Dana Alexander

Dr. Roggenbuck
Theory and Practice of Writing
Short Formal Reflection
26. February 2014
The Raging Asshole
When asked to write my first draft of my Short Formal Reflection paper I believed that I
had the right answers, that I knew exactly what the best approach was for teaching composition
writing for all students. I wrote my entire first draft about how I truly believed that the
expressionist philosophies for composition writing was the absolute best approach for all
students because it allowed them to be passionate about their writing and to use their voice.
According to Fulkerson, Expressivists value writing that is about personal subjects, and such
journal keeping is an absolute essential. Another keynote for expressivists is the desire to have
writing contain an interesting, credible, honest, and personal voice, (432). After learning about
the expressivists philosophies through Fulkerson and Peter Elbow I realized that my own beliefs
aligned most closely with the expressivists ideas. When asked to decide what I thought the best
philosophy for teaching writing composition to students was, I had absolutely no doubt in my
mind that expressionist was the best answer. After numerous class periods, a long eye opening
discussion with my professor, Dr. Roggenbuck, and the opportunity to reread my first draft, I
have come to realize that I sounded like a raging asshole in my first draft. I had written a full
four pages of my paper rambling on about how the expressionist approach was the absolute best
way to teach writing composition to students. I now realize that I believed so strongly in this
approach because it is what has always worked best for me, but to say that it would be the
Commented [1]:
I realize that my introduction sets the reader up to thinking
that my paper is going to be commenting on the negatives of
expressionst writing, when in fact I end up praising the
expressionist pedagogies. If I were to rewrite this paper I
would make my introduction more clear as to what my paper
is specifically going to discuss.
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absolute best approach for all students is completely false, because no two students are alike.
After careful consideration and listening to Dr. Roggenbuck, as well as my peers in class, I have
come to the realization that it is impossible to claim that one concrete approach to teaching
writing is the best. As teachers, we need to realize that there is no best solution for our
students, but rather that there is a need for a variety of numerous different methods of teaching
writing in the classroom. By teaching our students various approaches to writing composition we
allow them the opportunity to find what works best and is the most effective approach for them
as individuals.
As a future educator of an English classroom, who will be teaching writing to my future
students, I believe that it is extremely important to reflect back on my own writing experiences to
determine what worked best for me, and what did not work well at all, so that I can apply my
findings in my future classroom. I have come to realize that some of the most effective written
works I have completed were the ones in which I had the freedom to choose what I wanted to
write about. In Peter Elbows A Method of Teaching Writing he suggests that teachers should
allow their students to come up with their own assignments, with the idea that if a student creates
their own assignment based off of something that interests them, they will create a passionate
work in which their own interests and voice will come through. By allowing students to choose
their own assignments they become interested in their writing, which will cause them to put in an
excess amount of effort, and their confidence in the chosen topic will be portrayed through their
writing. Elbow believes that students must build confidence in their writing first, then eventually
focus on the truths of good writing. Elbow states, The point is to try to build from strength
and only gradually to proceed towards areas of weakness(116).
Commented [2]:
I still believe that all students learn differently and that
certain writing styles and approaches may work really well
for some students and not so great with others. After
completeing the remaining readings during class I now take
into consideration the importance of technology. I could
have incorporated into my paper about how some students
may benefit the most from using technology in the classroom
and in their writing. Posting a writing assignment online may
cause students to get positive feedback or new ideas that they
would have never gotten from their peers in class. Pascopella
and Richardson discuss a story about a young boy who
posted a piece of his writing online and got so much positive
feedback that he finally gained confidence in himself. It is
moments like that that remind us all about the positive
opportunities that await through the use of technology and
social media. While some students do not enjoy using
technology or posting their work on the web, other students
may benefit vastly from doing so. Giving students the
opportunity to try it out is extremely important because they
may never have the opportunity otherwise. As a future
educator I plan on incorporating technology into my
classroom and into my writing prompts. Eventually I would
allow my students to choose which style they prefer because
I understand that some students do not like using technology
or having their own personal works posted online.
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As a student I have always found that the assignments in which I had freedom to write
about topics that interested me were not only the ones that I enjoyed the most, but also the ones
in which I put the most time and effort into writing. These assignments helped me grow as a
writer because they were based around topics that I either already knew information about or
topics I was excited to learn more about, which caused me to be passionate about writing about
them. During my adolescent psychology class during my sophomore year of college my
professor assigned a scientific research paper at the beginning of the semester. Now, I will be
completely honest when I say that I am not a fan of science, because I have never found science
to be interesting and it has become one of my poorest subjects in school. I dreaded starting
research for the paper because I figured my professor was going to assign all of us a boring topic
in which we were going to have to spend pointless hours in the library researching something
