Synopsis – December 2009/January 2010: Director’s Annotations > Susan Coller Carlson

Welcome to the final issue of our WAC newsletter for 2009! In the spirit of the holiday (which translates to “everyone’s busy preparing for visitors or travel, Christmas shopping and all the other details that go into this special time of year”) we have decided to combine our last issue of 2009 with the first issue of 2010. It’s been a great year at KU, and next year promises to be even better. Since we have moved online a little over a month ago, our newsletter has been read in over a dozen different countries including South Africa, Pakistan, Turkey and the Philippines, and almost all of the United States. (Do we have anyone in Montana at KU?)

Our first article this month begins with Kate Stephenson’s Revising Revision: Teaching Students to Rewrite Essays Effectively. Kate discusses a common impression our students have when it comes to the true meaning of “revision.” Many erroneously believe that “revision” is the same as editing, so it is essential that we not only illustrate the difference, but help students realize why revision is such a crucial step in the writing process. Like most of us, Kate feels that “WAC provides us with a golden opportunity to reinforce” revision skills and help our students become stronger writers and more engaged learners. What are your thoughts about the difference between revising and editing? Is this something you address with your students in the projects they submit in your courses?

In Challenges Faced By Our Students, JoAnn Funk inspires us to become more attuned to our students and work harder to foster an environment that clearly supports their emotional, social, and academic needs. With a more attentive approach, students are happier and retention rates can improve. Chrissine Rios, in her engaging article, Beyond the Text, supports JoAnn’s ideas by showing how a tutor’s relationship with students must be based on “communication beyond the text,” that is, tutors must make an effort to more fully engage students on a variety of levels. Chrissine makes a strong case for communicating beyond the text and points out how the assumptions we make can affect our perceptions—negatively as well as positively.

In The Case for Teaching The Bluebook: A Uniform System, Ally Howell argues that our legal and paralegal students at KU must learn to use Bluebook. Whether one should learn MLA, APA or any other style of documentation always seems to spark controversy, so I can’t help but reflect back to Christie Zgourides article in our September issue, Getting Real About APA: What a Documentation System Can Teach About Every Career—it’s worth a second look. I know many of us struggle with APA (myself included) but it (like all styles of documentation) is simply a formula, a nomenclature. The impetus behind teaching students APA should first focus on ethics: we do not steal another person’s work and so always give credit to the original writer, researcher or creator of a work. Students need to understand why this is essential, and it is our responsibility to instill this culture of integrity prior to digging into the particulars of APA, Bluebook or any other form of documentation.

In our next article, Low-Stakes Writing with a High-Tech Twist, Kella Hammond inspires us with her take on “writing as a form of unevaluated exploration.” Kella refers to Peter Elbow who believes low-stakes writing is not only “livelier, clearer and more interesting,” but oftentimes more understandable than high-stakes writing. Kella challenges us to consider incorporating more “low-stakes” writing assignments into our courses using technologies such as Twitter, Thinkmap’s Visual Thesaurus, and chat room “stop and jots.” If you are using low-stakes writing assignments in your courses—especially if you are teaching a non-composition course—we would love to hear how you do it and what kinds of results you have noticed. Please share your ideas with your colleagues by posting a comment after the article.

On the heels of Kella’s thought-provoking article is Stretching Bodies and Minds: A Disciplined Writing –Yoga Connection by Joni Boone. Joni makes a strong connection between the discipline needed for yoga and writing, but hints that discipline does not have to carry negative connotations. It is the consistent practice of writing, whether formal or informal, serious or playful, that truly strengthens one’s skills, and I think we can all glean some inspiration from Joni (and her adorable daughter, Harper).

Mike Jensen reveals what he hopes Santa will bring him this year in his amusing article, On the Lighter Side: All I Want for Christmas Is To Be A Math Teacher. And wrapping things up for this issue, Diane Martinez explores how we can show students that writing does matter beyond the halls of the university and beyond the scope on one’s career goals in Going Beyond a Utilitarian Approach to Teaching Writing. Self-discovery and insight into the world in which we are a part of can be enhanced by writing no matter which discipline one belongs to, but the catch is that we need to find meaningful ways to incorporate the writing process into our courses so that students have time to hone these skills. Has anyone noticed an overriding theme this issue?

