Humor in the Classroom?!

        So, here’s a bad idea about writing: “Excellent Academic Writing Must Be Berious”, as claims English Professor Michael Theune in his article of the same title (Theune 181) in the book Bad Ideas About Writing. This is a bad idea because it neglects to consider the value of actually using humor for composition development.  An always serious classroom often leads to a dull and unstimulating classroom, unpleasant for both the student and the teacher.

creative commons/stovak

          A better idea about writing is that humor can be used cleverly for excellence in academic writing. Humor engages a bored mind and energizes in a way that enlivens a dull classroom. In her article, “ Not Just a Humorous Text: Humor as Text in the Writing Class”, language arts professor Nina Murakami lauds the use of humor as “both a motivator and a reward”.  Greater effort to improve writing is naturally evoked, as students strive to reap the reward of laughter. It’s a positive feedback loop! Success as exhibited by laughter is a stimulant to produce more of the same! (Murakami 40). Additionally, such skills as creative and critical thinking, purpose, style, and audience, evolve through working with humor, becoming a valuable part of the writing tool kit for other classes.

Get Smart!

            Ann and Don Nilsen, educators and co-founders of the International Society for Humor Studies, along with Don and Marie Donaldson, state in their article “Humor For Developing Thinking Skills”, that “Humor, whether it’s being analyzed, used, or created-forces people’s minds into modes of thinking that are investigative, seeking, grasping . . .” Working with humor calls upon an especially motivated drive for mental pursuits.  Wanting to know, wanting to understand, and employing strategies to get there is like a game, like figuring out an answer to a puzzle that students are keen to comprehend. (Nilsen et al. 63). (Indeed, gamers in particular might find this sport of academic endeavor quite tantalizing!)

          Nilsen et al. go on to make the point that creative thinking takes greater effort. Interpreting information demands each person to judge for themselves what is meant, often needing to discern meaning without it being specifically laid out. Thinking creatively therefore is a highly stimulative mental process, calling upon students to dig deeper, searching for meaning not always obvious in the joke! (Nilsen et al. 65).

Energize!

           Used skillfully, humor is engaging and energizing, and a bored student is not as likely to become engaged as an energized one, so humor becomes a powerful tool for the younger writer. As Theune notes, “it must be recognized that humor simply tends towards the irreverent, and that that is, frankly, ideal. . .empowered young writers . . .  can feed off of transgression”.  It is part of human development that young adolescents/adults are questioning and challenging the status quo.  Comedy most often deals with contemporary culture, and youth and popular culture go together! Using that energy source and channeling it towards productive academic work is a good idea! The more connections made between life inside and outside the classroom the better, creating deeper and longer lasting development in the young student (Theune 185).

          Murakami adds her praise for the “level of effort, avid listening, and thoughtful response that I don’t often see during the writing process of other assignments”.  This is a notable indication, as educators must be keen to continually monitor and adjust their methods. When something works, pay attention! (Murakami 39).  Case in point: Theune refers to professor Bev Hogue who used humor writing in a nonfiction course.  The overall quality perked right up, being “polished, sophisticated, and often very funny.” It was still clear the papers were indeed research papers, but do to the “adventurous [nature] . . .a very few created final papers approaching art.”  What a treat!  In this instance, humor writing had become a key into artistic expression and talent that otherwise may have gone undiscovered. There is enough effort in higher education towards all things of a serious nature, including writing. Why not place effort  towards balancing the heavy with the humorous? (Theune 185). 

Smile!

          The classroom vitality is palpable, observes Murakami, as she has “seen the student’s enthusiasm, and heard students’ true voices, not only in their writing, but in their classroom interaction as well . . . all with smile on their faces”. How lovely! What a gift it becomes for everyone to see how students develop and trust their true voices.  The atmosphere of the classroom is invigorated and invigorating. Drudgery is lifted, laughter lightens the air, mind expansion ensues, and animated exchange is achieved. Students are actively learning and doing so “with smiles on their faces” (Murakami 40).

          The combination of energy and skill development in the classroom focused on humor easily produces collaboration, another key attribute of the writing process. As Murakami illustrates, “students often take pleasure out of sharing and working on their humorous writing with their classmates, making them more open to the idea of the writing process as well as the sense of community that is vital to the writing class”. The positive experience of working on humorous writing within the classroom with others, enables students to see how that sort of collaboration builds community. Revising and feedback take on fresh enthusiasm and meaning. Feeling a sense of community relaxes the atmosphere in the classroom, providing a space that feels safer to take risks, more open, and therefore more life-giving (Murakami 39).

creative commons/ken whytock

          Truly, it is a bad idea to limit academia to the sphere of the serious. Who wants to be serious all the time? Who wants to be in an environment that is serious all the time? Who wants to think of education as being excellent only if it is serious? Alternatively, who wants to take a writing class that has the reputation of being fun while developing valuable skills?! Who wants to join the revolution and help turn this bad idea on its head and revitalize the composition classroom?

References

Murakami, N. “Not Just a Humorous Text: Humor as Text in the Writing Class.” Teaching English in the Two Year College, 34(1), 2006, pp. 32-40. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.gsu.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/220963371?accountd=11226

Nilsen, Alleen, et al. “Humor For Developing Thinking Skills.” ETC: A Review of General Semantics, vol. 44, no. 1, 1987, pp. 63–75. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/42579317.