that I did not care about. But boy was I wrong! My professor did something that no professor at
this university had ever done before, he gave the entire class a list of about forty different topics,
as well as three different types of research papers we could choose from. After deciding that I
wanted to choose the paper option of writing a two sided debate, I began to scroll through the list
of topics and instantly thought I was doomed because none of the topics had really sparked my
interested. I finally stumbled upon the topic of androgyny, which I had never heard of before,
and took a minute to google what androgyny meant. Well, what I found sparked a major interest
within me. I discovered that androgynous individuals were those who had been raised in homes
where their parents chose to not differentiate between gender roles, and those children developed
both male and female characteristics. I also found that there had been major debates over the last
ten years about whether or not it was better or worse to raise children to be androgynous. As a
future educator, who will experience androgynous students in my classroom one day, and
Commented [3]:
This writing assignment has been included as one of my
artifacts for this eportfolio because of how effective my
teachers idea to give us choices was for me. I believe so
strongly in giving students options and the freedom to make
their own decisions, as well as the freedom to make their
own assignments. I think it can be extremely effective for the
learning process because it gets students excited about
writing.
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hopefully a future parent, who will need to decide how I want to raise my children, this
immediately sparked my interested and I could not wait to learn more. My professor had done
the impossible, he got me interested in research, science, and psychology, by allowing me to
choose a topic that I found to be interesting. This method was so effective and I actually walked
away from the assignment, not only with a good grade, but with a paper I was proud of writing
and new information that I was excited about.
Although my teacher had created a set structure for the assignment in which he wanted us
to follow, which was exactly the same for all of the students in the class, each and every student
wrote completely different papers because we were allowed to make choices. These papers were
written by students who were excited about writing them because they were topics that we were
most interested in. This caused us to enjoy researching our topics and encouraged us to take the
time to learn more about a subject in which we knew little about, but we were interested in
learning more. Thus, causing the students to put more effort into our work then most of us
normally would have, which was reflected in our papers. The expressionist philosophies
emphasize that the authors personal voice should come through their work, and by allowing
students to choose their own assignments is a great way of applying this philosophy. By
effectively portraying the writers voice there is an added element of meaning in the work, which
creates good writing.
Along with choosing my own assignments, I always found free-writing to be very
beneficial. When teachers gave us the opportunity to write in our journals or spend ten minutes
in the beginning of class to free-write, we were allowed to write in a language that we normally
would not. Free-writing allows students to experiment and play with language that might
normally be considered improper and different from the standard English we were used to.
Commented [4]:
After reading some of the laters work in class, I believe that
collaborative writing could be extremely effective as well as
free-writing. Krista Kennedy and Rebecca Moore Howard
discuss the idea of collaborative writing in the classroom,
which is something I have never even heard of prior. I think
that collaborative writing could be really effective for
students because it allows them to bounce ideas off of one
another. It also teachings students social skills and how to
work together towards reaching the same goal. This is an
extremely important skill because as our students grow up
they will eventually get jobs where they will need to work on
the same assignment with numerous different people, all
working towards the same goal. As educators is it our job to
prepare our students for the future, and what better way than
to incorporate technology? Pascopella and Richardson, along
with Day, Leahy, and Vanderslice all discuss the importance
of technology in the classroom. Technology is only going to
get more and more advances, and increasingly more frequent
and important in our lives, whether we want to admit it or
not. So preparing our students by allowing them to use all
different technological outlits avaliable to them is only going
to benefit them in the end.
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David Bartholomae and Joseph Harris discuss in their works about how each individual has their
own discourse community and how social construct shapes our language. Bartholomae believes
that students are afraid to try new variations of language in their writing, and I believe that free-
writing allows students to experiment with their language, as well as with other language styles.
Free-writing is beneficial because it allows students to test new waters and try new writing
styles, while also encouraging them to use their voice, which in the end will build their
confidence as writers.
Confidence is a major element of good writing because if a writer lacks confidence in
their thoughts and written words, they will not have the courage to express themselves through
their writing. If a student does not believe they are a good writer, they will not use their freedom
of writing to the fullest and will not express their own voice through their work. A writer can not
fully voice their opinions if they believe that their ideas and opinions are not good enough, or not
worth being heard. Peter Elbow suggest that in order to build students confidence in their writing
their should be an emphasis on peer reviewing within the classroom. He believes that by making
the students judge the work of others, they will realize that they do in fact possess the skills to
recognize what works and what does not work in writing. Elbow states, I see four reasons why
it is crucial for the students all to be readers and judges. 1) It means starting with skills that
students do possess. It forces the student to realize that he does in fact have standards and criteria
