The Covid-19 Pandemic has changed our ways of receiving education and teaching it. Most institutions and schools have had to shut down and migrate to online platforms to accommodate for the rules and guidelines such as social distancing. Many parents and students are frustrated with this change for many reasons. The tuition costs remain the same in some institutions for students who are attending class on campus and for students who are at home. It sparked frustration with many parents and students, which led to concerns for other factors like the quality of online education. Communication is also a substantial part of teaching and learning. How dependable can the instructors be for their students? Tiffany Bourelle and Andy Bourelle introduce a bad idea about writing teachers titled, “Face-to-Face Courses are Superior to Online Courses.” They revealed that parents and students do not believe that online classes benefit education, which has become a common misconception (Bourelle and Bourelle, 352). Tiffany Bourelle and Andy Bourelle concluded that online courses could be as successful as face-to-face (f2f) courses and could also have the potential of becoming better. In some aspects, online learning is already better. There are significant elements that online courses must provide for it to be the best quality of education.

The original concept for online classes was to make learning contents convenient and easily accessible for people who are not available to attend the traditional f2f courses (Bourelle and Bourelle, 351). There are conflicts with schedules between work, school, and other commitments that prevent students from acquiring education. Digital platforms have made it easy for students to overcome these obstacles of conflict and move forward with their degree pathways. Anya Kamenetz, the author of “Chasing the Elusive ‘Quality’ of Online Education,” discloses that students perform better with some type of online component. She also discusses how interaction with instructors can enhance the quality of online learning (Kamenetz). When students are taking f2f classes, they’re already using online sites to communicate with their instructors and peers outside of the classroom. Teachers must be responsive to their students when teaching a fully online course. Interactions with classmates are also easier done online.

Students in writing courses write more in online classes than in f2f classes. The Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions (MGHIHP) released an article titled “Benefits and Challenges of Online Instruction.” The authors conveyed that students put in more effort through online classes. Participation levels are higher because online students find more comfort in engaging in discussions than in f2f classes (MGHIHP). Within online writing courses, students don’t only write more but they think more critically too (Bourelle and Bourelle, 354). In any f2f system, students are always quiet throughout the entire class period. You can practically hear the crickets, hence why engagement rates are not high in these traditional style classes.

There are many more reasons why online classes are successful and there are ways to make them better. F2F has defined the quality of education, but we need to “stop comparing online classes with f2f classes,” says the Bourelles. Having a variety of teaching methods helps students identify with their style of learning. Online learning allows students to discover different techniques that work for them. They receive more practice with freewriting, creativity, and processing. Of course, the instructor would need to design the class that could help students perform well academically (Bourelle and Bourelle, 354). The MGHIHP stresses the need for restructuring the online course from the f2f course because of how different the two systems are. The social media platform on the web browser of your laptop looks different in comparison to the app in your mobile phone. They are different types of devices (systems) that require different layouts (course structures) for your enjoyment (education).

Technology is continually changing our daily routines. Online learning platforms are more common now than they have been before. The pandemic has opened eyes to the challenging struggles of online education, but institutions and instructors are working together to change the system regularly to improve their standards. Online education is already better in ways like participation and critical thinking, and it can become elite after upgrading the content delivery and design of the course. This helps students succeed in their writing classes. Digital platforms are booming, and it’s becoming the new way of teaching and grasping knowledge. It’s easy, fast, and efficient. Soon, everyone will have the opportunity to become educated and accomplishing their goals from the comfort of their home.

Citations

Bourelle, Tiffany, and Andy Bourelle. “Face-to-Face Courses Are Superior to Online Courses.” Bad Ideas About Writing, edited by Drew M. Loewe and Cheryl E. Ball, Digital Publishing Institute, 2017, pp. 351–355.

Kamenetz, Anya. NPR, 27 June 2014, www.npr.org/sections/ed/2014/06/27/323329818/chasing-the-elusive-quality-in-online-education. 

“Benefits and Challenges of Online Instruction.” MGH Institute of Health Professions, 28 Feb. 2020, www.mghihp.edu/faculty-staff-faculty-compass-teaching/benefits-and-challenges-online-instruction. 

Writing is needed in everyday life and everyone should be able to write properly. However, not everybody was taught the proper way to write, including students in today’s schools.  Patricia A. Dunn explains how the bad idea of “Teaching Grammar Improves Writing” is that helping students with their grammar improves the student knowledge of linguistics, but if the students writing need to improve the teachers will have to teach the writing. Ken Lindblom explains how school writing should be replaced by authentic writing in “School Writing Vs. Authentic Writing”.  Dunn and Lindblom believe that a better idea is to teach students to improve their writing skills is by making their writing assignments authentic writing. 