Theune, M. (2017). “Excellent Academic Writing Must Be Serious.” In C.E. Ball and D.M. Loewe (Eds.), Bad Ideas About Writing. (pp. 82-87). Morgantown, WV: Digital Publishing Institute. https://textbooks.lib.wvu.edu/badideas/badideasaboutwriting-book.pdf

Research Project by Daijone Brooks

A big bloke dressed as a pink fairy 

Teri Holbrook and Melanie Hundley essay ‘Writers are Mythical, Magical, and Damaged’. The essay discusses the multiple bad ideas but tends to emphasize the negative idea of putting unhealthy standards and publicizing unrealistic expectations for writers in modern times. After doing some research with  Alcohol and the Writer, by Donald W. Goodwin,  The Pursuit of Perfection: and How It Harms Writers by Kristine Kathryn and  ‘’The Trip to Echo Spring,‘ by Olivia Laing.” In these sources, I have come across a few new perspectives with bad idea’s and have found possible solutions that could conclude with a better idea.  

Holbrook and Hundley’s ‘Writers are Mythical, Magical, and Damaged’  helps to depict and illustrate how media has influenced public opinion that writers are messy, chaotic, and uninhabited to normal day-to-day life.  In ‘Alcohol and the Writer’ by Donald W. Goodwin (pg.11-20) the text agrees with Writers are Mythical, Magical, and Damaged’ by offering a strong opinion when it comes to stereotyping a writer’s relationship to alcoholism and drug abuse. Goodwin illustrates the history of writers and insists that their own personal experiences are not mutually exclusive to the lives of every writer.  Goodwin also suggests that throughout media the idea is often too glamorized and compared to success especially in television and film. With doing so it encourages people and aspiring writers to view craft as a self-destructive and potentially dangerous. Goodwin overall suggests that the best idea would be to disconnect the stereotype all together and stop selling the narrative of the alcoholic writer and instead illustrate depict a realistic image of the everyday writer.  Unlike in ‘’The Trip to Echo Spring,’ by Olivia Laing, who gives an interesting perspective on Writers are Mythical, Magical, and Damaged and goes on to explain how famous works and their creators can go hand in hand with alcoholism. She discusses multiple writers such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, John Berryman, John Cheever, and Raymond Carver and talks about how their works and public images are cultivated by their personal trials of addiction. This helps to compliment the better idea that no one is perfect not even writers. No matter if they excel in their literary career, and default in their personal life. Laing illustrates that not even writers who uphold a magical reputation are perfect which brings me to the points made in my next source.  In The Pursuit of Perfection: and How It Harms Writers  (pg.130-131)  by Kristine Kathryn she discusses how within popular films and television shows writers are seen at magical creatures who create fantastic works of literature within a simple montage and a cup of coffee.  She goes on to detail how writers are consistently going through trial and error, with drafting and re-writing just to find perfection in their work. By pushing the narrative that perfect writing just comes naturally does a disservice to young aspiring writers who seek acclaim. As a result, aspiring writers are turned off by the idea and unrealistic expectations of the craft.  Kristine Kathryn continues to agree with Writers are Mythical, Magical, and Damaged by describing the self-destructive patterns and habits writers face in everyday life when it comes to creating original work. She depicts the lengths that writers go through just to find perfection in every detail. She suggests a better idea is to not set unrealistic standards for writers in today’s time and to not publicize that behavior as a positive. Instead of attempting to create the ‘perfect’ writing, but to just enjoy the process of the craft itself.

After analyzing each source, and their views on their bad idea it is easy to come to the conclusion of a better idea.  The first better idea would be to stop publicizing all the negative habits and addictions that some writers face. Instead, the media should not applaud the downfalls and should not associate their addictions with acclaim. If we continue to applaud and shrug off that behavior, it perpetuates the idea that drug abuse and alcoholism is acceptable if you are a writer. Which it is not. Another better idea would be to show the realistic settings and challenges that writers go through for perfection in their words. It would be better to display the writing process as a natural experience instead of a magical experience where words just spew in a mythical fashion. That way the public can allow themselves to fully digest the realistic views of writers as everyday people. Who happen to create amazing works of literature through hard work and diligence.  Overall, I feel the better idea is to show the hardships and accomplishments that come along with every aspect of the craft. To show writers in a realistic light throughout media is to display their hard work overall is the bigger and better idea. The reason this is important is that it offers a human perspective to average people and displays writing as an attainable career for everyone, not just the lucky few.

 

  

                                                    Annotated Bibliography

  1. “Alcohol and the Writer.” Alcohol and the Writer, by Donald W. GOODWIN, Penguin Books, 1990. pg.11-20.
  2. Osborne, Lawrence. “’The Trip to Echo Spring,’ by Olivia Laing.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 19 Oct. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2013/12/29/books/review/the-trip-to-echo-spring-by-olivia-laing.html.
  3. Rusch, Kristine Kathryn. The Pursuit of Perfection: and How It Harms Writers. WMG Publishing, 2013. pg.130-131.

Official American English is Best

People in the United States speak many different languages, with English being the most dominant language and best way to communicate in the United States. This sparks the question is American English the best way to communicate? In the article “Official American English is Best” by Steven Alvarez, the author talks about how important English speaking is in the U.S.. Doing some research I have concluded that American English should be considered the best way to communicate in America. It allows for people to understand each other easily without there being any language barriers.

Grammar. Credit: PDPics

 

Alvarez makes his points aware that depending on where an individual comes from will determine what language best suits them when communicating, but many immigrants are forced to learn to speak and write fluent English in order to be successful in the United States. “—U.S. citizens should not be inconvenienced with para español, marque número dos when calling their banks or for footing the bill to translate driver’s license applications or signs at the Division of Motor Vehicles into different languages, let alone filling out an application in another language.” (Alvarez 93). U.S. citizens shouldn’t have to worry about going to a store or restaurant and the workers not being able to speak any English. Immigrants in the U.S. are already at a disadvantage compared to other U.S. citizens because they already can’t speak fluent English. The government in the United States should be aware that immigrants need to be taught proper English so that they can have a successful life when they come to America.

