[Milton-L] Off topic of Milton but relevant to the larger discipline of English

[Julia Walker]

Robert,

I wish I could write something good, even something promising, as  
Margaret did.

We (SUNY-Geneseo) added a req writing seminar, after years of  
resisting req comp courses.  It's supposedly taught by all depts, but  
English, of course, teaches the lion's share of sections.

You simply can't fix a lifetime of writing problems in 1 semester.   
You can help someone learn how to use semicolons or teach a person  
what's wrong with passive voice, but that's about it.  And you can,  
of course, do that in a course that isn't labeled "writing  
intensive."   I thought I was getting the "so what?" element of  
thesis-writing across to kids, but one of my best writing students  
took my Humanities class and on her first paper, there was no "so  
what?" in her intro.  Clearly, she identified that as course-specific  
writing and jettisoned it after receiving her A-.

What you can do is read interesting stuff.  You have to read  
_something_ in a writing course.  The Bible makes a great text for  
such a course, because you can get a lot of mileage out of relatively  
little reading.  The Bible and gender, the Bible and the environment,  
the Bible and methods of mass destruction -- all good for writing- 
specific courses.  It's also good for reading skill, as they have to  
cope with the short-fall between what's actually there and what they  
_think_ is there.  And the bare-bones prose of most of the Bible  
makes a  good jumping-in point for a writing lesson.

The Hodges Harbrace Handbook is the world's most wonderful writing  
text.  It has all the problems clearly set out, and lots of examples  
of how to fix them.  It's the sort of text kids should keep forever.   
Indeed, I wrote my high school papers using my parents' old college  
copies.

That said, I gave up on teaching the course, an option I mercifully  
have.  Best of luck.

julia

Julia M Walker
Professor of English and Women's Studies
State University of New York at Geneseo




On Mar 27, 2008, at 11:26 AM, Robert Wiznura wrote:

> Currently, my department is shifting the focus of first year  
> English from a literature course to a writing course. Our current  
> course consists of 70% literature and 30% writing instruction and  
> is a full year. The new "proposal," which will come about no matter  
> what I have to say about it, will divide the course into two half  
> year courses. The first course will consist only of writing  
> instruction while the second half will consist of literature (but  
> still will require 20% writing instruction). I know that many out  
> there already live within this division and my question is simple:  
> does such a division actually improve the reading and writing  
> skills of students?
>
>
>
> Dr. Robert Wiznura
> Grant MacEwan College
> CCC 6-266
> (780) 633-3919
> wiznurar at macewan.ca
>
>
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