-- Katherine wrote:
> 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.
And I know Russ responded, I'll come to that. But first, isn't the
student who wants to impress the prof with a term paper simply
understanding the rhetorical situation? Rhetoric is to convince after
all. I see nothing wrong with this as a stated goal. I actually have
more trouble with the student who sets up a desire to "research" which
is so often an excuse for poorly thought out ideas and shoddy argument.
Certainly, some students have genuine interest in researching a topic,
but in my experience with term papers, such lofty goals are usually
squashed by the pressures of term.
Actually, last term my Shakespeare students produced some amazing
results out of their final term papers. I think though that part of the
reason for that was that I had a pretty thorough journal assignment
through the year (no compromise there, but the endless reading and
commenting almost killed me).
This journal assignment also makes me think that Russ is right that
students can benefit from doing uncomfortable or unfamiliar writing.
Through the year, many students complained about aspects of the journal
but as we talked about it during the last class many of those same
students talked about finally "getting it" with the journals. This is,
of course, the point at which the unfamiliar has become finally
familiar, but it also means they have grasped a new way of looking and a
new way of responding, besides their academic essays. Part of the
journal had them reading recent criticism, and they also got that by the
end. They became fairly astute critics of academic bafflegab and
navelspeak. This critical edge was a tool they could bring back to
their academic papers.
I also did journals of the same variety when I taught Shakespeare at
Waterloo, but there the course was only a four-month term. I feel like
it worked better in the Toronto class because we had eight months. Some
of this kind of learning takes ongoing interaction not just short hits.
This has strayed markedly from the "big class" question. My largest
Shakespeare class was 55 so in the world of Ontario universities that is
only just barely "big." I don't think I'd do journals if I was in Doug's
situation of having 100 and no TA support.
Rob Irish
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Dr. Robert Irish
Coordinator of Language Across the Curriculum
Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering
University of Toronto
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
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