“The great American paradox is that while the United States historically has been characterized by great linguistic diversity propelled by immigration, it has also been a zone of language extinction, in which immigrant tongues die out and are replaced by monolingual English.” (Rambaut & Massey, 2). In other words many Americans and businesses will only seem to accept someone if they can speak fluent English. This forces so many immigrants to learn to speak proper English in order to get jobs, communicate with other people, and even get into the country legally. This may cause many people to stop speaking the language that they grew up speaking in their home country, causing them to forget or slowly move away from their culture. Americans only speaking English at home has drastically dropped from 89% to 79% in the last 30 years, which helps show that immigrants are coming to the U.S. more frequently. Even though more and more citizens aren’t speaking English when they are at home about 91% of non-metropolitan populations do not speak any other language other than English. This supports the argument that you need English in order to be successful in America. People have the right to speak whatever language they want, but they will have better opportunities if they learn English. “Perhaps it is better to consider immigrant languages as a multidimensional resource to be preserved and cultivated, rather than as a threat to national cohesion and identity.” (Rambaut & Massey, 13).

In conclusion in order for a person to have a good life in the United States they have to be able to speak, read, and write English. The more that people immigrate to the U.S. it will make for a lot of different languages it the U.S., and a lot of people that can’t speak English. Steven Alvarez, the author of “Official American English is Best”, makes a very good argument does make a point about how important other languages are in America, but a person needs to know English. “The official language of many states is English and it is the language used in nearly all governmental functions.” (Ryan 1)

 

 

 

 

Work Cited

Alvarez, Steven. “Official American English Is Best.” Bad Ideas About Writing, Digital Publishing Institute , textbooks.lib.wvu.edu/badideas/badideasaboutwriting-book.pdf.

Rumbaut, Rubén G., and Douglas S. Massey. “Immigration & Language Diversity in the United States.” SSRN, 13 July 2013, papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2293262.

Ryan, Camillie. “Language Use in the United States: 2011.” Census.gov, Census Publications, Aug. 2013, www.census.gov/library/publications/2013/acs/acs-22.html.

Striving to Fail

The Scoop on Failure

How hard is it to avoid failure? I would say it is basically impossible. I can only think of one way of avoiding failure, and that would be not trying at all. And not trying is the equivalent to failing. So why do so many people view failure as an end to all means as if it is unavoidable. The standard of the human life has become so based upon our peers and acceptance that we fail to see the values of failure. Instead often people become disappointed when faced with adversity and failure. Failure sparks inspiration and creativity, while people try to avoid failure their entire life in actuality it should be almost pursued. Pursuing failure would allow people to spend more of their life learning and less of it regretting.

Image result for Failure

In Agreement: Another Look

            An author that shares similar aspects of my opinion while also adding in their own flavor is Allison D. Carr. She talks about her thoughts in her excerpt “Failure Is Not an Option” included in the book Bad Ideas About Writing. Carr speaks on how she also feels as if “[f]ailure should be welcomed” in order to expose oneself to new opportunities (76). She describes the importance of failure in writing as “integral” to the process of success (76). Carr is stressing the need for resilience and perseverance when faced with failure. The realization of many greater ideas have blossomed because of failure and the toughness to fight through it. “[F]ailure is a significant part of the entire scene of learning,” when learning how to do anything there is a high possibility that the first time you are going to do it wrong (79). For some this may spark the fear of repeated failure in the mind therefore shutting down any chances of possible success leaving an idea unfinished. This is a fear that some would blame households for or traumatic experiences, but this blame can also be place on the education system. Thankfully, Carr and I are not the only people who feel failure shaming in education and society is something that needs to be denounced.

Inner City Research: Kids Who Need It Most

            Ingfei Chen has found and wrote an article on an actual experiment based around the concept of failure acceptance. The article “New Research: Students Benefit from Learning That Intelligence Is Not Fixed”, which can be found on PBS NPR, talks about Stanford researches and their discoveries on the adolescent mind when exposed to positive feedback on failure. The survey exposed inner city kids to 30-minute interval sessions of video clips, and simplistic motivational phrases such as, “If you make a mistake, it’s an opportunity to get smarter!” (Chen). These methods actually provided positive output from the students. A short 30-minute session sparked inspiration in the children showing a 14% average increase in half the students GPA by the end of the semester. Honestly it is shocking to see that even just exposing kids to the “growth-mindset” for 30 minutes showed astonishing results. Even though half the children were not affected by the video maybe it was too late for them. It makes me wonder if promoting this mindset from youth could have a larger impact on students test results and stress levels even on a national scale.

Image result for motivation in school

https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/36603/new-research-students-benefit-from-learning-that-intelligence-is-not-fixed

From East To West

             Katrina Schwartz talks about a Berkeley, California middle school teacher and her efforts to encourage failure, in her PBS article, “A Grading Strategy That Puts the Focus on Learning From Mistakes”. Katrina explains the no grading strategy used and created by Leah Alcala a middle school math teacher. Leah does not grade her students papers she simply highlights the mistakes and hands the paper back with one chance at a retake. By doing this she is trying to show her students “how powerful it can be to study their mistakes”. Katrina also touches on the struggles that Leah’s students encountered initially including motivation and understanding but an overall positive reaction from the students showed that thing could be done to inspire learning. These efforts will hopefully help an education system lead astray “refocus class on learning instead of on grades” while also reducing stress on students to succeed. I can personally vouch for this method because my Spanish teacher uses this exact same method for test in his class and the students appreciate it.

Start With YOU

Authors like Carr, Chen, and Schwartz are just some of many more authors and people that understand how much learning from mistakes can benefit our future. These authors chose to fight from the roots which is implicating these methods through the youth. This is not the only set of people that can benefit through learning from failure anyone who is facing adversity should adhere to this rule. Don’t allow yourself to be stunted by your failures analyze and improve on them then reapply them to your life. This is the key ingredient to succeeding while also being the hardest to obtain. But ability to persevere will never let you down.

