Hey Freshmen Writers - Get to Work!!

I may be setting the bar a tad bit too high for First Year Composition students.......but hey, this is all for fun anyway right?!

This week's writing prompt: What are types of assignments which you would include in a FYC syllabus?

ASSIGNMENT 1

(This assignment gets the students thinking and writing about composition. It also prepares them to discuss their writing amongst a group.)

Write your personalized responses to the following:

·         What type of writing have you been required to do before?

·         What type of writing have you most enjoyed?

·         What type of books do you enjoy reading?

·         What type of magazine do you enjoy reading?

·         Define what plagiarism means to you?

·         Define what composition means to you?

Be prepared for a group discussion on your answers.

ASSIGNMENT 2

(This assignment is writing for the simple purpose of writing and putting thoughts on the page. It speaks to identifying an individual voice in the writing and a flowing discussion.)

Keep a journal or blog and write between 300-400 words on any topic each week. Strive to find a consistency of voice in your writing – which could very well consist of random topics, but all the while creating a flow of conversation to your writing.

ASSIGNMENT 3

(The project works with writing that serves a business purpose of communicating to an audience. It introduces critique from an editorial perspective, simulates small work group discussions, and includes a slightly more formal, yet familiar, method of communicating with a business through the final email memo.)

Choose the web site, Facebook page, (or other web presence) of a local business and write a critical analysis of the site. Consider the visual aspects (color, layout, font use), as well as the textual content, and address these in your writing. Reflect on the audience and customer base of the site and write about how the site communicates, whether appropriately or inappropriately. Assemble in work groups of 4 or more students and compare notes and project progress – learn from each other. The final aspect of this task is to draft an email message in the form of a memo with the intent to submit your findings and any recommendations you might have to the business through the contact information you find on the site.

ASSIGNMENT 4

(This assignment brings in practices of more disciplined writing and provides a side-by-side comparison of the different citation styles used in scholarly writing. This could lead to discussions about contextual constraints in the form of corporate style guides, specifications, and other bounding elements and restricting agents.)

Each week, pick a topic of your choice and provide 14 references in the appropriate citation style: Modern Language Association (MLA), American Psychological Association (APA), and Chicago Manual of Style (CMS). The final product of this assignment will be 2-page summary addressing how and when these styles would be appropriate for use.

	Category	Week 1 - MLA	Week 2 - APA	Week 3 - CMS
		Topic 1:	Topic 2:	Topic 3:
1	Single author book
2	Two-author book
3	Magazine
4	Journal (by issue)
5	Entire web site
6	Page from web site
7	Image from web site
8	Entire Blog
9	E-Mail
10	Video or Film
11	Podcast
12	Lecture
13	Government publication
14	Dissertation

ASSIGNMENT 5

(This formal research paper brings together elements of writing that have become more structured throughout the course. The task involves peer review of other’s work and allows the student to recieve criticism and feedback on their writing.)

For the of the course-culminating research paper, develop:

1.       A project plan (including a schedule)

2.       A Rough Draft including the following:

·         Thesis Statement

·         Opening Paragraph

·         Placeholder for the Body Section in which you will include quotes from at least three different sources on your chosen topic.

·         Closing Paragraph

Submit these items to a fellow student for a peer review and provide feedback on the items you receive from that student.

Philosophy of Composition

Contrasting different theories of composition, James Berlin writes that for the New Rhetorics “[t]ruths are operative only within a given universe of discourse” (246). I highlighted that comment along with a later Berlin quote of Ann E. Berthoff stating “The way we make sense of the world is to see something with respect to, in terms of, in relation to something else” (246). These quotes brought to mind a practice of using metaphor in writing.

The goal of writers should be to contribute to an ongoing dialogue of truth for the consideration of an intended audience. This truth will come in the form of an inner voice representing the author’s thoughts and ideas. The author should strive to communicate their perspectives and viewpoints through clear and concise language so that the information they present becomes knowledge for their audience.

In an attempt to have audiences consider a viewpoint, many authors of scholarly writing use the term lens, as in viewing a particular situation through the lens of political, cultural, or any number of other influences. Attempting to explain the context of a situation, writers have also used the term framing, as in framing an argument within certain boundaries for discussion purposes. Both of these terms refer to acts associated with photography, which captures a moment in time and ultimately frames what was once seen through a lens. By using these terms, authors hope to communicate what is seen in their mind’s eye through their own viewpoint and put it into context for their audience.

Another common metaphor employed by authors is envisioning the building of a structure sometimes starting with a solid foundation and possibly ending with the detailed woodwork of a finishing carpenter. Other metaphors include comparison to a canvas for painting or a tapestry of woven fabric. All of these methods base their comparison on a similar act of crafting an object with the goal of a final product as an outcome. This practice can be traced back to the Platonic and Socratic practice of discussing episteme (knowledge) and techne (craft) (see the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).

