Language, for me is the most memorable topic of discussion from this course. This could be due to the vast majority of different readings we examined this semester, and it was the bulk of our discussions. Or, perhaps it is because I enjoyed these readings and class conversations the most. I’d argue that many of my colleagues did as well.
The various texts produced interesting, and at times controversial conversations and thoughts. The material was not always easy to read. By that, I mean sometimes it was physically hard to read and understand, but also the emotion and the social influence that some of these texts instills in you can be quite drastic; even life changing.
The authors of works that we read and discussed this semester include the following:
- Donald Murray – Teach Writing as a Process Not Product (1972)
- “What is the process we should teach? It is the process of discovery through language. It is the process of exploration of what we should know and what we feel about what we know through language. It is the process of using language to learn about our world, to evaluate what we learn about our world, to communicate what we learn about our world.
Instead of teaching finished writing, we should teach unfinished writing, and glory in its unfinishedness. We work with language in action. We share with our students the continual excitement of choosing one word instead of another, of searching for the one true word.”
- “What is the process we should teach? It is the process of discovery through language. It is the process of exploration of what we should know and what we feel about what we know through language. It is the process of using language to learn about our world, to evaluate what we learn about our world, to communicate what we learn about our world.
- Students’ Right to Their Own Language from the Conference on College Composition and Communication (1974)
- This text is used a lot in 306. Its relevance and content are useful in examining many other discourses presented in the class. It offers an interesting viewpoint on language in terms of standard edited American English (SEAM), dialects, African-American vernacular and composition courses.
- http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Groups/CCCC/NewSRTOL.pdf
- Stanley Fish- What Should Colleges Teach? (2009)
- Fish is probably my favorite author from the semester. He wrote a series of 3 opinion articles in the New York Times opinion section. He talks about a few different issues, but mainly “What Should Colleges Teach?”. His argument is that students need a course in college that has the main focus of writing and composition. That this is necessary for their academic and professional success. Fish has no issues with a person’s home language or dialect, however, he believes there is a time and place for such language and that it does not belong in a professional or academic setting. *Click on the link below for the first of his three articles*.
- http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/what-should-colleges-teach/?_r=0
- Vershawn Young- Should Writers Use They Own English?
- This text is written in response to what Stanley Fish had to say. Young does not agree with Fish’s viewpoints to say the least. He writes in African- American Vernacular and is quite dramatic in his response. It seemed that my class was split 50/50 on the question of “who is right, Fish or Young?”. I think we were all able to see the main points of each of the authors, and tried to see how to integrate them.
These were the main authors and their works that I think helped shape theory and practice, and were also some of the most memorable works we read this semester. There are however, many other works that we read and analyzed throughout the semester. I’d encourage you to keep an open mind when reading this and to think objectively about them. Listen rhetorically to what the authors are trying to convey.
Theory and Practice of Writing 