ENGL 402 - Week 1
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"Composition in the University," by Sharon Crowley
Statistically, freshman composition is one of the most enrolled classes across American universities and colleges. Despite this, composition is typically not the "center of intellectual interest" as compared to literary studies. David Shumway states:
"'English departments owe their relative size and importance and perhaps their very existence to the demand that college students be taught to write.'" (2)
Crowley goes on to say,
"composition gives literary studies something to define itself against." (2)
Composition Studies
"scholars in composition conduct challenging and innovative research into the scenes in which contemporary writing is done. They construct theoretical models of composition and they devise pedagogies intended to facilitate composing." (2)
Scholars with an interest in composition may find it easier to obtain employment as the need for teachers in this area will never cease. Contrary to those that teach literary studies, teachers of composition prioritize pedagogy over research and practice over theory. They are more interested in the "development in students rather than on transmission of a heritage" (3). Composition is a collaboration-centric, feminist area of study.
Freshman English 101
Freshman 101--probably one of, if not the highest enrolled class--is primarily taught by graduate students and untenured/adjunct faculty.
"Composition teachers do not sit on the committees that make decisions affecting their teaching, including committees that choose textbooks and determine teaching schedules or those that write syllabi for the courses."
Student Goals:
"to develop taste, to improve their grasp of formal and mechanical correctness, to become liberally educated, to prepare for jobs or professions, to develop their personalities, to become able citizens of a democracy, to become skilled communicators, to develop skills in textual analysis, to become critical thinkers, to establish their personal voices, to master the composing process, to master the compositions of discourses used within academic disciplines, and to become oppositional critics of their culture." (6)
What does it mean to "teach them how to write" ?
"Here writing seems to mean that students are supposed to master principles of arrangement and sentence construction; they are also to learn correct grammar usage." (7)
Assessment and Examinations became another driving force in ENGL 101 instruction. Faculty wanted students to be able to write better responses on tests. Basically, ENGL 101 is supposed to "fix" students' lack of literacy so that more secure faculty do not have to spend time cultivating good writing habits in their students.
"The problem is that this desire simply cannot be enacted within a universal requirement that is not intellectually connected to any other feature of the curriculum." (8)
The problem with the universal curriculum framework is the subjectivity; the influence of literary studies and the desire to teach what one likes often interrupts the objective ideal to simply impart good syntax on otherwise struggling young people.
The Link Between Literary and Composition Studies
"even if one grants the point that writers can learn something about the way language works through reading, by a sort of osmosis, one need not accept the further claim that literary texts are the best readings to use for this purpose." (13)
"humanism has tended to be an exclusive educational tradition, insofar as the humanist impulse is to impart instruction to a select few who are considered able to inhabit a humanist subjectivity." (14)
"There is nothing inherent in the notion of teaching people to compose that is by definition exclusive." (14)
"The Present State of Freshman Composition," by Albert R. Kitzhaber
Three Weaknesses of the ENGL 101 Course:
- Confusion exhibited in the course - "a widespread uncertainty about aims, a bewildering variety of content, a frequent lack of progression within the course" (258).
- Administrative intervention and suspicion - an apparent lack of confidence in those teaching the course.
- The teaching content was often less scholarly/rigorous than that of other college freshman courses.
"The only constant in all varieties of the course is some provision for supervised practice in writing, but, ironically, most of the confusion in freshman English stems from differing notions of how writing ought to be taught." (259)
There are themes repeated here from the Crowley article. ENGL 101 is underappreciated by higher bodies in the university. It is therefore cast off to be taught by untenured faculty and graduate students who may or may not have an actual interest in composition studies.
"It is seldom a course that most teachers--even most graduate students--look forward to teaching; but instead one that they merely endure and too often do not give their best efforts to." (262)
Kitzhaber describes the differences between remedial and advanced composition/introductory ENGL classes, saying how some students fall into these classes by testing out of (either negativity or positively) from ENGL 101. While remedial classes focus heavily on syntax and grammar, honors or advanced composition classes prioritize expository writing and an emphasis on literary subjectivity is evident.
"Proposal for English I," Skim
Handwritten Notes | Location on Page | Page Number
What has/hasn't changed? | Top, first text on page | Page 01
Has Changed:
- Emphasis on the conference - particularly at the undergraduate level
- Committee on English 1 theme review - points to a more collaborative pedagogy where this group actively decides on alterations to the theme curriculum (I think...) - We see this today at the department level within universities and otherwise more broadly spoken about in academic conference presentations or organizations' committee meetings, but this document seems somehow more definitive than today's discussions.
