10-second review: The author suggests that teaching formal logic does not really help students develop an argumentative position. He suggests another strategy.
Title: “Technical Logic, Comp-Logic, and the Teaching of Writing.” Richard Fulkerson. College Composition and Communication (December 1988), 436-452. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).
Summary: Reduces the argument to a conclusion and the evidence for the conclusion. To prove a case of battery, for instance, the following elements (evidence) must be present:
There must be a touching by the defendant.
The touching must have been either offensive or harmful.
The touching must have been unconsented.
And it must have been intentional rather than accidental. p. 448-449.
Comment: In other words, begin with the conclusion and list the evidence for the conclusion as a pre-writing strategy for an argumentative paper. RayS.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Monday, January 12, 2009
Topic: Grammar Rules
10-second review: Where do grammar rules come from? An exercise that demonstrates how notable writers violate “sacred precepts” about grammar.
Title: “The Tribunal of Use: Agreement in Indefinite constructions.” E S Sklar. College Composition and Communication (December 1988), 410-422. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).
Summary/Quote: “One class period in my intermediate-level composition course of which I am particularly fond revolves around what I call a ‘correctness exercise.’ This exercise consists of ten sentences, each containing at least one feature that would be considered erroneous by any American editor or composition teacher. Among these are a sentence using the British convention for punctuating quotations (the inverse of the American practice); a sentence from Shakespeare (modernized) featuring a double negative; and the following sentence from William Penn: ‘Every one in the family should know their duty.’ The point of the exercise is to suggest that many of the rules for ‘correct’ writing are both conventional and mutable, subject to modification over time and place.” p. 410.
Comment: In discussing these “aberrations” in modern grammatical practice, students will be learning the rules of modern practice. The William Penn sentence is an opportunity to teach how to avoid sexist language by using the plural and therefore avoiding the he/she, him/her construction that is so annoying in some of the professional English education journals that I read.
And a warning to students: Break the rules as these notable writers have done and your résumé or letter of application could go into the shredder—as I have observed first hand. RayS.
Title: “The Tribunal of Use: Agreement in Indefinite constructions.” E S Sklar. College Composition and Communication (December 1988), 410-422. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).
Summary/Quote: “One class period in my intermediate-level composition course of which I am particularly fond revolves around what I call a ‘correctness exercise.’ This exercise consists of ten sentences, each containing at least one feature that would be considered erroneous by any American editor or composition teacher. Among these are a sentence using the British convention for punctuating quotations (the inverse of the American practice); a sentence from Shakespeare (modernized) featuring a double negative; and the following sentence from William Penn: ‘Every one in the family should know their duty.’ The point of the exercise is to suggest that many of the rules for ‘correct’ writing are both conventional and mutable, subject to modification over time and place.” p. 410.
Comment: In discussing these “aberrations” in modern grammatical practice, students will be learning the rules of modern practice. The William Penn sentence is an opportunity to teach how to avoid sexist language by using the plural and therefore avoiding the he/she, him/her construction that is so annoying in some of the professional English education journals that I read.
And a warning to students: Break the rules as these notable writers have done and your résumé or letter of application could go into the shredder—as I have observed first hand. RayS.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Topic: Student Errors in Compositions
10-second review: The authors say that researching the number and types of errors and teacher comments on or ignoring these errors only raised more questions than answers. They found some interesting answers, too.
Title: “Frequency of Formal Errors in Current College Writing….” RJ Connors and AA Lunsford. College Composition and Communication (December 1988), 395-409. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).
Some Findings:
What is the effect of errors in writing? “As Mina Shaughnessy put it, ‘errors are ‘unintentional and unprofitable intrusions upon the consciousness of the reader…. They demand energy without giving back any return in meaning….’ The world judges a writer by …mastery of conventions, and we all know it.” p. 396.
How do teachers respond to errors? “Some [errors] were annotated marginally until they looked like the Book of Kells, while others merely sported a few scrawled words and a grade.” p. 398.
How thorough are college teachers in marking papers for errors? “On the average, college English teachers mark only 43% of the most serious errors in the papers they evaluate.” p. 402.
What are some problems with marking errors? “The sheer difficulty of explanation presented by some error patterns is another factor. Jotting ‘WW’ in the margin to tip a student off to a diction problem is one thing; explaining a subtle shift in point of view in that same marginal space is quite another.” p. 404.
What are the most frequently marked mistakes? “The its/it’s error and the possessive apostrophe, the highest-marked pattern are also two of the easiest errors to mark. …the errors most marked are those most quickly indicated.” p. 404.
How consistent are student errors over the years? “The numbers of errors made by students in earlier studies and the numbers we found in the 1980s agree remarkably…. …freshmen are still committing approximately the same number of formal errors per 100 words as they were before WWI.” p. 407.
Some questions about error marking: Where do specific notions of error come from? Is there a relationship among error patterns? Are there regional variations in error patterns?
Comment: I’ll add a question. When teachers respond to an error, do students understand the meaning of that comment or symbol? In my experience, students do not understand teacher comments or symbols on their writing. Students need the opportunity to tell teachers whether or not they understand their comments and say whether the comments were helpful. RayS.
