Question: What is the
weakness in our teaching of writing?
Answer/Quote: “On the
professional level, especially after doing historical scholarship and seeing,
shockingly reveals, a recursive, abysmal spiral of the same essay-based pedagogy
from the field’s origin onward, one can’t but wonder why the field on the whole
seems so stunted and contrary…..” p. 508.
Quote: “Official
composition has persisted as a bland, sanitized pedagogy, teaching clear,
correct, citation-based essay form to students, using a literarily thin corpus
of nonfiction readings as prompts.” P. 511,
Comment: According to this author, the weakness in
our teaching of writing is the short essay format. The research paper, as it is
usually taught, is only an extension of that format. At the college level,
there are some alternatives: having students write articles based on the
journals in the students’ major fields. Extending the essay format into longer
treatments of topics. Learning from other disciplines the types of writing
required in those disciplines. Having the courage to deviate from the
short-essay based curriculum will take some courage. However, wisdom says, use
a combination of the short essay to demonstrate the structure of exposition and
at least one alternative. RayS.
Title: “Review Essay:
Resisting Entropy.” Geoffrey Sirc. College
Composition and Communication (February
2012), 507-519.
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