So as I sit at my kitchen table in the wee hours of morning and wait for the first major snowstorm of the season, I leave you with this thought. We know that helping our students become strong writers (better yet, strong communicators) has to be one of our highest priorities for 2010 and beyond. We have formally incorporated the WAC General Education Literacy (GEL) into our courses, and so now it is time to “make good” on this GEL and actively support its functionality and foster its effectiveness. If you are not a writing teacher per se and don’t know where to begin, we understand. Please know that you have a team of people ready to support you. Contact the Writing Center staff, attend our faculty workshops, read our newsletter, and become involved in the KU community of writers—we are here for you just as we are here for our students.

A colossal thank you goes out to all our contributors (and especially our editor, Diane Martinez) and all our readers for making this newsletter a success. I sincerely wish everyone a safe and happy holiday and a wonderful New Year! Two inches of snow per hour? Did I just hear the weatherman correctly?

Best,

A Responsibility We All Share > Dean Sara Sander, School of Arts & Sciences

The concept of Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) is not a new one in higher education. Educators strive to help students see the connection between writing concepts from one class to another. I have heard many faculty say time and time again, “Students can take Comp I and II, but when asked to write in a discipline-specific course, those skills go out the window.” How we promote these transferable skills is the hard part and the challenge that we, as a university, have undertaken.

Basic writing skills are the cornerstone to becoming a good writer. None of us could have done algebra without understanding the basics of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Writing works the same way and requires practice… practice our students will now receive in every class. Now, I do not really think I need to convince educators of the importance of writing skills. We get that. However, do our students get it?  How can we promote the relevance of strong writing skills?

In 2004, The National Commission on Writing for America’s Families, Schools, and Colleges conducted a survey of 120 major American companies regarding the emphasis placed on writing skills in the workplace. The report findings include:

• Writing is a “threshold skill” for both employment and promotion, particularly for salaried employees. Half the responding companies report that they take writing into consideration when hiring professional employees. “In most cases, writing ability could be your ticket in . . . or it could be your ticket out,” said one respondent (p. 3).
  
  
• People who cannot write and communicate clearly will not be hired and are unlikely to last long enough to be considered for promotion. “Poorly written application materials would be extremely prejudicial,” said one respondent. “Such applicants would not be considered for any position” (p. 3).
  
  
• Two‐thirds of salaried employees in large American companies have some writing responsibility. “All employees must have writing ability . . . . Manufacturing documentation, operating procedures, reporting problems, lab safety, waste‐disposal operations—all have to be crystal clear,” said one human resource director (p. 3).
  
  
• Eighty percent or more of the companies in the service and finance, insurance, and real estate (FIRE) sectors, the corporations with the greatest employment growth potential, assess writing during hiring. “Applicants who provide poorly written letters wouldn’t likely get an interview,” commented one insurance executive (p. 3).
  
  
• A similar dynamic is at work during promotions. Half of all companies take writing into account when making promotion decisions. One succinct comment: “You can’t move up without writing skills” (p. 3).
  
  
• More than half of all responding companies report that they “frequently” or “almost always” produce technical reports (59 percent), formal reports (62 percent), and memos and correspondence (70 percent). Communication through e‐mail and Power-Point presentations is almost universal. “Because of e‐mail, more employees have to write more often. Also, a lot more has to be documented,” said one respondent (p. 4).
  
  
• More than 40 percent of responding firms offer or require training for salaried employees with writing deficiencies. Based on the survey responses, it appears that remedying deficiencies in writing may cost American firms as much as $3.1 billion annually. “We’re sending out 200–300 people annually for skills‐upgrade courses like ‘business writing’ or ‘technical writing,’” said one respondent (p. 4).
  

Our mission at Kaplan University focuses on launching, enhancing, and changing careers for our students. This mission cannot be brought about without helping our students attain strong writing skills—a responsibility we all share.

College Board. (2004). The National Commission on Writing

     for America's Families, Schools, and Colleges. Writing: A
     ticket to work...Or a ticket out, A survey of business leaders.

 [This article was originally published in our August, 2009 issue.]