Title: “Frequency of Formal Errors in Current College Writing….” RJ Connors and AA Lunsford. College Composition and Communication (December 1988), 395-409. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).
Some Findings:
What is the effect of errors in writing? “As Mina Shaughnessy put it, ‘errors are ‘unintentional and unprofitable intrusions upon the consciousness of the reader…. They demand energy without giving back any return in meaning….’ The world judges a writer by …mastery of conventions, and we all know it.” p. 396.
How do teachers respond to errors? “Some [errors] were annotated marginally until they looked like the Book of Kells, while others merely sported a few scrawled words and a grade.” p. 398.
How thorough are college teachers in marking papers for errors? “On the average, college English teachers mark only 43% of the most serious errors in the papers they evaluate.” p. 402.
What are some problems with marking errors? “The sheer difficulty of explanation presented by some error patterns is another factor. Jotting ‘WW’ in the margin to tip a student off to a diction problem is one thing; explaining a subtle shift in point of view in that same marginal space is quite another.” p. 404.
What are the most frequently marked mistakes? “The its/it’s error and the possessive apostrophe, the highest-marked pattern are also two of the easiest errors to mark. …the errors most marked are those most quickly indicated.” p. 404.
How consistent are student errors over the years? “The numbers of errors made by students in earlier studies and the numbers we found in the 1980s agree remarkably…. …freshmen are still committing approximately the same number of formal errors per 100 words as they were before WWI.” p. 407.
Some questions about error marking: Where do specific notions of error come from? Is there a relationship among error patterns? Are there regional variations in error patterns?
Comment: I’ll add a question. When teachers respond to an error, do students understand the meaning of that comment or symbol? In my experience, students do not understand teacher comments or symbols on their writing. Students need the opportunity to tell teachers whether or not they understand their comments and say whether the comments were helpful. RayS.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Topic: Portfolios and Writing
10-second review: Portfolios combine instruction and evaluation.
Title: Review of Portfolios in the Writing Classroom: An Introduction. Ed. Kathleen Blake Yancey (Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English, 1992, 128 pages). Reviewed by KL Greenberg. College Composition and Communication (May 1993), 266-268. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).
Summary/Quote: “Ask a dozen teachers to define ‘writing portfolio’ and you’ll hear twelve different answers. One will say it’s a collection of students’ exemplary work; another might say it’s a repository of drafts, revisions and essays commenting on these drafts and revisions. Some teachers describe portfolio evaluations as simply another method of collecting student writing in a folder for end-term grading. Others offer testimonials about portfolios as a pedagogy that has transformed their teaching and students’ learning. Is portfolio evaluation merely the latest fad in writing assessment or is it a revolutionary strategy for integrating instruction and evaluation?”
Summary/Quote: “The authors of this collection clearly believe the latter—that a writing portfolio is not an assessment tool but rather a pedagogy with the potential to change students’ writing processes and products…. The portfolio…allows students to examine each piece of their writing relative to their other pieces and in relation to their overall development.”
Comment: I think the last sentence in the second quote is an excellent definition of the purpose of portfolios. Finally, a definition that makes sense to me. But a minor word of warning. When our English department collected student writing in portfolios, parents did not see the writing and assumed that writing was not being taught. RayS.
Title: Review of Portfolios in the Writing Classroom: An Introduction. Ed. Kathleen Blake Yancey (Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English, 1992, 128 pages). Reviewed by KL Greenberg. College Composition and Communication (May 1993), 266-268. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).
Summary/Quote: “Ask a dozen teachers to define ‘writing portfolio’ and you’ll hear twelve different answers. One will say it’s a collection of students’ exemplary work; another might say it’s a repository of drafts, revisions and essays commenting on these drafts and revisions. Some teachers describe portfolio evaluations as simply another method of collecting student writing in a folder for end-term grading. Others offer testimonials about portfolios as a pedagogy that has transformed their teaching and students’ learning. Is portfolio evaluation merely the latest fad in writing assessment or is it a revolutionary strategy for integrating instruction and evaluation?”
Summary/Quote: “The authors of this collection clearly believe the latter—that a writing portfolio is not an assessment tool but rather a pedagogy with the potential to change students’ writing processes and products…. The portfolio…allows students to examine each piece of their writing relative to their other pieces and in relation to their overall development.”
Comment: I think the last sentence in the second quote is an excellent definition of the purpose of portfolios. Finally, a definition that makes sense to me. But a minor word of warning. When our English department collected student writing in portfolios, parents did not see the writing and assumed that writing was not being taught. RayS.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Topic: School Essays
10-second review: What exactly is an “essay” in composition class?
Title: Review of Beyond Outlining: New Approaches to Rhetorical Form. Betty Cain (Lantham, MD: University Press of America, 1992, 218 pages). Reviewed by RM Coe. College Composition and Communication (May 1993), 264-266. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).
Summary/Quote: “Like many teachers, Cain uses the term 'essay' as if it referred to a single genre. My own opinion is that school essays are hardly of the same genre as what Montaigne, Carlyle and Orwell wrote or what appears in the New Yorker.”