Dunn explains how grammar drills in school do not help the students at all. Many people believe grammar is all that is needed to become a better writer, but that is not true. Grammar is a part of the writing but it does not make the writing. “One way to improve writing is to stop looking for a better way to teach grammar. To improve writing, find a better way to teach writing.” (Dunn144). In order to improve the students writing level, teaching the students grammar alone will not do it. Lindblom explains how students are not engaged in student writing as they should be due to five-paragraph essay formats and the books that they are forced to write about. “Nowhere in the world outside school is writing expected to be formally written without a real purpose and without a real audience.” (Lindblom1). In order words, student writing is seen as useless outside of school because no student is able to put their opinions out there to share with the world, unlike in authentic writing.  In school writing, students have to ask themselves if their spelling counts or if they cited the correct number of sources. At the same time, with authentic writing, students are asking themselves whether their essays are persuasive enough to persuade or inform people.  

 Writing is something that has been around for centuries, but from thirty years ago until now, grammar exercise assignments never helped students approve. “Decades of research have shown that isolated grammar exercises are among the worse uses of time in writing class, given that such practices can result in students’ writing actually getting worse.” (Dunn145). Dunn goes into depth on how new writing instructors need to stop focusing on grammar and focus on the writing because it is not going to change the student’s way of writing. Techniques to improve writing can be sentence combining in which short sentences are edited to become longer, rearrange clauses and phrases, and linking punctuation. “They can teach students to write in real-world situations, helping them notice how different writing projects can have very different constraints.” (Dunn146-147). If students apply their writing to real-world situations, they will be able to make their writing more effective and informative.  

Authentic writing helps students develop real-world writing skills like writing in formal and informal registries or be able to analyze and understand the different conventions required for different genres. It is a fact that this generation of students is writing more than they ever did before, even if it is mostly online. Many social media platforms give students a way to state their opinion or write something towards a specific group of people.  “If we want all students to learn to write the best of their ability we must design writing assignments that excite their interests: assignments that allow students to select topics that they are interested in and that allow them to write to real audiences they truly want to speak to.” (Lindblom1). A better way for students to actively engage in their writing class is to write about something they care about. If they are working on school writing they are only writing in order to get a good grade and there will be no enjoyment while they work on it.  

Students’ writing abilities can change every day, but it is quicker for them to improve with practice. Learning how to write does not come naturally, it could take months or even years to perfect. Even if someone practiced how to write for years, mistakes will still be made. Grammar is not the only way to learn writing. Continuing how to write about real-world situations or using authentic writing may help. The point of writing is to share your opinion and make a difference in saying it. 

Work Cited: 

Dunn, Patricia A. “Teaching Grammar Improves Writing,” in Bad Ideas About Writing. pp. 144-149. Web. https://textbooks.lib.wvu.edu/badideas/badideasaboutwriting-book.pdf 

Lindblom, Ken. “School Writing Vs. Authentic Writing,” 2015 27 July. Web. https://writerswhocare.wordpress.com/2015/07/27/school-writing-vs-authentic-writing/ 

Research project

Andre Wright

In this essay, I will be forming a better idea from bad ideas by going over two sources from Allison D Carr and Katrina Schwartz. I will be discussing Allison D. Carr, “FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION” and what she thinks is a bad idea, along with presenting what she thinks is a better idea. Then I will discuss Katrina Schwartz’s “Growth Mindset: How to Normalize Mistake Making and Struggle in Class” (Mind/Shift) article and what she thinks is a better idea for writing. First, Allison D Carr’s writing will be discussed. In Carr’s writing, the wrong idea is that failure is not an option and that failure will ruin your life. The better idea that Carr presented is that failing is beneficial towards you. When people fail, they learn why they failed, and it can virtually benefit them. 

I will now analyze Carr’s articles and figure out what is being used to persuade the audience. This will help me form my better idea for writing. The purpose Carr operates to persuade the audience is that the idea that failure is wrong needs to go away. (https://textbooks.lib.wvu.edu/badideas/badideasaboutwriting-book.pdf page 76) Carr says a better idea would be to accept failure. That failure is more learning and developing than markers of achievement or success. (https://textbooks.lib.wvu.edu/badideas/badideasaboutwriting book.pdf page 79) Avoidance of failure would lead to an absence of creativity and counterproductive thinking. (https://textbooks.lib.wvu.edu/badideas/badideasaboutwriting-book.pdf page 77) Her purpose is that failure is beneficial. In the article,

the main goal is to inform the audience to accept failure and learn from it. From this article, I take from this article that you should observe what mistakes you made to make necessary adjustments when you fail. This can help in the future so that people do not make the same mistakes. That way, they can grow.

Next is Schwartz’s article; her better idea is to practice the concept of “productive failure” and give students time and progress to work through difficult problems. Another central part of her better idea is to praise the process and effort the student puts in instead of the final product. (https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/41700/growth-mindset-how-to-normalize-mistake-making-and-struggle-in-class first paragraph) In the article, she presents a video of classroom struggle in a second-grade classroom. The teacher of the classroom normalizes struggle and says how problems can be solved in different ways. http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voa0F2C_hjY&feature=emb_title 

I take from Schwartz’s article that struggling and failing is necessary to improve and produce.