Synopsis - August 2009: Director Annotations > Susan Coller Carlson

Pause and Refresh: Integrating WAC Into the Classroom

As the Writing Across the Curriculum Initiative moves toward 2010, I have to pause and take stock in our mission and goals and refresh my WAC dossier. I want to be sure we are moving in the right direction and that the bond we are forging between WAC and the Writing Center is meaningful and has purpose—that we are always striving to give our students the best tools possible. So last weekend, I had a chance to give “Writing Centers as WAC Centers: An Evolving Model,” a second look and I’d like to share a little of what Peshe Kuriloff had to say about what contributes to the success of a WAC program. In this article, Kuriloff claimed Writing Centers must continually challenge the status quo and evolve as an integral component of an institution’s core as opposed to circling the periphery and tossing out band‐aids when students need help with their writing. “Writing Centers need to affiliate themselves with the ideas and practices that have a direct relationship to what goes on the in the classroom,” claimed Kuriloff (p. 105).

Fortunately, this is exactly what we have set out to do with the Writing Coach Program we piloted during the 0903A term at Kaplan. Basically, instead of waiting for the students to come to us, we are going to them—and we are integrating our services within the context of a particular subject being taught in a particular course. Kuriloff continued,

To the extent that a Writing Center operates independently, on the model of a skills center or remedial tutoring center, it not only isolates itself but it undermines the goals most WAC Programs struggle valiantly to promote. (p. 106)

So instead of floating around the ether, we are working hard to integrate our services in the proverbial trenches. We want to create stronger, more meaningful relationships with our students and with our faculty and administrators as well. As part of a university vested in the success of its students, we cannot afford to do otherwise. Writing cannot be taught in a vacuum—it has to have context. Ideally,

Reinventing the Writing Center as a WAC center opens the door to all sorts of conversations about ideas, about methodologies, about teachers’ intentions and learning outcomes that used to be restricted, even prohibited in the context of discussion about writing. It also broadens the definition of writing to resemble more closely the type of intellectual activity that occurs in the classroom, in the laboratory. (p. 109)

For those of you unfamiliar with the Writing Coach Program, here is a quick overview. The Writing Center is working closely with a select number of courses across KU whereby a dedicated writing coach is assigned to work with students in the classroom. This way, students become more comfortable with their coach (approaching a writing center cold turkey can be a little intimidating for many students), the coach is able to learn more about individual student writing habits and problems (since the coach has a set number of students each term and can establish longevity), and the coach is able to assist the instructor when it comes to strengthening student writing (by answering those tough writing questions and helping them to understand WAC and its overarching goals in relation to course outcomes).  Kuriloff and her contemporaries believe that, at the very least, a WAC consultant (or coach) working directly with students and their instructors will help students,

go back to class with a set of intelligent questions about, for example, what constitutes appropriate evidence, the answers to which will help them refine their thinking and better equip them to meet their professors’ expectations for writing and learning (p. 116‐117).

Ultimately, learning how to write well can help students become better thinkers—more successful students equipped to leave the university with a more robust skill set. 0904A marks the second term of the Writing Coach Program and we are looking forward to continued growth. If you are interested in learning more about our Writing Coach Program, please feel free to contact Kurtis Clements. We really hope to reach as many students as possible at Kaplan and play an integral role in their academic and professional success—and this reflects on all of us.

Barnett, R.W. and Blummer, J.S. (Eds.). (1999). Writing centers

     and writing across the curriculum programs: Building

     interdisciplinary partnerships. Westport, CT: Greenwood

     Publishing Group, Inc..

Notes About This Issue:

You have, most likely, already read Dean Sander’s thought-provoking article about the importance of writing, but in the articles to follow, you will also hear from Carrie Jantz, who shows how she explains the difference between formal and informal writing to her students. Katherine Sanger shares tips she uses to help students write and feel better about their writing. Diana White and Lindsey Motes team up to discuss the importance of teaching students one concept at a time so we do not overwhelm them with too much information. They recommend teaching one grammar concept per assignment.

Ina Marshall explains how to use a PDSC (point, define, support, conclude) structure to help students become better writers, while Verlyn Evans shares some of her best practices for responding to writing assignments. Carolyn Stevenson promotes an interesting (and somewhat controversial) topic by encouraging instructors to find ways to use social networking forums like Facebook or blogging as practice venues for students, and then Karen Watson talks about how writing is the “package” for delivering our thoughts and ideas.

Chrissine Rios addresses the issue of correctness and idea formation for ESL students. She shows how prewriting activities can give students a chance to learn about culture and writing conventions. Diane Martinez promotes our on-going workshops for students through the Writing Center, and Mike Jensen wraps up this issue with a bit of humor just to remind us all to have a laugh now and then.

We sincerely hope you enjoy this issue of the WAC newsletter and that it continues to promote engaging dialogue about writing and learning across our campus.

Thank you!

