Alexandra Preston

Dr. Roggenbuck
Theory and Practice of Writing
September 28, 2015
How Writing Should be Taught
As novice writers, students struggle to find their voices and understand the
audiences that they are writing for and how to use all the different writing conventions
effectively. As teachers, our job is to help move our students forward through their
journey. Teachers need to offer their students support and opportunities to grow and learn
as writers. If teachers are willing to investigate and take an in depth look at the articles
that discuss how to teach writing techniques and criticism, they will be better prepared
and able to help their students.
One of the biggest struggles that novice writers face is figuring out how to write
for a specific audience. David Bartholomae belives that students are often asked to do
this before they ever have the skills to know how to execute the task to the highest
standard. We often put student writers into artificial situations in which it is incredibly

Ali Preston 12/2/2015 2:13 PM

Comment [1]: Spelling error. Williams
would not be as concerned with this,
however I still think it is important for me to
take note of.

difficult for them to create pieces of writing. In the article Inventing the University, by
David Bartholomae, the reader is presented with samples of students writing from timed
prompts. In these samples, it is clear that the writers struggled to create their own voice,
as well as talk from a point of authority. Instead of giving students mindless prompts that
seem to have absolutely no connection to their lives, we should make their writing
prompts relevant. Students will be able to produce stronger writing and have more
confidence in themselves if they feel as though the prompt is something they have a

Ali Preston 12/2/2015 2:12 PM

Comment [2]: I should have used a quote
from his article. I know I had one picked out,
but I dont know why I didnt include it. I
think that Nancy Sommers would appreciate
me going back and thinking about how I can
improve and strengthen my paper.

handle on. In Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing it states that

standardized writing curricula or assessment instruments that emphasize formulaic
writing for non authentic audiences will not reinforce the habits of mind and the
experiences necessary for success as students encounter the writing demands of
postsecondary education (Framework for Success 3). I know that from personal
experience I never did well with prompts that I did not feel I could connect with on a
personal level. One of the best essay prompts that I was ever given was to write about my
favorite place. In that essay I was really able to find my voice as a writer because I was
excited to share my favorite place with others and describe it in the best possible way. As
a future teacher, I need to remember to involve prompts like these in my classroom so

Ali Preston 11/29/2015 5:03 PM

Comment [3]: I included that essay in my
wiki portfolio because of how much I love
that piece.

that my students have the chance to find themselves as well.

Another way that teachers can help students learn how to write more successfully
is by having them constantly writing something. The more practice that students get with
different forms of writing, the more comfortable and confident they will feel when asked
to write in a certain genre. The idea that students should be constantly writing is backed
up by Framework For Success in Postsecondary Writing, in the article it states
students can become better writers when they have multiple opportunities to write in
classes across the curriculum (Framework for Success 2). Teachers should attempt to
work together as a collaborative group to ensure that students are writing in their
classrooms and learning the skills that are necessary for them to become successful
writers. This job should not be thrown solely to English teachers, instead all teachers
across the various subject should expect their students to produce various forms of

Ali Preston 11/29/2015 5:07 PM

Comment [4]: Spelling. Ive noticed that I
often miss spelling errors, especially when
they are minor, because I know how I
wanted it to sound so I read it that way in
my head. I need to be more aware of this
when editing my papers.

writing for their classes. It does a massive disservice to novice teachers to not allow them
the opportunities to use their writing skills and expand on them.
Teachers need to give students clear guidelines on how they are going to be
assessed in their writing. It is incredibly unfair for teachers to give students a prompt that

Ali Preston 12/2/2015 2:13 PM

Comment [5]: Another error that I missed
during proofreading. Definitely something I
need to be more aware of in the future. I
think I should have done a second peer
review session before handing the paper in.
Nancy Sommers stresses the importance of
peer review.

seems to be asking them to express themselves and their views freely, but then judge
them critically for not following strict writing conventions perfectly when nothing was
specified for the students. If a teacher wants to use a formalist method they need to
express that to their students that way there is no miscommunication. If this need is not
met it can cause a break down in the trust of students for their teacher as well of their
eagerness to write. Many students struggle to start their writing and may also feel a sense
of apprehension about it. This apprehension is increased when students do not know the
direction they need to take.

In Philosophies of Composition, Richard Fulkerson

believes that teachers who give students assignments in this fashion are guilty of
value-mode confusion (Fulkerson 347). Teachers need to be aware of where they fall in
the different philosophies of writing, especially when they are assessing students work.
We cannot get mad at students when they fail to meet standards on their writing, if the
teacher does not convey what they are looking for in the writing.
Once students become more advanced in their writing skills teacher can begin to
give them fewer guidelines. However, in the beginning it is pivotal for teachers to
scaffold for their students. I know that when I was first learning to write, I needed very
precise guidelines and a list of expectations before I could ever start the paper. It created
too much stress for me to attempt to figure out exactly what the teacher expected from me
on my own. As I progressed through High School and College, I began to need less

