on different competencies leading students to create better products.

This essay was written in 1972, and therefore would have been aimed at the Current-Traditional pedagogies popular then, and those who embraced them.

The process should focus on discovery, invention, knowledge creation and evaluation, and communication.

"Instead of teaching finished writing, we should teach unfinished writing, and glory in its unfinishedness." 

Weekly Response: Janice Lauer's "Rhetoric and Composition"

The author begins by explaining exactly what the reader can expect to learn by reading the chapter. Lauer sets out to explain the advent of rhetoric and composition as a field of study, which began in the early 60's and has had much growth, debate, controversy, research and scholarship over the past 40+ years. Study of rhetoric was common in the ancient world, but was not common in modern times until it resurfaced decades ago to accompany composition and grammar instruction.

In the 60's, scholars at a CCCC conference began to investigate the relationship between rhetoric and composition.  They determined that rhetoric helps students develop their composition skills. It helped them raise questions, choose topics, and develop and strengthen arguments. Scholars turned to writings of classic orators to further their research and theories. Then, scholars at the newly formed Rhetoric Society of America began to question the administrative practice of hiring part time instructors for college composition classes and the pedagogy used in those classes.

Pre First Homework Reading

A few pages into this reading, I realized it was pretty dry, and I worried about focusing on and learning all 48 pages. So I used the tactic I've been using since high school. I got out some nail polish. My strategy with a boring book has always been to give myself a good manicure so that I'm stuck in one spot for a while waiting for it to dry. That's a perfect time to knock out some reading. At the end of about 45 minutes, I have successfully accomplished two things: a perfect smudge-free manicure and a completed reading assignment.


All done. The good news is that there were 18 and a half pages of notes and citations. What I thought was 48 pages of reading was really only 30. More good news is that the article was dense but informative, outlining and detailing the history of Rhetoric and Composition as a field of study. Tomorrow I'll review the reading again and write my weekly reflection. Nails look great, right?

For my own reference, here is our class website.