[This article was originally published in our August, 2009 issue.]

Bathing Suits and Speeding Tickets > Carrie Jantz

Do you wear your bathing suit to funerals? Your best silk gown to baseball games? No—of course not! Instead, you (hopefully) wear your bathing suit to the beach and your evening gown to black tie events. You choose the clothing that suits the occasion. Clothing is like language—as with clothing, particular language registers are appropriate in different situations. Our choice of whether to use formal or casual language in our writing determines our perspective, sentence structure, vocabulary, and punctuation. When we use the wrong language register on the wrong occasion, we end up seeming disrespectful, uneducated, or just plain weird.

When students write, they also must choose whether to use formal or casual language. Often, they struggle with this choice. Sometimes, they make the wrong decision – they may choose formal language when casual would be appropriate, or, more frequently, choose casual language when formal is called for.

In these cases, they often have a sense that their written work does not “sound right” but they sometimes don’t know why. Then, it can be helpful to discuss the difference between formal and casual language. Here’s how I explain the difference to my students:

Casual language is very conversational—incomplete sentences, contractions, and slang are “at home” in a casually written piece. We might use casual language when we write a short note to ourselves, in creative writing, or when we send an email to a friend.

Here’s an example: If you were speaking with a friend on a hot summer day you might say, casually, “Holy crap! It’s smokin’ hot out here!” However, if you said that same sentence to someone with whom you have a formal relationship (for example your boss or a police officer who pulled you over for speeding) your words would sound, and be, out of place.

This is because formal language is “proper.” Complete sentences, correct grammar, and “by the book” sentence structures are important. Formal language is appropriate for things like essays and professional emails.

It can be helpful to think of formal language this way ‐‐ If your friend were angry with you and you said, “Hello, , how may I help you?” you would sound odd; however, if you were returning a phone call to your boss or speaking with that police officer who pulled you over the same question would sound, and be, completely appropriate.
 

When we are aware of the difference between formal and casual language we can also help our students to be aware of this issue as well. This helps them make appropriate choices in their writing. After all, they work way too hard on the content of their work not to present it as professionally as possible.

Carrie Jantz is a professor in Professional Studies at Kaplan University.

[This article was originally published in our August, 2009 issue.]

Supporting Student Writing > Katherine Sanger

For some students, writing comes easily. It’s something they learn with a minimum of fuss, but others struggle with it. They find each sentence, sometimes each word, painful and difficult. For them, writing an essay is like giving birth without the pain relief or the joy of having created something beautiful when they’re done. I’ve found seven easy tips to help my struggling students both write better and feel better about writing.

Examples. It’s hard to write well without seeing good writing first. Regular sample papers can be overwhelming for some students. Break it down. I like to create examples out of their work. If they have a problem with parallel structure, I show where it isn’t parallel and then offer different ways to make it parallel.

Praise. There’s always something good. APA format. An awesome source they found. An idea. The way a sentence is phrased. Find it. Tell them.

Clear and repeated instructions. I go over assignments in the weekly announcements and seminar. Including the original assignment area, that’s three different spots students have a chance to ask for clarification in live time, just in case.

Rules. There are rules to writing. Yes, every rule has at least one exception, but if you can share them with your students, even if it’s just through a quick Word document posted to the doc sharing area, it can offer a grounding they wouldn’t otherwise have.

Follow up. This is true of all classes, but I find that writing intimidates students. Grammar, spelling, format, punctuation—it’s a lot for some students to deal with, so it’s always good to follow‐up. If a student is struggling, send an email or offer to call.

Options. Going back to rules, there are often right and wrong answers. But there are also options. I have students who send me five emails a day, each one trying to perfect their thesis sentence. I attempt to see what they’re trying to say, and then give them options of how to phrase their own statements.

Understanding. We all work hard and family emergencies happen. I gave birth with two weeks left in a class I was taking. My mother went into the hospital and died two weeks later when I was three weeks into teaching a class. (I always tell my students that life gets in the way of school.) Sometimes it’s necessary to flex a bit more than we’d like to and accommodate things. I’m not suggesting lowering standards, but simply being understanding. I know I appreciated the understanding I received from my teacher when I was giving birth and from my class when I was in mourning.

Maybe none of these tips will make a student an A+ writer or rush into his or her next composition assignment, but it may help ease the pain and make it slightly more bearable. If these tips make students want to write just a bit more, and if we all do our part, maybe by the time our students finish their degrees, they’ll write better and feel better about their writing.