Image result for learn from failure

 

Work Cited

Photo 1: https://www.powerofpositivity.com/10-things-to-learn-from-failure/

Photo 2: https://onlinelearningtips.com/2014/01/find-your-motivation-away-from-cliches/

Carr, Allison. “Failure Is Not An Option.” Bad Ideas About Writing, Digital Publishing Institute, 2017, pp. 76–81.

Chen, Ingfei. “New Research: Students Benefit from Learning That Intelligence Is Not Fixed.” KQED, Pbs, 9 Sept. 2015, www.kqed.org/mindshift/36603.

Schwartz, Katrina. “A Grading Strategy That Puts the Focus on Learning From Mistakes.” KQED, PBS, 16 Nov. 2018, www.kqed.org/mindshift/52456.

           

Plagiarism Deserves To Be Punished

I recently had the opportunity to read an article by Jennifer A. Mott-Smith with the title “Plagiarism deserves to be punished”, that title is the narrative that is heard time and time again from the media, professors and even parents. But when we look into plagiarism and its effects on students, we notice that it actually helps many writers who may be struggling with coming up with ideas for a paper.

She quotes author Lawrence Lessig from his book “Free Culture”, “what it can possibly mean to steal an idea: I understand what I am taking when I take the picnic table you put in your backyard. I am taking a thing, the picnic table, and after I take it, you don’t have it. But what am I taking when I take the good idea you had to put a picnic table in the backyard— by, for example, going to Sears, buying a table, and putting it in my backyard? What is the thing that I am taking then? Lessig was getting at the idea that when a person borrows an idea no harm is done to the party from whom it was taken” (Smith 247). The author is understanding what it could possibly mean to steal someone’s work while explaining the reality of how students use other writers’ ideas to create new ideas of their own. An idea may have been created by someone else but that does not mean that someone cannot use that idea to make new or improve that persons work.

Something Borrowed: Should a charge of plagiarism ruin your life? by Malcolm Gladwell talks about hearing a play from many of his friends that he needs to see. Finally, when he checks out the script, he soon realizes that the play was completely plagiarized from his work. At first, he was upset about it, but months went by then eventually he considered it a compliment. she used his work in a way that helped her become a better writer. He states “I am happy to be the source of inspiration for other writers, and had you asked for my permission to quote—even liberally—from my piece, I would have been delighted to oblige. But to lift material, without my approval, is theft.” (Gladwell, 2004). The idea of taking a writer’s piece is brazen and in the sense of that writer spending time and time on that piece of writing and just to have it stolen and use the writing as their own is very merciless. On the other hand, he negates his stance on plagiarism by saying “I considered Lavery’s borrowing to be a compliment. A savvier writer would have changed all those references to Lewis, and rewritten the quotes from me, so that their origin was no longer recognizable. But how would I have been better off if Lavery had disguised the source of her inspiration?” (Gladwell, 2004). Therefore, if his work had never been plagiarized then it would have never been recognized by so many people. Because of Gladwell’s work being used and getting so much recognition without it being modified or changed into something new he is appreciative of the writer. The fact that his work made it onto the stage that people actually enjoyed watching was a great feeling for him.

Mott-Smith verbalizes “There are at least three important things to understand about the complexity of using sources. First, ideas are often a mixture of one’s own ideas, those we read, and those we discuss with friends, making it hard, or even impossible, to sort out who owns what. Second, writers who are learning a new field often try out ideas and phrases from other writers in order to master the field. This process allows them to learn and is a far cry from steal- ing. Third, expectations for citing sources vary among contexts and readers, making it not only confusing to learn the rules, but impos- sible to satisfy them all.” (Mott-Smith, 248). This is very important to realize when citing sources, students who patch write or plagiarize majority of the time use sources as a guide to come up with ideas to further explicate their topic. When in a new field a student tends to look to experts for answers and understanding instead of studying and developing ideas independently. Furthermore, as a new writer adjusting to the rules in place for citing sources and giving credit where it is needed can be a difficult thing to do. Consequently, causing the writer to go to a source and use that source to make it sound like detailed statements about the topic but really isn’t. Instead of using that source as a way to come up with new ideas that will guide an essay in the correct direction.

 Patchwriting should not be looked at as a bad way of writing but as a process of collaborative writing in which the writer contributes to the other writer. Where the writer selects parts of the sources to use in order to make this essay effective rather than focus on giving credit or citing properly. This allowed writers to have a sense of confidence in what the writers are writing about. Utilizing patchwriting as a way to find proper sources to help the essay are positive effects.

Ideas are shared thoughts that are utilized ways The strategy of patchwriting for writers is to pick the word or phrases that are the most useful so that the writer can understand how to construct the paper for the essay that the student is writing.  The use of plagiarism is being accepted in a new way for writers whether that is being appreciative of someone acknowledging your work in theirs or in ways that are helpful for a writer to start somewhere and help the writer expound on an idea that the writer was not sure about.

Is African American English Good English?

          When thinking about what proper English is, typically English spoken in professional settings and in classrooms is what comes to mind. The problem with this thought is that it creates a dynamic that this English is the standard and anything that doesn’t fall inline with this is inferior. How can we determine which form of English is grammatically correct? Surely there are forms of English that are considered to be inferior to Standard American English, like African American English (sometimes called black english, Ebonics, broken English, or slang). But why is this dialect considered less to Standard American English? It’s important to understand that African American English does not follow the grammatical rules of standard American English, but follows the grammatical rules West African Languages, and therefore cannot be considered an inferior type of English because, linguistically speaking, it is a different language.