Writing for me has never been a linear process easily defined by the stages of “pre-writing, writing, and re-writing” (Flower and Hayes, 255). My development process is more recursive with thoughts occurring at random times during the day – while driving to work, mowing the yard, or walking the dog. Moments of contemplation away from reading and writing enable time of contrasting, comparing, and meaning making. One of my challenges is having the ability to immediately write down what comes to mind or hold the thoughts until I am able to do so.

While I’ve never been a teacher of writing, I’ve been a student of writing for as long as I can remember. The earliest “formal” writing that I can recall occurred in grade school and consisted of writing papers or book reports either on specific topics supplied by teachers or on topics of my own interests. As I presume many beginning writers might also experience during these early stages of writing development, I struggled searching for the “right” way to express my personal feelings of what I thought about any particular subject. I can now look back and recognize that I lacked the confidence, self-esteem, and personal value held by my inner voice. That doubt stayed with me until I enrolled in a first year composition course at a community college about ten years after graduating from high school.
Surely, ten years of maturity added some confidence to my voice, but my English professor shared with me the idea that what I thought was really all that mattered. She explained that while my thoughts might align with the same ideas that others had, it was my personal experience in life that gave me a unique perspective that I could present through my writing. She shared with me the concept that as long as I could explain and justify why I felt the way I did or how I had arrived at certain conclusions, I could never be “wrong” when writing.

I was recently pointed toward an article by Douglas Downs and Elizabeth Wardle in which they state, “we have not yet imagined moving first-year composition from teaching “how to write in college” to teaching about writing — from acting as if writing is a basic, universal skill to acting as if writing studies is a discipline with content knowledge to which students should be introduced” (553). So, from the readings this week, recollections from my own cognitive “long-term memory” (Flower and Hayes, 256), and knowledge from recent research, I would have to say that my philosophy of composition is developing to be something resembling the following:

I would enjoy contributing to in pedagogical mentorship providing students with both a theoretical basis and practical skill sets to prepare them for their journey as developing writers throughout their studies and professional lives. Learning about writing theory will provide the foundation for understanding the research and body of knowledge residing behind the development of writing as a discipline, while exposure to tools and techniques will enable them to implement the processes and craft to create meaning and communicate knowledge to an audience.

Initiative, in the form of a simple email, can sometimes make all the difference. For example:




-----Original Message-----
From: Cary.WaterhouseSent: Mon 6/11/12 2:50 PM
To: Tabetha J Adkins; Donna Dunbar-Odom
Cc: rich.rice(a)ttu.edu
Subject: Composition Theory Assistance Inquiry

Hello Drs. Adkins and Dunbar-Odom,

My name is Cary Waterhouse and I am a Publications Task Lead and
Principal Technical Editor/Writer at (a regional company). I am also a graduate student enrolled in the MATC program <http://www.english.ttu.edu/tcr/>  at Texas Tech University. For the summer semester, I have enrolled in History and Theories of College Composition <http://www.richrice.com/5060>  and am looking forward to my studies. Feel free to view my WaterhouseBlog
<http://www.aerospacetechwriter.blogspot.com/>  to read about my
progress throughout the course.

In reviewing the TAMU-C English Writing Program
<http://web.tamu-commerce.edu/academics/colleges/humanitiesSocialScience
sArts/departments/literatureLanguages/firstYearWriting/default.aspx>
and Faculty pages
<http://web.tamu-commerce.edu/academics/colleges/humanitiesSocialScience
sArts/departments/literatureLanguages/facultyAndStaff/default.aspx> , I
noticed your backgrounds in composition and am contacting you both to
ask if I might be able to direct questions to either of you regarding
TAMU-C's composition program as specified in the following optional
assignment from my class work:

* Thoroughly investigate a composition program and develop a
"philosophy of writing" that could be used to get a job at that
institution. (1000-word essay and class presentation).

In exchange for your guidance and mentorship, I would be glad to repay
your assistance by visiting classes as a guest speaker, lecturing during
an upcoming career event, or trying to arrange a visit to our facility
for a small group of students.

Please let me know if you might be able to assist me in my work and
thank you in advance for your time and consideration. I have copied my
professor on this message, so please feel free to ask any questions of
Dr. Rice also.

Respectfully,

Cary L. Waterhouse

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: Tabetha J Adkins [mailto:Tabetha.Adkins(a)tamuc.edu]
Sent: Monday, June 11, 2012 9:24 PM
To: Waterhouse, Cary L;  Donna Dunbar-Odom
Cc: rich.rice(a)ttu.edu
Subject: RE: Composition Theory Assistance Inquiry

Hi, Cary.

I can direct you toward some documents I've posted online that might help you with this assignment.  The first document is an article that clarifies our stance on what composition courses should do:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/61698987/Downs-Wardle

The next important document is the handbook I created for instructors who teach in the program:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/62441563/Writing-Program-Handbook-Fall-2011
(This is last fall's handbook, so some information may be outdated.)