Katherine Sanger is a professor in the Composition Department at Kaplan University.

[This article was originally published in our August, 2009 issue.]

Got Grammar? > Diana White & Lindsay Motes

As instructors of first‐term students ‐“F.A.N.S.” as our Department Chair, Deborah Brien, refers to us, we see a tremendous range in our students’ writing abilities. Some students come to their first class writing proficiently, while others struggle to form a paragraph. It is our job as F.A.N.S. to Facilitate Achievement of New Students by helping them learn the content and by helping them prepare for what lies ahead: writing on the discussion boards and writing papers.

During Academic Strategies, a first‐term course, students learn how important writing is to their future academic and professional success. While we want to emphasize just how important it is to be able to communicate effectively through writing, we don’t want students who are struggling with their writing skills to give up out of frustration. There are so many excellent resources for students at Kaplan, and they are made aware of them throughout the term by participating in various activities. It seems, however, that if we overwhelm students with too much information at once, they are no longer receptive to ideas. We only make writing suggestions when students understand the requirements for the discussion board and have understood the lesson content. We also do this in the most supportive and encouraging way possible, by praising the strengths of their posts, even if the only requirement that has been met is submitting the assignment by the due date.

We find it important to introduce one new concept at a time so that the individual student may view it, process it, and then apply the recommendation in future postings. When grading the first week’s discussions, we ask students to make small and simple changes. For example, we ask our students who do not capitalize the word “I” to do so. We also remind them to run a spelling and grammar check. At the end of the second week, when writing comments for discussion board grades, we applaud the effort of students who have made these changes. There are some students who do not make these changes, and we reach out to them. Sometimes, the students are unaware of what we wrote, as they did not know how to expand the comment box or simply did not know that it could be expanded. For those students who made those initial changes, we move forward with the definitions for “too” and “to,” or “their” and “there,” depending on which word choice has been misused more frequently, and we provide them with a link to the Writing Center that shows them clear examples of their errors and ways to fix them.

By week three, we see a drastic reduction in the incidence of lowercase “I”s and many students learn the difference between “to” and “too” too! –“their” and “there” is a little harder. We try not to correct any other frequent errors during this time. We don’t want them to be discouraged, because always in the middle of praise for their work, comes a suggestion as to how their writing might be improved.

During weeks five through nine we continue to work with students at their writing level. Some students are advanced, some are intermediate, and some are at a beginner level. During these units, we have projects along with discussion boards that provide us the opportunity to show students where grammar and spelling errors have occurred and how they may be fixed. One of the activities students take part in during week seven is to visit the Writing Center. They are asked to find out about the Paper Review Service, or they “speak” to a live tutor, or research a topic through the Writing Reference Library. Students really enjoy this exercise, and they very often research a topic on which they are having difficulties, such as comma placement.

Focusing on introducing one or two new grammar or spelling concept(s) at a time, or per assignment, tends to alleviate the frustration first‐term students may feel from corrective grammar overload.

Diana White and Lindsay Motes are professors in Professional Studies.

[This article was originally published in our August, 2009 issue.]

Using PDSC to Teach Writing > Catharina Marshall, Professor Communications

The Point‐Define‐Support‐Conclude or PDSC approach to writing may evoke an “Aha! Moment” for your students whether they apply it to their discussion board responses or project essays. Here’s the PDSC approach explained in such a way that you can pass this on to your students.

POINT ‐ begin with a clearly stated central point (a thesis statement).

DEFINE ‐ provide definitions of terms and explanations of principles or theories.

SUPPORT ‐ provide logical, detailed support from the readings for the central point.

CONCLUDE ‐ provide a summary, recommendation, and concluding thought (B. Stewart‐Grosse, personal communication, September 1994).

STEP ONE: POINT

• A significant, clearly stated and concise central point should guide each assignment.
• The central point is the main idea and the point of view that the rest of the entry will support and discuss.
• State the central point that will be developed in the assignment.
• Provide a preview of the major points that will support the central point.

STEP TWO: DEFINE

• Supply any background information your readers need to understand the point(s) you are making.
• Assume that your readers are not familiar with the course material you are presenting.
• Define terms/principles/theories using references from the course/text.
  

