Thursday, November 5, 2009

Topic: Writing Across Disciplines

10-second review: A single college course is not going to teach students all they need to know to write in all situations, particularly in all disciplines.


Title: Suggested by “Genre and Rhetorical Craft.” Jeanne Fahnestock. Research in the Teaching of English (October 1993), 265-271. A publication of the National Council of the Teachers of English (NCTE).


Comment: I think we need to define clearly for our colleagues in college in other disciplines what exactly we do when we teach the freshman writing course. It makes sense that one course is not going to teach everything students need to know about writing in other disciplines and in the real world. If teachers in other disciplines understood clearly what it is that we teach in Freshman Writing, then the teachers in other disciplines can teach their students what they need to know in order to write successfully in their particular disciplines, usually involving formats. And that will probably not include the fine points of grammar. RayS.

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