Topic: College Writing

10-second review: Massachusetts writing teachers established goals for the freshman English composition course.

Title: “CONNECT: Breaking Down Barriers in Public Higher Education.” M. Olendzenski. Teaching English in Two-Year Colleges (December 2008), 186-190. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).

Summary/Quotes: Here are the goals.

Writing: “Students will move through the processes of writing: inventing, composing, revision and editing according to the conventions of standard written English.”

Critical Reading: “Students will critically read and respond to a variety of texts.”

Audience, Purpose, Voice: “Students will compose in a voice appropriate to the audience and to the purpose of the writing.”

Thesis: “Students will formulate a thesis and support it with evidence.”

Organization: “Students will compose coherent and cohesive essays and other texts.”

Research, Documentation: “Students will locate, evaluate, integrate and document primary and/or secondary source materials to support a position.” p. 188.

Comment: It’s a beginning. Some terms need to be defined: revising; standard written English; critically read; voice; thesis; coherent; cohesive. The definitions are “out there”; we just need to agree on the definitions. Anyone care to try? RayS.