for judging writing. And it requires that he develop them(117). By allowing students to peer
review, Elbow believes students will be encouraged to better their writing, while also helping
them realize that they have the ability and criteria to judge what constitutes as good writing.
He believes that it is important for students to enhance their talents and build up their confidence
in their writing before incorporating grammar and truths about good writing. Elbow states,
Commented [5]:
Along with the importance of peer review, I would have
discussed the importance of feedback from both peers and
teachers. Milner & Milner both discuss the importance of
feedback, as well as Sommers. Sommers emphasizes the
importance of teacher feedback. Getting feedback from your
peers and teacher is extremely important to the writing
process because getting feedback tells you what you need to
fix and how to make your paper more effective. Milner and
Milner discuss that giving feedback is key in enhancing
students learning because it gives them an understanding of
what theyre doing well and what they need to improve
upon. Following the discussion on feedback, I would have
then began to discuss the importance of revision. Nancy
Sommers talks about the process of revision and how
important it is to constantly revise your work throughout the
entire writing process. I now believe that this is extremely
important because I realize that some of my best works every
written were heavily revised. Even this paper was revised
greatly throughout and this draft of my paper is completely
different from my first draft. I learned the importance of
revision and feedback during my Theory of Practice and
Writing class. In order to be the best writer we can be and to
be the most effective writer we need to be accepting of
change and need to understand that there is always room for
improving our writing.
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[t]he students best hope of learning the teachers criteria will come from enhancing and
building up his own talents for distinguishing certain kinds of goodness in writing from certain
kinds of badness(117). He believes that there are multiple benefits of students reviewing each
others works which include; confidence, experience, pride in their own work, and even an
incorporating a social aspect, which are all important elements to writing. By allowing students
to look at their peers work they get an understanding of wether they themselves are meeting their
full potential and doing the assignment correctly, as well as causing students to put in their best
efforts due to the added pressure that their peers will be reading their work as well.
When it comes to peer review I am personally torn, because I believe that there are so
many potential benefits to peer editing, but unfortunately I have personally never had a good in
class peer review experience. Throughout my entire writing career and student experiences,
every time my teachers have allowed for peer review during class, I always find that my peers
are not willing to put in the time and effort to effectively edit or critique my paper. I always find
peer reviews frustrating because I give my peers works my full attention and give them as much
constructive feedback as possible, yet I feel like my efforts are never reciprocated. Although my
in-class peer reviews have never been a success, I know many students who find peer review to
be helpful. Although I am not a fan of in-class peer review, I do in fact find that peer review
with my fellow classmates out side the classroom is very effective. For almost every writing
assignment I have ever done, I ask my peers who I know are good writers, who will actually give
me constructive criticism on my papers, to read through my works. I have found that these
voluntary peer reviews are much more beneficial and valuable to my writing experiences. I also
ask peers in my classes if I can read their papers as well, to get a better understanding to wether
or not I am grasping the assignment and writing to my full potential. I believe that teachers need
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to find a way to facilitate peer reviews in a way that will cause all the students involved to put in
their full efforts, because I do believe that there are multiple, valuable benefits to peer reviewing.
Like peer review, another element of the writing process which works for some students
but not for others is brainstorming and outlining before writing a paper. As we discussed the
process of outlining and brainstorming in my Theory and Practice of Writing class, I was
surprised to find that the majority of my fellow classmates did not find it to be effective. I found
this interesting because I have always been the type of writer who brainstorms my ideas and then
jots them down with a pen and paper as a rough outline before even going to my laptop to begin
typing my paper. I have always found that doing this helps me structure my thoughts and forces
me to stay on track while writing. I never forget the points I was going to make or get lost
rambling on about one specific topic, because I have my outline to look at. Many of my
classmates argued that they never found this to be effective because they always figured out what
they wanted to say while they were in the process of writing it. In Chris Ansons work, Process
Pedagogy and Its Legacy he quotes Peter Elbow, Writers dont figure out what they want to
say and then write it; they write in order to figure out what they want to say, and end up
somewhere different from where [they] started (219), and I agree with this statement. I
understand where my classmates are coming from because I too, often find myself changing my
ideas throughout my writing process because I have discovered something new while writing.
But, I have always found that having an initial outline has helped me overall in my writing
process. This is just another example of how all students are completely different and supports
my claim that we all learn best in various different ways.
There are so many different ways to go about teaching our students, but as educators we
need to realize that no two students are alike. In order to be the best teacher possible, one must
Commented [6]:
I still believe that it is highly effective to teach students how
to outline and brainstorm properly. Although I do understand
that outlining and brainstorming is not an effective writing
approach for all students, I believe that it is important to give
students the opportunity to explore outlining, because it may
be extremely effective for some writers, like myself.