          According to linguistics, a language is categorized by grammar structure and not by vocabulary. To explain the difference between grammar and vocabulary in language, Jennifer Cunningham states, “English is considered a Germanic language because its grammar follows Germanic rules, even though its vocabulary is largely French and Latin. Likewise, African American Language is more grammatically African than English, even though its vocabulary is English. Therefore, it follows logically that African American Language ought to be considered linguistically…an African language” (Cunningham, 89). Understanding that African American English does not follow the grammatical rules of Standard American English, helps realize that these are in fact two grammatically separate languages, and cannot be compared to one another. In her book Talkin’ and Testifyin’, Geneva Smitherman breaks down the parallel between the grammar and structure rules in west African languages and of African American English. She points out the repetition of noun subject with pronouns, such as, “My father, he work there.”, and using the same verb form for all subjects, “I know; he know; we know; they know”(Smitherman, 6-7). This examples shows how the structure of the language does not coincide with that of Germanic languages, but of languages from West African tribes such as Ibo, Yoruba, and Hausa. African American English came to be because slaves had to apply their knowledge of West African grammatical rules and English vocalublary to bridge the gap and communicate with their masters. They adopted the English vocabulary and applied them to a different language thus creating a new language what is known as African American English, which still hold influence today. Smitherman also demonstrates how the African American English has evolved over centuries in the United States, and how the structure of the language remained the same. For example, throughout the evolution of the language, there are still sentence patterns that don’t use any form of the verb to be, which is commonly found in West African languages.

• He tell me he God. Barbados, 1692
• Me massa name Cunney Tomsee. (My master’s name is Colonel Thompson.) U.S., 1776
• What dis in heah? (What is this in here?) U.S., 1859
• But what de matter with Jasper? (But what is the matter with Jasper?) U.S., 1882
(Smitherman, 9).

Looking at this from a Standard American English point of view, one would argue that this grammatically incorrect, which would be a correct argument. But looking at the structure of these sentences from a West African language pint of view, these sentences are grammatically correct. This is why understanding the origins of a language is imperative to understanding how sentences are formed, and how the language is spoken.

          African American English is a language entirely different from the Standard American English that is spoken in professional environments, in classrooms and in textbooks. This language was created for the survival of African slaves in the Americas, and over centuries has evolved into a language that is an entire culture. Author of the novel Manchild in the Promised Land, Claude Brown calls this language, “language of soul”, and is appropriately named. This language was somehow able to keep the essence of its origins while taking on an entirely new vocabulary, to create something that has survived for centuries. When comparing Standard American English to Black American English, there is no comparison. They cannot be compared to each other because they are two different languages with two different origins, that happen to share the same vocabulary. This would be like trying to compare the Oromo language from Ethiopia to Mandarin from China, or French to Tagalog from the Philippines. It is impossible to compare one language to another is the standards are different, and the the structures are different. Also, how can anyone determine how “good” a language is? If the message is being delivered and is understood, who is say that a language is good or bad? One is not inferior to the other, so in regard to the original question, is African American English good English? The answer is yes, it is good English.

Sources

Cunningham, M. Jennifer, “African American Language is not Good English.” Bad ideas about writing, West Virginia University Libraries, 2017, pp.88-92.

Smitherman, G. (1977). “Talkin’ and Testifyin’”.Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. pp.6-9.

Brown, C. (1966). “Manchild in the promised land”. Burwood, N.S.W.: Royal Blind Society of New South Wales.

Reading and Writing Are Not Connected

Reading and writing are the two essential skills to communicate and to be successful in school. The idea that reading and writing are not connected is one of the bad ideas that people often believe. In “Reading and Writing Are Not Connected” essay, Ellen Carillo explains why this is a bad idea and what she thinks is a better idea. She thinks that it is better when reading and writing taught for students commonly. Reading and writing are connected through the process of learning and they have close relationship. Many studies have shown the connection between reading and writing, and how these two work together.

The way we speak is very different from the way we write. Developing writing and reading experiences can help the ability to make a good argument on a variety of subjects. Writing is simply an output, and reading is an input. Someone will be writing for somebody else to read it and share their thoughts with others. In “Reading and Writing Are Not Connected,” Ellen Carillo refutes the idea that reading and writing are two separate skills, “are not connected”: “What is often neglected in these public debates about the best way to teach literacy at the college level is that reading and writing are connected practices and, as such, the best way to teach them is together. It is a bad idea to continue privileging writing at the expense of reading” (Carillo 38).  

Instructors want the student to read an essay or article and they require to write about it and understand the theme of the text. In this way, the student practices reading and writing skill. when reading and writing are taught together, students will become better thinkers. Normally, reading and writing occur at the same time. The student comes up with some ideas after they read something in class. As Carillo suggests “Teaching reading and writing together will help students become more proficient in both” (Carillo 41). This is where Carillo supports the idea that reading and writing should be taught together. This helps the students to put ideas together and have critical thinking. Students get a lot of information from what they read from a book or other resources. They interact with their own life experience or might be a new idea for them what they just read. Reading helps the student to see on their own perspective or to change their mind about something that they already know. 

Most logicians recommend that people read and practice writing. David Bloome the author of “Reading, Writing, and Learning in the Classroom” says that “Reading is typically viewed as used for gaining information. One reads a book in order to gain information to do so” (Bloome 23). Readers might have many reasons why they prefer reading. Many writers read a lot of information before they start writing. They must sit on the chair and gather more information about what they want to write about.

Reading is one way to interact with the writer. It gives a chance to be able to understand what the writer is trying to say. As Carillo says “Although writing is more often thought of as a creative act, reading is just as creative” (Carillo 40). The writer talks his/her reader through their work. Writers are idea creators; they create a view and the reader job is to take the view in their perspective and learn from it.  

Mariolina Salvatori an author of “Reading in the Teaching of Composition” essay describes the relationship of reading and writing by saying “reading and writing are interconnected” (Salvatori 446). Salvatori uses this term to show the relationship between reading and writing. He also discusses the purpose when the students practice reading and writing at the same time. Salvatori supports the idea of teaching reading and writing together for students.