STEP THREE: SUPPORT

• Keep in mind that your readers may not understand or agree with your position. As they process your writing, they will continually ask, "Why?" Provide the reader with the basis for understanding the point you are making. And you should not expect your readers to take your views on faith. Any idea that you advance must be supported with specific reasons and details.
• Details serve as support and give the evidence needed for the reader/listener to see and understand general course ideas. In general, supporting details include facts, examples, statistics, and testimonials.
• Provide enough detail to fully support the point being made, such as examples or an extended definitionor description. Without support, your assignment will be underdeveloped.
• Clear reasoning supports your points by relating the specific details to the appropriate terms/principles/theories. Be sure the details you present relate to and actually support your point or the principles/ definitions you are using. Your reader/ listener should never have to ask: "What does this have to do with your point?"
  

STEP FOUR: CONCLUDE

• Summarize your support and reinforce the central point by briefly restating the central idea and sometimes the main supporting details.
• Present a concluding thought about the topic of the assignment. 

This approach has worked for me in both my own writing as well as my teaching. I hope you will find a way to incorporate it into your own assignments so that students have some direction when composing assignments for your classes.

[This article was originally published in our August, 2009 issue.]

Nurturing Passion with Writing > Verlyn Evans

Early Childhood Education students have one thing in common: They are all very passionate about their profession! However, there are times when passion has to be put into words to complete the projects that are an integral part of our courses. Over time as I have had the opportunity to interact with my students, I have adopted the following practices in order to ensure that our students are successful in completing writing assignments:

• Respond to students on discussion boards by asking questions that help them refocus their responses or expand their initial responses.
  

• Explain the important role that writing plays in their profession (i.e. advocating for students and documenting issues that children face in order to access additional services).
  

• Provide examples of effective writing in seminars (ex. paragraphs, citations).

• Share my personal writing struggles while reminding students that writing is a process that takes practice to master.
  

• Encourage review, such as asking someone to proofread an assignment before turning it in.

• Give specific feedback on assignments by referring to the guidelines as outlined in the syllabus. Provide details about what students did well while redirecting them to complete missing parts of an assignment.
  

• Remind students that they are role models for the students that they will teach.

• Stress that writing is a powerful tool for them to use to speak up for the children they will serve. Reassure them that their “voice” will come through loud and clear when they are good writers.
  

As a result of implementing the above mentioned practices, I have found that my students understand the value of communicating effectively via writing and are open to suggestions to improve their writing skills. In addition, they appreciate knowing that with strong writing skills they will be able to further their education without the added stress or fear of being afraid to adequately put their thoughts into words.

Verlyn Evans is a professor in Educational Studies at Kaplan University.

[This article was originally published in our August, 2009 issue.]

The Importance of Writing For Kaplan Students > Karen Watson, Part-time Faculty Psychology

I have been an instructor for the Psychology department at Kaplan University for about seven months now. I have just completed my second term teaching two classes: Contemporary Issues in Psychology and the History of Psychology. I have experience teaching prior to Kaplan, but will focus on my Kaplan teaching thus far.

Students at Kaplan come in a variety of ages, skills, experiences, and writing abilities. We all have our strong writers, our weak writers, and our mediocre writers in our classes. Grading the work of the strong writers is easiest for me. I can sit back, relax, and take in their messages.  Nothing really interferes with what they have to say, and I can grade their work based on the points that they are making. The mediocre writers need a little help here or there, some reminders to proofread, spell check, and re‐check their APA guidelines. The weak writers create the most work with regards to grading.

The Kaplan students that have weak writing skills are often the ones that leave me most unsettled as an instructor. Often, I can hear the messages that they are trying to get across in their writing. Unfortunately, those messages get blemished with the grammar and spelling problems that continue to plague them. Often these are the students that come across as insecure with their achievement abilities in the class. As their instructor, I can infer their motivation and efforts through their messages, while acknowledging the camouflage that their writing ability is creating.

In other words, their messages are covered up by their bad grammar and spelling. In this era of memo writing, emailing, texting, and treatment planning, what becomes of poor writers? In the workplace, will anyone take the time to decipher their messages, or will their work be ignored and perceived as inferior and incompetent? That is my fear for these students, and it is important for instructors to impress upon their students the importance of correcting these problems.

