Katherine's right about this, for sure:
> It has been brought to my attention by several students (from
> working with students in the Writing Centre) that many good
> students write in order to impress the prof -- that is their stated
> goal. I think we need to remember that when we think about
> engaging students in meaningful dialogue.
I have two questions here, though (and they're both real ones):
Do those good students actually _learn_ by doing this, or is it that
they can build this on a basis of already knowing what meaningful
(written) dialogue is and how it feels? (Something that not so good
students, also writing to impress the prof, aren't able to do?)
To what extent do we need to acquiesce in their attempt to achieve
this goal? I had a (very good) student last year who didn't want to
write anything but term papers, and wanted to impress me with them.
Since I don't _do_ term papers, she was very frustrated. I thought
-- still think -- that she wasn't learning much about writing or
language doing term papers in her other courses, and that she needed
experience of kinds of writing she hadn't done before and wasn't
comfortable with (e-mail, research reports, inksheds, bulletin
board postings, executive summaries, policy recommendations). I
failed to convince her of that, and she dropped the course.
-- Russ
__|~_
Russell A. Hunt __|~_)_ __)_|~_ Aquinas Chair
St. Thomas University )_ __)_|_)__ __) PHONE: (506) 452-0424
Fredericton, New Brunswick | )____) | FAX: (506) 450-9615
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~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://www.StThomasU.ca/hunt/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~
