Many thanks, Tania, for this strangely uninformed piece from an associate
dean of Graduate Studies and one who, it appears, missed out on a talk on
this very topic at his own institution.
I think Robert's point is very well taken - why did UA publish it? I can't
guess at that reasoning but suppose a response to correct this quite
tiresome and clichéd rhetoric could create a conversation that would draw
some attention? Maybe excerpts from Anthony's plenary could serve the
purpose of a rebuttal? Anthony?
Marche's main point appears to be that there is desire for good writing but
not commitment or expertise to teach writing among non-"writing" faculty.
Well, the writing initiative at SFU, as in many other places, is (largely
'was' in SFU's case) directed toward working with just those faculty.
Plus Marche appears to delegate all responsibility for writing instruction
to TA's. Multiple sighs...
According to the other link in the piece, Marche ran a session for Grad
students to demonstrate writers' processes - WHIP - reminded me of what Don
Graves always used to do.
Would a collective CASLL response be useful and worth the effort in this
case?
Wendy
-----Original Message-----
From: CASLL/Inkshed [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Tania Smith
Sent: Monday, March 17, 2008 2:00 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: University Affairs article on writing at universities
I just found the latest University Affairs magazine in my mailbox today,
and look! There's an article about writing instruction at universities!
http://www.universityaffairs.ca/issues/2008/april/opinion_01.html
So... who among us is going to write in a letter to the editor and
inform the readers of University Affairs that there ARE experts in
written composition at Canadian universities, that writing instruction
is not just a job for TAs, and that "understanding how [language] works
psychologically" is a part of the interdisciplinary field of rhetorical
studies?
--
Tania Smith
Assistant Professor
University of Calgary
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