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be willing to teach in variety of different methods, while remember to be specific during
assessment. Richard Fulkerson states, To give the bald assignment and then judge it from any of
the perspectives not implied is to be guilty of value-mode confusion(434). I believe that this is
one of the most important messages Fulkerson portrays because in order to be a great teacher,
you must be specific and fair to your students at all times. As teachers it is our duty to employ a
variety of teaching methods because it helps our students to recognize what works best for them,
just like many of us have discovered what works best for us. The whole reason we have our
students write papers and essays is to allow them to develop new knowledge and skills
throughout the writing process, as Anson states, An obvious consequence of a new focus on
students processes was to shift the orientation of learning away from expectations for a final text
and toward developing the knowledge and abilities needed to produce it(217). Its all about our
students development and helping them to gain as much information as possible, while exploring
things that are previously unknown to them. It is about helping them grow, and the best way to
help our students do so is to help them find the most effective root, by giving them a multitude of
learning options and varieties. This allows our students to find what works best for them as
individuals.







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Works Cited
Anson, Chris A. Process Pedagogy and Its Legacy. A Guide to Composition Pedagogies. Ed.
Tate, Gary; et al. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. 212-230. Print.

Bartholomae, David. Inventing the University. The Norton Book of Composition
Studies. Ed. Susan Miller. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2009. 605-630. Print.

Elbow, Peter. A Method for Teaching Writing. College English 30.2 1968: 115-125. Online.

Fulkerson, Richard. Four Philosophies of Composition. The Norton Book of Composition
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Studies. Ed. Susan Miller. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2009. 430- 435. Print.

Harris, Joseph. The Idea of Community in the Study of Writing. The Norton Book of
Composition Studies. Ed. Susan Miller. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2009.
430- 435. Print.