I try to give them a lot of encouragement to utilize the Writing Center, to re‐learn the grammar rules, spellcheck, and proofread over and over. But oftentimes, the weak writing continues, and I wonder if these students just view my critiques as more fuel for their insecurities in their intellectual abilities. Writing ability is not the same as intelligence. It is not the same as competence either. It is more or less the package in which you are delivering your message. If the package doesn’t look good, people may not even bother to open it. The intelligence and ability can be there, but they need to address the writing that is presenting their thoughts. I tell my students that their thoughts and messages deserve to be heard. They deserve to be taken seriously. Learning to write well increases the chance that their abilities will get the recognition they deserve.

[This article was originally published in our August, 2009 issue.]

Untangling the Web > Chrissine Rios

“Writing is like a spider web,” wrote one student in response to the prompt, “what is writing like?” And he continued, “but I am not the spider; I am the fly.” At the time, his analogy didn’t excite me the way the comparison of writing to washing a car or hiking a mountain did. I wanted to know the students’ attitudes toward writing at the beginning of the term, but I also wanted them to see writing as I did, as a process. Yet wetting, sudsing, then rinsing, even packing, climbing then surmounting, when applied to writing, undervalues prewriting and the recursive dynamic of the process and similarly over simplifies the purpose, making outcomes more important than meanings.

My favorite analogies align writing with relationships. In this way, writing is about getting to know another, and in the process, also one’s self, or more, one’s mind. College students, from their initial attraction and flirtation with an idea to the inquiries, insecurities, and revealing moments of truth, are for the most part dating a topic, and before long they feel confident enough to say something about it openly and with conviction and maybe even with flair, unless the student’s interest uses another language. Thoughts clear in the mind are harder to communicate when using a foreign language, especially with the eloquence needed to affect a reader in a particular way.

Yet every day at Kaplan University, students engage in the writing process using a foreign language: Standard American English. ESL students, many of them graduates of U.S. high schools and the rest having obtained qualifying scores on the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language), come to KU to study and succeed. They commit, engage, learn, and have as much to say as their native speaking peers about topics both important and relevant to them. Yet when one’s form determines the outcome of the communication more than one’s thoughts and intentions, heartbreak is sure to follow. It makes sense to identify errors to justify a grade, but feedback during the drafting process needs to nurture and encourage critical thinking.

Typically, nonnative speakers learn English in product-oriented ESL classrooms where error correction makes accuracy a higher order concern than the pursuit of ideas. My concern is that error correction will remain at the forefront of their college writing experience if tutors and professors alike become too quick to tend to the inaccuracies in the text to untangle the ESL writer’s meanings. No denying it, ESL students must learn to use Standard American English to succeed in college and beyond, but only more writing breeds better writing; Standard American English is not the embodiment of syntax alone.

Culture also informs the ESL writer’s concept of effective communication. Harkalu (1999) described prewriting discussions in college composition classes as opportunities for ESL students “to learn the values and assumptions of the culture of the mainstream classroom and strategies for communicating successfully in writing in that culture” (p. 112). Accordingly, WAC positions students to learn the culture, content, and rhetorical conventions relevant to their professional pursuits, but writing instruction being secondary to content in non‐composition courses, there may be fewer opportunities for students to engage in prewriting discussions with peers about their writing. And when this part of the process receives little attention in class, students rely more heavily on the rough draft review by a tutor or professor to make sure they are doing their assignment correctly. But correctness does not equate to college‐level inquiry or ideas. Hence my student who compared himself to the fly, entangled in his own writing, a victim rather than a weaver.

To his credit, Vygotsky (1896‐1934) also described writing as a web: a “web of meaning,” referring to the “deliberate semantics,” the required relationships, and the intricacy of writing compared to speech (as cited in Emig, 1983, p. 127). And how intricate the web woven by thoughts in more than one language! But if those thoughts have not been clarified during the exploratory and recursive process of writing, the result will be repetition, disorganization, shifting perspectives, and faulty agreements. There are tutorials that address these issues in the Writing Center, but helping students to uncover their viewpoints, ideally early in the process, would do more to improve these areas and the students’ overall command of Standard American English while also producing more confident and thoughtful, college‐level writers, and that to me, is the perfect outcome.

Untangling the Web, Chrissine Rios from Chrissine Rios on Vimeo.

Emig, J. (1983). The web of meaning: Essays on writing, teaching,
     learning, and thinking. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook.
Harkalu, L. (1999). Generation 1.5 meets college composition:
     Issues in the teaching of writing to U.S.‐educated learners of
     ESL. Mahway, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Chrissine Rios is a staff member at the Kaplan University Writing Center.

[This article was originally published in our August, 2009 issue.]