Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Topic: Real-World Writing

10-second review: …begins with a statement of purpose and audience.


Title: “Real-World Writing: Making Purpose and Audience Matter.” G Wiggins. English Journal (May 2009), pp. 29-37. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).


Summary: Write for the real world. Make your purpose clear and specify your audience and write for that audience so that you receive reactions from which you will learn about how to write.


Quote: Real-world writing: “Fiction writing is rare…. School-like research papers with disembodied audiences and no bottom-line purposes are not the norm. Persuasive and informative writing for specific and real audiences are common.” p. 31.


Quote: “More than half of all responding companies also report the following forms of communications as required ‘frequently’ or ‘almost always’: technical reports (59%), formal reports (62%), and memos and correspondence 70%).” p. 31.


Comment: More and more, I am beginning to realize that the focus in writing instruction should be on real-world writing and that means reports as opposed to descriptive, narrative, argumentative, etc. writing. If students wrote blogs, they could put into practice writing with a purpose for a specific audience. RayS.

1 comment:

  1. Agreed! As an adult and professional, I really dislike having to write or do something that doesn't apply to my life.

    You can still have students learn things but form a persuasive argument about why one is better than the other.

    Give them the higher level thinking and questioning skills. Those are the true life skills that will benefit them long into the future.

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