I wouldn't agree that the "fundamental assumption" in _Worlds Apart_ is
that the role of university writing classes is to prepare students for
their future careers, and for several reasons. First, the authors are
very clear that school writing has its own particular, and entirely
legitimate and worthwhile, purposes for writing--as do different
instances of workplace writing. The authors are *not* at all suggesting
that school writing is a pale imitation of workplace writing or that the
primary function of school writing is to somehow prepare students for
the writing they'll be doing later on in their lives after graduation.
And second, the research underlying _Worlds Apart_ focused on particular
disciplines that do represent themselves as providing professional
preparation--such as Architecture, Social Work, Engineering, and Public
Administration. And the authors don't make any claims beyond the bounds
of this research.
And to respond as well to the implication that students don't really
expect to receive preparation for their future careers . . . I disagree:
I think that this definitely is *one* of the expectations, among others,
that many students have. As one of our graduate students said here at
Purdue, "If you try telling a kid who's going to graduate with a $30,000
student loan to repay that they shouldn't really expect their academic
programs to position them for jobs, they'll think you're a little
crazy."
More grist for the mill ...
Graham
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Tosh wrote:
>
> The fundamental assumption that underlies "Worlds Apart" seems to be that the role of university writing classes is purely to prepare students for their future career. This makes sense in specialized majors such as journalism, engineering, law, etc., but I wonder if we should impose the same paradigm for other disciplines such as English, psychology, linguistics, anthropologies, etc. Authentic writing is possible and desirable in journalism, engineering, etc. because the students in these disciplines are expected to become journalists, engineers, etc., but do we always know what English majors end up being? If we can't predict the (majority of) students' future career, what is authentic writing? What are we trying to teach? Are we really responsible for providing job training? Do students come to university to prepare for their future career? (That's what the middle-class adage says, but do students really believe in that?)
>
> -------------
> Tosh
>
> ---------------
> "Here is a test to find whether your mission on earth is finished.: If you're alive, it isn't."
> -- Illusions.
>
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