Another reason why a college degree is not worth the sheepskin it is printed on.
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2014/04/24/essay-why-all-faculty-need-consider-teaching-writing-their-responsibility#sthash.3ifgD854.Z61urKrJ.dpbs Most of my faculty colleagues agree that Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC), in which the task of teaching writing is one assigned to all professors, not just those who teach English or composition, is an important academic concept. If we had a WAC playbook, it would sound something like this: students need to write clear, organized, persuasive prose, not only in the liberal arts, but in the sciences and professional disciplines as well. Conventional wisdom and practical experience tell us that students’ ability to secure jobs and advance in their careers depends, to a great extent, on their communication skills, including polished, professional writing.
Writing is thinking made manifest. If students cannot think clearly, they will not write well. So in this respect, writing is tangible evidence of critical thinking — or the lack of it -- and is a helpful indicator of how students construct knowledge out of information.
The WAC playbook recognizes that writing can take many forms: research papers, journals, in-class papers, reports, reviews, reflections, summaries, essay exams, creative writing, business plans, letters, etc. It also affirms that writing is not separate from content in our courses, but can be used as a practical tool to apply and reinforce learning.
More controversial — and not in everyone’s playbook -- is the idea that teaching writing skills cannot be delegated to a few courses, e.g., first-year composition courses, literature courses, and designated “W” (writing-intensive) courses. Many faculty agree with the proposition that writing should be embedded throughout the curriculum in order to broaden, deepen and reinforce writing skills, but many also take the “not in my back yard” approach to WAC.
We often hear the following refrains when faculty discuss students and writing. Together they compose a familiar song (sung as the blues):
1. “I’m not an English teacher; I can’t be expected to correct spelling and grammar.”
2. “I don’t have time in class to teach writing — I barely have enough time to teach content.”
3. “Why should students be penalized for bad writing if they get the correct answer?”
4. “Mine isn’t supposed to be a ‘W’ course, so I’ll leave the writing to others.”
5. “There is no way to work writing into the subject matter of my course.”
6. “They hate to read and write and won’t take the time to revise their work.”
7. “I don’t have a teaching assistant and don’t want to do a lot of extra correcting—I have enough to do.”
8. “Our students come to college with such poor writing skills that we can’t make up for years of bad writing.”
9. “They never make the corrections I suggest; I see the same mistakes over and over again, so why bother?”
10. “They’re seniors, and they still can’t write!”
Much has been written about WAC, and I add my voice to the multitudes because I recently came to a realization, watching my students texting before class began: students spend hours every day reading and practicing writing — bad writing. How many hours are spent sending and reading tweets, texts and other messages in fractured language? It made me wonder: is it even possible to swim against this unstoppable tide of bad writing? One of my colleagues argues that students cannot write well because they don’t read. I think that students do read, but what they spend their time reading is not helpful in learning how to write. (That, however, is a discussion for another day.)
I’m not sure that all students can be taught to improve their writing, but I am sure that it is one of the most important things we can attempt to teach. What difference does it make if students know their subject matter and have excellent ideas if no one can get past their sloppy and disorganized writing?
Let us consider (with annoying optimism) those sad faculty refrains:
....
When I was a teacher of freshman high school English*
,** the only way to pass the class, besides all the other requirements, was an essay a week, which counted for 15% of the class grade. 25 minutes of every class 75-minute period Students started it on Monday & I took them home to correct for spelling. Handed back Tuesday and they made corrections as necessary, plus fleshed it out as needed. Home for corrections of grammar and punctuation, and returned Wednesday. Same drill Wednesday and Thursday, with a last chance Friday to clean up any loose ends or pretty up the prose. Home over the weekend for final review and grading.
If a student followed the corrections noted it was impossible not to get an A on the assignment. Yes, I had some students who took an entire week to get a simple declarative sentence constructed properly - but by the end of the year they were tuning out paragraphs of at least five sentences.
At the end of my second year at that school I had almost every teacher hating me because the Principal was making noises about having every class (including gym/PE) follow that plan. What saved my idealistic youg backside was that at the end of my third year I was not offered a continuing contract (public education tenure) due to a RIF. LIFO.
Heard that the proposal was scrapped due to the Principal wanting decent teacher evaluations so he could become a Deputy Superintendent of something or other.
stay safe.
* - the then-current edition of the Oxford Dictionary of the Englash Language was just barely into Mel....
** - new guy always gets the short end of the turd. Learn to polish it.