The better ideas of both authors are very similar and very important when it comes to learning. They both embrace failure and give multiple reasons for how it benefits a person. That is why my better idea is to seek success, but if you fail along the process, that is OK, but do not seek failure. In her essay, I know that Carr states that one should go after failure and welcome it, but I do not fully agree with that. I believe that failure is necessary to grow and succeed, but I do not think someone should be OK with failure and go after it. When you fail, it is a good learning lesson, but overall, it negatively impacts you. I say that failing is lacking in success, and you do not want to be lacking in success repeatedly. Our primary goal in school, work, and life is to chase our goals and succeed instead of continually striving for failure and accepting it in your life. Learn that failure is OK, but not so acceptable. Learn what mistakes you made so that you do not make the same mistakes again. That way, you can accomplish your goals.

Sources:

Allison D. Carr, “FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION,” : https://textbooks.lib.wvu.edu/badideas/badideasaboutwriting-book.pdf

Katrina Schwartz’s “Growth Mindset: How to Normalize Mistake Making and Struggle in Class” (Mind/Shift): https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/41700/growth-mindset-how-to-normalize-mistake-making-and-struggle-in-class

Youtube video from Schwartz article: 

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voa0F2C_hjY&feature=emb_title

Posted by Perts youtube channel on August 14th, 2015

Writing is one of the most common skills used on a day to day basis. Writing comes with a purpose, to whom are you writing for? Why are you writing this? And so on. When you sit down with a pen and paper to begin writing you automatically set your mind to answer those few questions. Whether it’s writing for a creative purpose, writing to a colleague at work, writing to your boss and so forth. You can’t just write in general with no purpose. This is what Elizabeth Wardle the author of, “You can learn to write in general” argues about. This bad idea of being able to write in general creates an illusion that just any writing would fit any genre or any purpose, when truly that is not the case.

Writing in general is a difficult task to complete when you have no moral purpose for why you are writing. For example, if an author were to sit down and start talking about how college is a waste of time, the author must have an audience he/she is writing to.They can’t just sit there and write in general about the topic. They must have an audience to whom they are trying to convey this idea to and some evidence to back up their claim. It’s not like fictional writing where the author can just make up the story as they go, they must have concrete facts, most importantly must have a purpose. Another example, waking up one morning and deciding to start a business. You can’t just do that. You need to know an audience to whom you are selling a product to, why are you selling this product?, what is this product and what’s so good about it?
You must have some money already before making a business to be able to start the company, create the product you are promoting to sell, promote the product so people hear about it. Therefore, you can’t just start something with no purpose or audience, the same goes for writing in general.

Elizabeth Wardle, author of “You can learn to write in general”, suggests that “a better conception of writing is one in which we all remember (realistically) our own experiences learning to write in different situations”. (Wardle, 31). This gives the writer the flexibility to write for different situations, such as different purposes and audiences. Not all writing would fit into the same genre or the same audience because each creates its own purpose.“You can’t do it, because it can’t be done. There is no such thing as writing in general. Writing is always in particular.”(Wardle pg ,30)

Writing in different situations is the key concept in writing. The writer must gather new techniques for each purpose of writing. The author of “Elon Statement on Writing Transfer” says, “Successful writing transfer occurs when a writer can transform rhetorical knowledge and rhetorical awareness into performance”. Implying that the writer must have some sort of knowledge into what they are trying to write. This helps the reader be able to understand the key purpose of what the writing was for. Each writing created has its own main key of focus. You must be able to gain new ideas and techniques in order to be successful in new situations of writing. One can not expect that the same technique used before would be stable for another situation. Example, I can not write an essay for math and expect the same technique I used to score me a hundred in English. Another example could be, in a historic writing you use evidence from what happened in the time frame but in fiction since it’s made up you may not need any evidence, it wouldn’t be as crucial.

Lastly, it is most important to remember that writing does have a purpose. For whatever purpose the author is writing, they do not just write in “general”. As a writer one must recall what the purpose for their writing is and to whom they are writing to. Each writing must portray its own meaning, not all writing can be used for the same concept, genre etc. You can always grow from the previous writings but it can not be the same. Therefore, you can not learn to write in general, but you can learn to write with a purpose and audience.

Work Cited:
– Ball, E. Cheryl; Loewe, M. Drew. Bad Ideas About Writing. Wardle, Elizabeth. “You can learn to write in general”.Pp.30-33.
-Elon University.”Elon’s statement on Writing Transfer”.Incorporated,2013.Pp 1-9. http://www.elon.edu/docs/e-web/academics/teaching/ers/writing_transfer/Elon-Statement-Writing-Transfer.pdf