  Generally, all student should exercise reading and writing at the same time and they should stop thinking about these two things are separate. If a student wants to become successful in school or anywhere around the world, then it is better to practice reading and writing simultaneously. A writer puts his/her works out there for us and then it is our job to put those things together and answer these questions what, how, why and where. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                        Work Cited 

 

Adler-Kassner, Linda and Estrem, Heidi. “Reading Practices in the Writing Classroom.” 2005. http://www.wpacouncil.org/archives/31n1-2/31n1-2adler-kassner-estrem.pdf  

Bloome, David, and Erine Theodorou. “Reading, Writing, and Learning in the Classroom.” Peabody Journal of Education, vol. 62, no. 3, 1985, pp. 20–43. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1492584. 

Carillo, Ellen. “Open Access Textbooks.” Bad Ideas About Writing | Open Access Textbooks | WVU Libraries, 2017, textbooks.lib.wvu.edu/badideas/index.html. 

Cpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com. (2019). [online] Available at: https://cpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/sites.gsu.edu/dist/0/12196/files/2019/04/leather-bound-books.jpg [Accessed 29 Apr. 2019].

“Free Image on Pixabay – Book, Reading, Read, Glasses.” Book Reading Read – Free Photo on Pixabay, pixabay.com/photos/book-reading-read-glasses-2435583/. 

Salvatori, M. (1996). Conversations with texts: Reading in the teaching of composition. College English, 58(4), 440. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.gsu.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/236927120?accountid=11226 

 

 

 

 

What Is A Better Idea about Writing

There are various myths about good writing and bad writing techniques.  The teaching ideas about writing are presented by Ball and Drew in their book. There are various misconceptions about writing and each misconception may bring different problems for writers. “Bad ideas about writing” is considered one of the most important books to be used for the purposes of changing the misconceptions.  The various misconceptions brought concerning the idea of writing involving official American English is the best, teaching grammar improves writing, African American language is not good English, formal outlines are always useful, machines can evaluate writing well, anyone can teach writing, texting ruins students grammar skills and five paragraph essay transmits knowledge (Ball and Drew). Such misconceptions are major and they may affect the quality of the writing materials.  The aim of the research is to provide a wealth of knowledge on good ideas needed in putting to an end to the dangerous myth of how to improve on writing down expressions. That is important in improving the skills of the writers because the basic ideas provided to them helps in focusing on the text and the analyzing of different events.

Bad Ideas about Writing

Credit: https://textbooks.lib.wvu.edu/badideas/badideasaboutwriting-book.pdf

Writing has to be open and every person has to be provided with an equal capability to write. The skills related to writing can also be used to create better readers because of the focus generated (Valdez). Writing has to be exposed to all people and the capabilities not only belong to the gifted people, but they also belong to the self-taught too. The connection established in writing is developed through the love of content and the love of passing on knowledge from one entity to the other. Stereotyping on who is good writers has been rampant in the writing society because most of the ideas passed show that good writers should have specific characteristics. Anyone can be a good writer and most of them can be taught too. Most people have a misconception that only geniuses can write and that most of the writers are mythical and damaged people (Ball and Drew). That amplifies the belief that the writers should have specific characteristics to enable them to be ranked higher. There is only one correct way of writing and speaking according to the misconceptions of writing. That cannot be true because there are different techniques and processes used in writing. The writing techniques are developed from the desire of changing the writing to suit the technological changes and developments in different forms of presenting ideas.

Strong Writing and Writers Don’t Need Revision

According to Laura Giovanelli in “Strong writing and writers don’t need revision”, revision is the writing process and therefore there is need to have constant revisions to enhance the writing skills.  The writers take the revision activities as the process of changing the grammar and the punctuations and reading through the entire document after writing (Giovanelli). However, the entire writing process is composed of various revisions making the accomplishment of the writing goals possible. An ideal reader is the one who takes the aspects of revision into consideration and makes them work. The revision strategies adopted have to be effective in making the writing better. The writing process of most writers should put into consideration the various mistakes and it should be written to precisions while meeting all the instructions.  Revision according to the writing is a process composed of the heavy lifting of the work through establishing a clear purpose of why a person is writing, who the person is writing for and the arrangement of the work logically to meet the requirements.  That helps in forming a better revision and avoid the famous misconception that the strong writings and writers do not need revision in their work.

Naming What We Know: Threshold Concepts of Writing Studies

According to Wardle, the various misconceptions about writing can be solved through the threshold concepts.  The core principles of knowledge and writing studies have to be done through the threshold concepts (Kassner and Wardle). That would be effective in making the learning activities better. The concepts provided are important because they provide a wealth of information about writing into small good packages. The big ideas about writing are also passed through the writing techniques. That is important in generating sufficient knowledge about writing and its importance to the various people especially the librarians. The concepts of writing are mostly addressed through the book because there is an elaboration of the freedom provided to the writers in compiling the different texts (Kassner and Wardle). The writers can be good through the ways they build themselves from reading different texts. The connection between reading and writing can be established by developing a passion. 

The creation of better writing ideas is highly dependent on understanding the contents and the language to be used. The analysis of the content and development of ideas freely would also be helpful to most writers in their compositions. It is important to have good writing skills far from basic misconceptions. That would be important in making the writers feel better in expressing their main ideologies. 

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Work cited

Adler-Kassner and Elizabeth Wardle. Naming What We Know: Threshold Concepts of Writing Studies. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2015.

Ball, Cheryl E. and Drew M. Loewe. Bad Ideas About Writing. Morgantown: West Virginia University, 2017.

Giovanelli, Laura. “Strong Writing and Writers Don’t Need Revision .” Ball, Cheryl E. and Drew M. Loewe. Bad Ideas About wrIting. Morgantown: West Virginia University Libraries, 2017, pp. 104-108.