Ali Preston 12/2/2015 2:15 PM

Comment [6]: I was trying to be aware of
my possible audience of teachers.
Bartholomae talks about the importance of
speaking to your audience and being aware
of them.

defined expectations from my teachers and professors. In my own classroom, I hope to be

able to give my students the skills they will need to be able to complete writing
assignments that might not give them all the guidelines they are used to.
Revision is another key writing tool that teachers need to instill in their students.
Students need to understand that revision is not just switching one word for another, or
quickly looking up synonyms because they used one word repetitively throughout the
paper. In order to help students in their essay writing and revision process, teachers need
to offer students solid feedback on their work. In Nancy Sommers article Across the
Drafts, she discusses the importance of giving students meaningful feedback that will
help to push their writing forward. She states, the surprise was watching so many
students make great leaps in their writing development after receiving what they
identified as tough and honest assessment of their work (Sommers 252). However, just
because a teacher has offered valid feedback to a student on their paper this does not
mean that student will automatically become a better writer. Students must be willing to
accept the feedback that their teachers offer and learn how to apply it to other aspects of
their written work. Sommers concludes by saying, feedback shapes the way students
learn to write, but feedback alone, even the best feedback, doesnt move students forward
as writers if they are not open to its instruction and critique, or if they dont understand
how to use their instructors comments as bridges to future writing assignments
(Sommers 254). Teachers can give students all the tools they need, but students must be
willing to work with these tools and apply them or else they will do them no good.
Some of the best teachers and professors that I have had have given me the
harshest feedback on my papers. However, I have a great respect for them because of

Ali Preston 12/2/2015 2:17 PM

Comment [7]: Definitely important to
remember when I start teaching.

that. I know that they gave me this feedback to help me grow as a writer. They also gave
me this feedback so I did not keep making the same mistakes over and over again. When
I was first learning to accept all this feedback it was a daunting task. Every time I got a
paper back I would get incredibly nervous seeing comments all over it, but once I was
able to accept that this was a positive not a negative I was really able to help improve my
writing. Teachers need to understand that not all students are going to be willing to accept
feedback, but the one that do will be greatly helped.
The dynamics of ethnicities within the United States is constantly changing;
because of this teachers need to understand that not all students have English as their
native language. It is hard enough for native speakers to learn how to juggle our strange
system of language. This is made even harder for students who did not learn English as
their mother tongue. In Shens article he discusses the struggle he faced when trying to
learn to write in English. As a native speaker of Chinese, Shen struggle to learn how to
write in the American style, because it greatly contrasted with the way that he originally
learned how to write. Teachers need to be aware that they will have students like Shen in
their classroom. These students will need extra help to grasp an understanding of how to
write in English.
Shen also discusses that when learning to write in English he needed to leave his
Chinese self behind. He says, in order to write good English, I knew that I had to be
myself which actually meant not to be my Chinese self (Shen 461). Many students feel
this same internal struggle to find their voice as a writer in Standard English. In the
article The Idea of Community in the Study of Writing by Joseph Harris, he also
mentions the idea that students need to present themselves in their writing as not their

Ali Preston 12/2/2015 2:18 PM

Comment [8]: Need to teach students
how to code-switch in the class room like
Kennedy and Howard discussed.

entirely true selves. In this article, an excerpt from a student writer refers to this as
public language. The struggle that this student faces is the fear of losing herself while
trying to conform to the public language. Teachers need to understand that some of
their students may harbor this same fear. They should try to make those students
understand that all of their different languages and dialects are valued in the classroom.
As teachers, it is our job to foster our students love of writing and their ability to
write. By using various instructional methods and research we will be better equipped to
help our students in the classroom. We must be patient and understand that students will
struggle through the process, but hopefully in the end they will retain the skills necessary
to help them outside of a school setting.

For this paper, I wrote it completely out of order from the final product. Chris Anson
and Nancy Sommers would agree with the way that I went about this paper because it
is more process than product oriented. Also, by not starting the paper by writing my
thesis it did not limit where I could go with my writing. Instead I let my paper take its
shape and created the introduction to do with that.

Ali Preston 12/8/2015 12:11 PM

Comment [9]: The 8 habits could be
applied here to help stress my point. They
are great things for teachers to keep in mind
while teaching writing to students. I think
that 8 habits can be applied beyond just
writing too.

Works Cited:
Bartholomae, David. Inventing the University. Journal of Basic Writing 5.1 (1986): 420. Print
Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing. (2011): 1-16. Print
Fulkerson, Richard. Four Philosophies of Composition. College Composition and
Communication (1979): 344-48. Print.
Harris, Joseph. The Idea of Community in the Study of Writing. College Composition
and Communication 40.1 (1989): 11-12. Print.
Shen, Fan. The Classroom and the Wider Culture: Identity as a Key to Learning English
Composition. College Composition and Communication 40.4 (1989):
459-66. Print
Sommers, Nancy. Across the Drafts College Composition and Communication 58.2
(2006): 248-257. Print.