And the final source you may find useful is the website.  There are links for instructors and students:
http://web.tamu-commerce.edu/academics/colleges/humanitiesSocialSciencesArts/departments/literatureLanguages/firstYearWriting/default.aspx

Best wishes on your assignment!

Tabetha Adkins, PhD
Assistant Professor
Director of First-Year Writing
Department of Literature and Languages
(903) 886-5269
Tabetha.Adkins(a)tamuc.edu

Hardest Part of Writing and the Teaching of it

Janet Emig states that “writing is originating and creating a unique verbal construct that is graphically recorded” through the act of putting words on a page (8). Her statement points out the fact that writing is a very personal act of bringing something into existence that was previously only imaginative thoughts in a writer’s head. Emig, points to work from Dewey and Piaget, noting that “learning is the re-organization or confirmation of a cognitive scheme” (10). She then aligns with Bruner, listing three major methods for learning: enactive – learning by doing; iconic – depicting through imagery; and representational or symbolic – restating in words. So, looking at the writing prompt for this week about “the most difficult thing to teach in the teaching of writing,” I would have to say that teaching the process of invention, specifically the act of moving words from thought to page would be most challenging.

To illustrate this, I’m reminded of a situation a few years ago when I was asked to train a guy that was transferred into my Technical Publications group from a Training group – I believe my supervisor’s words were, “See if you can make a writer out of him.” My initial reaction was that since this person studied the same engineering data and vendor documentation while creating the training material he used to teach users in a classroom, surely he’d be able to transition into the role of being a writer responsible for creating manual content for that same audience. I showed him where information could be found and provided examples of similar documents from other projects. I gave him reference books, guided him through the basics of desktop publishing, and walked him through the process of developing a few basic procedures. After about three weeks, he came into my office and admitted that he had decided that he was not cut out to be a writer. He told me that he had no idea that it took so much research and admitted that he just couldn’t sit in front of the computer screen and get words to form from the research that he had done.

Ede and Lunsford look at Mitchell and Taylor for defining invention as “methods designed to aid in retrieving information, forming concepts, analyzing complex events, and solving certain kinds of problems” (79). So when I ran across an online interview of T.R. Johnson, I felt that something he said could help answer the second portion of the question of how to go about teaching the hardest part of writing. Johnson says that “a great deal of what we're after as writing teachers has to do with coaxing our students into a certain kind of rigorous experience with language.” He hopes that composition courses help students “see the classroom environment as a place where he or she can try out different ways of saying things, and, as such, the student is rescued from the view of academic discourse as an alien monolith of perfect authority that he or she can never hope to master.” I feel that teaching the process of invention as an encouraging language experience would be the most comfortable learning situation for aspiring writers, as opposed to a workplace situation where one is forced to sit and write on a project with the pressures of a budget and schedule always in mind.

What I Wanna Be and Defining Composition

After looking at a few fellow students' blog pages, I realized that I needed to go back and address the specifics that Dr. Rice requested via email, so here goes:

From the sidebar, you can see that my current job is in a Publications department of a large aerospace company. While I sometimes get to perform individual contributor efforts to projects (like some wiring diagrams that I am currently working on for a Maintenance Wiring Manual), most of my daily effort involves leading a team developing flight manuals and pilot checklists; maintenance, wiring and parts manuals; along with user manuals and FAA certification documentation.

The question of what I want as a future job makes me pause a bit because I get to work on really cool projects on really cool airplanes, truly enjoy what I do, make a decent living for a guy with an English degree, and see supervision or management as my next step - which doesn't sound as exciting as what I am currently doing. So with all that said, I'd like to take what I've learned from my graduate studies and put it to work implementing process improvement projects and integrating industry best practices in my workplace - that is before I retire and maybe teach technical writing or composition part time at a community college! [nice segue, eh?]

For me, composition defines the process of putting thoughts on the (physical or digital) page resulting from all aspects of a project, task, or assignment - from the planning and research stages, through the layout, editing, and re-writing stages.

6/6/12 - Questions for the day:

1) What is rhetoric?
2) What is the history and theory of rhetoric?

The definition of rhetoric varies depending on the context in which it is used. Discussing how the ancients interpreted rhetoric, Sharon Crowley and Debra Hawhee state, "people used rhetoric to make decisions, resolve, disputes, and to mediate public discussion of important issues" (Ancient Rhetorics, 1). The writings of Plato, Socrates, and other early sophists come to mind. According to Erika Lindemann, rhetoric can be found in the works of "writers of great literature [who] have employed powerful language to make us cry, to poke fun at our human frailties, and to command our support for important causes" (A Rhetoric for  Writing Teachers, 39). But today, many people are influenced by a more common definition containing a negative connotation referring to political speeches, slick advertising, or empty words used to sway opinions and perceptions. More recently, rhetoric has been used in association with the study of technical communication. And my personal definition falls into a rather smiplified phrase of "purposeful use of language."

The history and theory of rhetoric will take a more expanded explanation, hence to purpose of this blog! (More to come....but I guess that's rather obvious, given this is a blog.)