Valdez, Katherine. “Drop what you’re writing if you have a better idea.” 23 January 2015. Coloradoan. 22 April 2019. Retrieved from https://www.coloradoan.com/story/life/2015/01/24/drop-writing-better-idea/22250577/.

 

“Why are we learning this?”

It’s a reasonable question that deserves an honest answer. It needs to be addressed quickly, because a student who doesn’t see the point isn’t going to care, and a student who doesn’t care is a student who doesn’t learn. In the essay collection Bad Ideas about Writing, Andrew Hollinger’s bad idea is answering this question with “you’re going to need this for college.”

Hollinger says this is a bad answer for many reasons. For starters, it’s evading the question, just another way of saying “Because I said so” (Hollinger, pp. 333), and it “passes on the responsibility for meaningfulness to the next level of education.” He goes on to say that it tells the student that you don’t care, so they shouldn’t either (Hollinger, pp. 334), and for those students who aren’t planning to go to college? You’ve just given them explicit permission to check out (Hollinger, pp. 335). Further, it’s often inaccurate. The five-paragraph essay might get you through the admissions process, but it doesn’t hold up in a college setting.

A better idea, simply put, is to give a real answer. Alas, nothing in life is simple.

Students vs. the English Department

The titular question is not unique to high school English teachers, but English teachers have a harder time answering it than other departments. A math teacher has it relatively easy, as math builds upon itself in very visible ways, and it crosses over to the college setting unchanged. Not so with writing.

In their study “Writing in High School/Writing in College: Research Trends and Future Directions.”, Joanne Addison and Sharon James McGee found that “College and high school faculty across the curriculum are generally aligned with one another when it comes to prewriting, clear expectations, and good instructor practices.” but they found less “informal, exploratory writing” and less student to student interaction regarding writing in college than in high school (Addison and McGee, pp. 157). High school and college writing teachers superficially agree on how they should teach the writing process, but there are differences in how they do. And in this regard, it seems that high school teachers are doing better.

If teachers teach differently, it seems reasonable to conclude that their students will write differently. Why do high school and college writing teachers teach differently? College professors generally aren’t required to have as much education on how to teach than high school teachers do. It is therefore reasonable to conclude that high school writing teachers more closely adhere to established pedagogy, though this cannot account for all the differences. If students’ writing reflects how their teachers want them to write, then it would follow that, according to established pedagogy, the high school students write better than the college students.

This is not the case. Any successful college student will tell you that the way you learned to write in high school will not serve you well in college. From this chain of logic, it seems that the established pedagogy about writing does not help students in a practical sense, and college students are a pragmatic bunch. This could be another part of why they oftentimes disdain required writing courses such as First Year Composition (often abbreviated to FYC).

Linda S. Bergmann and Janet Zepernick make inquiries into how college students view their English courses in “Disciplinarity and Transfer: Students’ Perceptions of Learning to Write.” The students they surveyed often told them that it seems like college faculty don’t think FYC is particularly important. Their reasoning? First, it’s relatively easy for incoming freshmen to bypass FYC with dual enrollment credits or good SAT scores. Second, FYC courses are some of the least standardized courses in the curriculum (Bergmann and Zepernick, pp. 130). What you get depends almost entirely on the professor. It leads to the question: “What, then, is the point of this class? The school doesn’t seem to know, and the professors all have different ideas. Maybe there isn’t a point.”

Bergmann and Zepernick also found that students see writing for English as different from writing in disciplinary courses. They see it as personal and interpretive, while they see writing for say, engineering courses, as being graded solely on content. They do not think the skills learned in English classes are transferable to their discipline, though they do see disciplinary writing as transferable between disciplines (Bergmann and Zepernick, pp. 130). As a result, they see FYC as a waste of time, merely checking off a required credit.

Clearly, we have a failure to communicate. If students don’t think the skills they’re learning in composition courses are useful to them, then they won’t care beyond the grade, and are less likely to actually learn something, thus creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. The notion that disciplinary writing is graded on content alone is patently false. An engineering professor is likely to be more forgiving of minor grammatical errors, yes, but if your paper is unreadable? They’re less likely to even try.

You might look at all of this and think “wow, these students are jerks!” Admittedly, some of them are. But on the other hand, students have reasons to be pragmatic.

The Job Market

Here’s something to consider: how often do writing courses teach the sort of writing formats used in the workplace? Formal emails, PowerPoint presentations, technical reports, and so on? Addison and McGee draw data from the National Commission on Writing and their own surveys to note that the types of writing required in the workplace are not the types of writing that teachers, high school or college, assign very often (Addison and McGee, pp. 164). They go on to say that “Many faculty resist workplace genres on philosophical grounds, often arguing that their role is to help prepare citizens of the world, not train workers.” (Addison and McGee, pp. 164-165).

This sort of attitude shows a major divide between the teacher’s mindset and the students’ often pragmatic attitudes. College in the United States is expensive, and the white collar job market is very competitive. Students are quite justified in viewing college as a means to an end. While it is an admirable goal, making students into better citizens does not get them jobs, or help them pay off student loans.

Bergmann and Zepernick’s findings, then, should come as no surprise. At the end of their discussion of student attitudes towards English courses, they say that “Although students showed exposure to a process-oriented approach to writing […], they were nonetheless highly product-oriented, believing that the final product of any piece of writing […] is the grade it received [or] the extent of its acceptance or approval by their supervisor.” (Bergmann and Zepernick, pp 136) In other words, they found that students see writing as a way of getting what they want. This isn’t entirely unreasonable. Writing is the vehicle for your thoughts, ideas, and data, not the content itself. But that vehicle is very important, and this attitude may cause students to neglect it.

“You’re Going to Need This for College.”