- Teacher's Reports - The concept that English composition course directors should have access to the number, type, length, and related readings of papers students were required to write for other courses seems nonexistent presently.
Hasn't Changed:
- Parallel Reading is pertinent to a student's writing development within a composition course of today and of this proposal's time; however, this theme seems to be less emphasized in the sense of proposing formal assignments. While this reading does give some emphasis, by at least giving a description of what the encouragement for student's Parallel Reading could look like, the assignments to enact this encouragement don't seem to be laid out as well as assignments seen in other sections of the proposal. The proposal author in providing a Parallel Reading assignment simply calls for students to submit 'suitable reports" to the instructor's discretion.
Write something encouraging every once and a while. | Section: Marking Themes | Page 02
In this section, the proposal author stresses the importance of careful marking. The author states mechanical errors as well as organization and content errors should be marked. I found it particularly interesting that the proposal suggests that the marking of student's papers should be framed by the instructor's efforts to aid the student in preparation for conference. The primary point seems to be that encouragement of student efforts and positive compliments act as a buffer to the "sting of all[/many/any] marked errors."
Reflection
How do present day's university placement exams and required composition prep courses (for those that place lower than average reading level on said exams) compare to the bit in the proposal that suggests a system of second semester student placement in "Special Sections for Superior Students" after having all students in same class for the first semester and inclusion of lower placement exam scorers in the regular section until proving a necessity for special instruction? I am curious how the language of today emphasizing student inadequacies in requiring them to take an extra course in order to reach composition 100 level affect student morale with regards to their writing abilities compared to the language of the proposal focusing on providing advanced course sections for advanced students an special instruction to bring students to composition level within first semester.
"Free Write" prompts at the start of class:
- Describe your formative memor{y][ies] of your childhood self as a writer?
- Describe your current feelings and methods with regards to how you write today?
- Synthesize these versions of your writing selves.
"Composition in the University," by Sharon Crowley
Socializing process inherent in freshman writing course / English composition.
Composition product of Nineteenth Century: a time when primary colleges across the country were primarily associated with protestant ideals. Protestantism and education are deeply embedded in American culture and government (consider religions of past presidents). This meant that traditionally students were white men. Students read literature on their own time and therefore there weren't English Literature classes (classics were in its place).
A shift in 20th-century curriculum. Universities became places for professors to do research and teach advanced topics. Shifting the teaching role of composition courses to teaching the less advanced students.
1970s Harvard hires Professor Adam Sherman Hill - journalist for Tribune-Review - teaching modern English rhetoric - credited with inventing composition. Invention of Composition English --- Early English composition mission as able to bring man up to his "breeding" or excel beyond it.
According to Crowley, what is English composition for? And is it worth having it?
In suggesting a split between composition studies and literary studies lands on the notion that in universal aspect composition isn't worth keeping and should be ditched.
The faults in compositions (as described by Crowley):
- composition courses turn to literary studies courses - seems to be a sense that literary studies are more superior
- unequal embrace by universities that foster the divide or don't address it perpetuated by the teaching of comp by part-time faculty and graduate students
- all disciplines demand writing but only English requires the teaching of writing (even though every discipline requires alterations to writing style/format) --- composition set up for failure in a sense, gestures towards writing across the curriculum (writing within each department)
Crowley notes that the actual teachers of the composition courses seem generally disconnected to the administrative and tenured faculty creators of the curriculum and course sizes.
Arnoldian Humanism (the what and why) vs Rhetoric (the how and form)
Why is English the place where people should be learning to write? Some think it is better served as a seminar course centered on a topic ranging in content and expected style rather than an expectation that writing is in response to literature.
What is the purpose of writing in a college classroom? Do we write as a way of learning or just as a form of mastery?
refer to quote on page 6 - What composition might do?
"The Present State of Freshman Composition," by Albert R. Kitzhaber
studied "a lot" of syllabi for college composition courses - his/our conclusions:
- three major weaknesses (@taylorcate lists them above!)
- confusion stems from how writing should be taught
- composition is seen as sub-colegic course and used to weed out "undesirables"
- speech used to be part of composition courses but now moved to the field of communications which sits in an odd interdisciplinary status