Comment: As part of teaching students to write, it wouldn’t hurt to analyze well-known and contemporary forms of the essay.
In my opinion, Montaigne organized his essays as his mind moved from thought to thought. On the other hand the essays of Addison and Francis Bacon are organized with a beginning, middle and end.
What exactly is the school “essay”? It is modeled on the five-paragraph essay. It is not limited to five paragraphs. It has an introduction, a thesis, topic sentences and a summary paragraph. It is based on the “tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, and tell them what you told them” formula for effective communication. What would be an accurate label for this type of essay? The “Three T’s Essay”?
Instead of writing in modes (argumentation, narrative, description, etc.), students might write essays in different formats—Montaigne, Bacon, Addison, the New Yorker, Martin Luther King, Jr., Loren Eiseley, Joseph Wood Krutch, etc. RayS.
Title: Review of Beyond Outlining: New Approaches to Rhetorical Form. Betty Cain (Lantham, MD: University Press of America, 1992, 218 pages). Reviewed by RM Coe. College Composition and Communication (May 1993), 264-266. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).
Summary/Quote: “Like many teachers, Cain uses the term 'essay' as if it referred to a single genre. My own opinion is that school essays are hardly of the same genre as what Montaigne, Carlyle and Orwell wrote or what appears in the New Yorker.”
Comment: As part of teaching students to write, it wouldn’t hurt to analyze well-known and contemporary forms of the essay.
In my opinion, Montaigne organized his essays as his mind moved from thought to thought. On the other hand the essays of Addison and Francis Bacon are organized with a beginning, middle and end.
What exactly is the school “essay”? It is modeled on the five-paragraph essay. It is not limited to five paragraphs. It has an introduction, a thesis, topic sentences and a summary paragraph. It is based on the “tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, and tell them what you told them” formula for effective communication. What would be an accurate label for this type of essay? The “Three T’s Essay”?
Instead of writing in modes (argumentation, narrative, description, etc.), students might write essays in different formats—Montaigne, Bacon, Addison, the New Yorker, Martin Luther King, Jr., Loren Eiseley, Joseph Wood Krutch, etc. RayS.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Professional Issues
10-second review: The purpose of this reviewed book is to pose questions about the topic of collaborative writing.
Title: Review of New Visions of Collaborative Writing. Ed. Janis Forman (Portsmouth, NH: Boynton Cook, 1992, 200 pages). Reviewed by AM Gilliam. College Composition and Communication (May 1993), 258-259. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).
Summary: “As Forman announces at the outset, ‘This volume poses questions rather than provides answers; its aim is to keep the conversations about collaboration ‘in motion.’ ”
Comment: Refreshing that a book on issues in English education wants to question rather than pontificate. As was the case with "whole language." RayS.
Title: Review of New Visions of Collaborative Writing. Ed. Janis Forman (Portsmouth, NH: Boynton Cook, 1992, 200 pages). Reviewed by AM Gilliam. College Composition and Communication (May 1993), 258-259. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).
Summary: “As Forman announces at the outset, ‘This volume poses questions rather than provides answers; its aim is to keep the conversations about collaboration ‘in motion.’ ”
Comment: Refreshing that a book on issues in English education wants to question rather than pontificate. As was the case with "whole language." RayS.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Topic: Unacceptable Compositions
10-second review: What does the teacher do when a student writes an extremely racist paper?
Title: “ ‘So What Do We Do Now?’ Necessary Directionality as the Writing Teacher’s Response to Racist, Sexist, Homophobic Papers.” D Rothgery. College Composition and Communication (May 1993), 241-247. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).
Summary: The standard response to an “unacceptable” composition is either not to accept it or respond as usual to organization, thesis, etc. The author suggests that the teacher posit the truth of the paper and then ask, “What’s next?” In other words, ask the class what happens next if the ideas are true and then discuss it with the class. In short, what are the consequences if the ideas in the paper are true?
Comment: What worries me about following the author’s suggestion is the emotion that might be unleashed and whether I could control it. His suggestion that we consider the consequences of the writer’s ideas is interesting, and I need to think about it. However, I’m not ready to use his suggestion. I worry about singling out the students who wrote the “unacceptable composition,” even if I don’t use their names. And until I am ready, I will simply not accept the paper. RayS.
Title: “ ‘So What Do We Do Now?’ Necessary Directionality as the Writing Teacher’s Response to Racist, Sexist, Homophobic Papers.” D Rothgery. College Composition and Communication (May 1993), 241-247. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).
Summary: The standard response to an “unacceptable” composition is either not to accept it or respond as usual to organization, thesis, etc. The author suggests that the teacher posit the truth of the paper and then ask, “What’s next?” In other words, ask the class what happens next if the ideas are true and then discuss it with the class. In short, what are the consequences if the ideas in the paper are true?
Comment: What worries me about following the author’s suggestion is the emotion that might be unleashed and whether I could control it. His suggestion that we consider the consequences of the writer’s ideas is interesting, and I need to think about it. However, I’m not ready to use his suggestion. I worry about singling out the students who wrote the “unacceptable composition,” even if I don’t use their names. And until I am ready, I will simply not accept the paper. RayS.
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