Early on in his essay, Hollinger condemns this answer by saying that “Teaching doesn’t need to be a magic show” and “Students who understand the mechanics of learning may become better at learning.” (Hollinger, pp. 334). Education doesn’t have to, and really shouldn’t be, a mysterious and arcane art to be kept secret from those who do not practice it.

The better answer, in simple terms, is explaining why you teach the way you do, and trusting your students to understand. But it is wrong to characterize that answer as simple. Do you know why you’re teaching what you’re teaching? Is it going to help your students get where they want to go? Will it help them figure out other kinds of writing? Perhaps a better idea is to ask the titular question of yourself!

Works Cited

Addison, Joanne, and Sharon James McGee. “Writing in High School/Writing in College: Research Trends and Future Directions.” College Composition and Communication, vol. 62, no. 1, 2010, pp. 147–179. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/27917889

Bergmann, Linda S., Janet Zepernick. “Disciplinarity and Transfer: Students’ Perceptions of Learning to Write.” WPA: Writing Program Administration, vol. 31, iss. ½, Fall/Winter 2007, pp. 124-149. Ebscohost, http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=31131523&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Hollinger, Andrew. “You’re Going to Need This for College.” Bad Ideas about Writing, edited by Drew M Loewe and Cheryl E Ball, West Virginia University Libraries Digital Publishing Institute, 2017, pp. 333–337. https://textbooks.lib.wvu.edu/badideas/badideasaboutwriting-book.pdf

Can you learn to write in general?

Do you think that you can write in general? After reading Elizabeth Wardle’s “You Can Learn to Write in General,” and diving in a little deeper it seems as if you can not write in general. On first thought, one would think that, sure, as long as one knows how to write and form sentences, they can write in general; but one can’t. There are different elements to different types of writing, for example, poetry and a blog post are two very different types of writing with different purposes, audiences, and structures. In order to be able to write different forms of writing, one needs to be open and aware that different writing requires different skills. Metacognition, thinking about ones thinking, is very important when it comes to learning to write. Students and all other writers for that matter need to look for examples and use context to write the piece one is writing. Practice and cognitive awareness is a way of learning to write different kinds of writing.

Almost right off the bat, Wardle makes her message clear in her piece, saying, “The idea that we can all learn to “write in general” is not just a harmless myth. It’s a dangerous idea that needs to die because it hurts students and frustrates teachers and employers. And writers who believe it are easily discouraged because they don’t know how to learn what they need to learn in new writing situations (Wardle 31).” Students and teachers need to be aware of the possibility of being able to write in new situations with the help of outside sources and previous writing knowledge and skills. Students should be aware that writers are always going to be using prior knowledge to get to know the way around writing in other contexts and types of texts (Elon). Wardle later talks about being able to use transfer to help one write in all situations without needing any kind of “magic formula” (Wardle 32), which was previously brought up by an article in the Elon University’s Journal discussing writing transfer, “the phenomenon in which new and unfamiliar writing tasks are approached through the application, remixing or integration of previous knowledge, skills, strategies, and dispositions (Elon 4).”

Metacognition and thinking about one’s thinking is another important thing to pay attention to when learning how to write. One needs to make sure they are thinking about the writing processes taking place and retaining it for later use in new and unfamiliar writing situations. In a special-issue in the journal Composition Forum, an article by Irene Clark and others discusses genre awareness, the metacognitive side of writing for both teachers and students. “Genre awareness is the idea being that a metacognitive understanding of genre can help students make connections between the type of writing assigned in the Composition course—that is, academic argument— and the writing genres they encounter in other disciplines (Clark 65).” When one can have genre awareness, they are not only learning how to write in that particular genre; they are also learning how all of the elements in a text are influenced by the purpose of the text and in turn the type of text being used. This whole article was focused on students and how teachers can help their students reach the possibility of being able to write a wide range of types of text after their first year in college. But the article argues that genre awareness is larger than just that and that, “the concept of genre awareness can not only benefit students in first year writing classes but also students in all disciplines (Clark 69).” All students, or anyone for that matter, can be benefited from genre awareness because people are always going to be writing one thing or another, whether it be emails, blog posts, or social media posts. A study was done in which a freshman class was structured based around specific genres and built around each other, with metacognition constantly being focused on through discussion and self-evaluation. At the end of the school year, students were given surveys to evaluate their understanding of different genres. “Responses to surveys distributed to students at the end of the semester indicate that they all found their understanding of genre useful for approaching writing tasks in other disciplines and that this understanding made them less anxious about writing in general (Clark 69).” The article has many different examples of classes who used this method, and all had similar results; metacognition and genre awareness is useful in the approach of and writing of different types of texts. Even the Elon University’s Journal agrees that metacognition is important in learning, especially the writing process, saying, “Explicitly modeling transfer-focused thinking and the application of metacognitive awareness as a conscious and explicit part of a process of learning. (Elon 5)”

Wardle ended her piece in the perfect way. She said “There is no writing inoculation because there is no such thing as writing in general. But this isn’t bad news. Rather, it gives all writers permission to keep learning, to fail, and to engage in new kinds of writing in new situations (Wardle).” Everyone needs to understand and accept that you can not write in general, that it takes practice and attention. You can’t write in general, but you can learn to write a wider range of texts. Next time you are writing anything, think about what you’re doing and how that could change if it were a different type of text with a different purpose.

 

Bibliography

Image 1: Writing Cooperative

Image 2: Pinterest

Clark, Irene L., and Andrea Hernandez. “Genre Awareness, Academic Argument, and Transferability.” The WAC Journal 22 (2011). Web. 15 April 2019.

Elon Statement on Writing Transfer. 29 July 2013. Web. Date of Access. < http://www.elon.edu/ e-web/academics/teaching/ers/writing_transfer/statement.xhtml>.