Poorly researched and potentially damaging, I'd argue. I'm new to this game
being a PhD student with writing centre work and 3 months of preparation for
a Composition Theory and Pedagogy field exam under my belt, but I feel
qualified to assert that Marche's article seems to hinder rather than help
the cause.
In this Naïve attempt to discuss the issues and politics surrounding writing
instruction in universities, Marche seems to have perpetuated the very
misconceptions about writing that composition theorists have been working to
dismantle for the past few decades.
His assumption that second language teachers can act as evaluators of their
students' proficiency in their first language, for example, reinforces the
idea that teaching writing is akin to handing students a book of grammar
rules. My knowledge of the parts of speech has no bearing on my ability to
think critically and communicate those ideas effectively in writing. And I
think it's worth noting that after 10 years of instruction in French by way
of grammar rules I cannot put a sentence (nevermind a paragraph) together to
save my life. The assumption that not knowing grammatical technicalities
like the various parts of speech influences the quality of one's ability to
communicate effectively, is, I think it's reasonable to argue, too common
among writing instructors and/or those who call for quick fixes to the
writing "crisis".
He's right to ask the question about the confidence we're placing in our TAs
and cross-disciplinary writing instructors, I think. However, not having
been coupled with a call for more training and more money for research and
specialists in the field of composition theory/pedagogy, this critique risks
undermining the limited successes composition scholars have been allowed to
make in the past few decades.
What really gets to me, though, is that the entire article does nothing to
encourage (or support initiatives toward) change in universities that house
outdated writing programs based on the 1970s clinic model and
current-traditional rhetoric. We may as well dig up Adams, Godkin, and
Quincy's 1892 Report of the Committee on Composition and Rhetoric and once
again put it on the desk of every impressionable dean and ill-informed
faculty member who reads this.
The politics of this field are frustrating enough to make every aspiring
composition scholar apprehensive about her future career.
Stephanie Bell
PhD Candidate
University of Waterloo
On Mon, Mar 17, 2008 at 6:21 PM, Michael Ryan <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> Michael J. Ryan writing.
>
> I share the opinion of Robert Irish. I find the article internally
> inconsistent and unconnected to the international context of which it
> writes. In this modern age, most International Scholars arrive on a
> Canadian campus having been trained [or subjected] to native speakers as
> their EFL resources. That is what fifty of are now doing here in Wuxi,
> Jiangsu, China. However, if the issue is that PhDs provide poor writing
> support then there is no worry, as none of us are PhDs. 80 ]
> I had thought the article would legitimize the emphasis on training PhDs,
> as
> this is the point of leverage for the writing by the next generation of
> tertiary students. Oh well. Perhaps a distinction between the direct
> guidance of a graduate student and the necessarily templated approach to
> initiation into writing courses would explain the difference in
> approaches,
> rather then a blind willingness on the part of universities to provide
> assistance to those least in need of that assistance. I really did not
> follow the article. I am not sure the trail was clear enough. Perhaps it
> was argumentative in form, rather then demonstrative. All is in the eye
> and
> hand of the beholders.
>
> I would suggest a unified response by co-authors. If UA will not
> "publish"
> for some time, then perhaps it could be at Inkshed in Fredricton?
>
> Many thanks for the link to the article, as there is no such
> scholarly/administrative publication in China.
>
> Michael J. Ryan,
> Jiangnan University - Lambton College
> Wuxi, Jiangsu, China
>
> BTB: The uni here seems to require four writing courses of most students.
> These are Academic Writing and Business Writing at both an introductory
> and
> advanced level.
> On Tue, Mar 18, 2008 at 5:11 AM, Robert Irish <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > The real question is why UA published such a banal piece of badly
> > researched
> > drivel that perpetuates the myth of the declining undergraduate and
> sounds
> > the eternal whinge of the professor who wants someone else to take
> > responsibility to fix this "skill" (as if it were a disease).
> >
> > Rob Irish
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: CASLL/Inkshed [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Doreen
> > Starke-Meyerring, Dr.
> > Sent: Monday, March 17, 2008 4:33 PM
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Re: University Affairs article on writing at universities
> >
> >
> > Thanks for sharing this, Tania. Very interesting. The person must have
> > missed the Dalhousie conference on critical writing and critical
> thinking
> > and Anthony's talk, which explains the issues very nicely for a broader
> > audience:
> >
> > Paré, A. (2007). What we know about writing, and why it matter. Plenary
> > address, Critical writing, critical thinking conference, Dalhousie
> > University, Halifax, May 2-3
> > http://faculty.msvu.ca/SusanDrain/pare%20keynote.pdf.
> >
> > Doreen
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: CASLL/Inkshed [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Tania
> > Smith
> > Sent: Monday, March 17, 2008 5:00 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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> > write to Russ Hunt at [log in to unmask]
> >
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> >
>
>
>
> --
> Michael J. Ryan, Professor
> Business Communication
> Jiangnan U - Lambton College
> Wuxi, Jiangsu, China
>
> -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
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>
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>
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