Style vs. Error

Today we went over an essay in class. I thought it was very well-written and presented her ideas well for the most part, but it got me thinking; why did I find this essay to be so well written? I thought that because she wrote in a tone which was academic but not overly complicated and because her thoughts were clear, she did a good job. Many of her sentences were simple and easy to read and represented her voice. Interestingly enough, her essay was on the importance of voice in writing. She argued that while it is important to include citations from other sources to strengthen your argument, the strength of the essay relied on the analysis and thought of the writer, or his or her voice. I think this is a very important and relevant point to the class as a whole. When we begin working in the writing center, we are trying to help students convey their voice. We want them to have opinions rather than to simply re-hash information that they have already learned in class. Not only will the clarification of their argument help improve their essays, but in the long-run will help them become better thinkers. Many students have the ability to summarize effectively, but it takes a higher caliber of thinking to convey one's voice in his or her essay.

Shadowing Sesh-Numero Dos

Today was my second shadowing experience at the writing center and was very different from my last week. Unlike last week, where the student was basically done with her essays, this student came before she began her writing process. She was mainly concerned about being able to get her ideas across and met with the consultant so that she could clarify what she wanted to say in her paper as well as forming a solid foundation for her essay. He began the consultation by reading over the assignment which asked the student to write an essay talking about one topic thus far in the course. Because it was such an open-ended assignment, I think she felt a bit intimidated and unsure of what she wanted to say. He asked her what she was most interested in, and she began to talk about the idea of agency in leadership studies. She explained that agency was the idea of having a goal and accomplishing that goal, and to demonstrate an idea of agency, she began to talk about President Obama's health care plan. Then, she thought of how the agency of the individual related to the agency of an entire society. As she continued to discuss what she wanted to write about, she developed a question which would become her thesis. By the end of the consultation, she had a full outline done and was ready to write her essay. I thought it was amazing that just talking about your ideas to someone else can make it so clear as to why and what you're writing. I'm really beginning to see why the writing center is so effective for writers who are unsure of themselves and their writing.

Grammar Hammer

I will proudly confess that I am a bit of a grammar nerd. I constantly find myself cringing when I read an essay marred by grammatical errors. As I pray that their errors are simply typos, I realize that not everyone was drilled time and time again about correct grammar. I remember several times throughout my childhood where my eldest brother, Matt, would correct the smallest grammatical error in my speech. It was as if a buzzer went off in his head whenever something was said incorrectly, and being the antagonist that he was, would always bring attention to my mistakes as well as the errors made by my other brother, Greg. I blamed his annoying grammar obsession on the fact that he was the oldest and had to be better than his younger siblings. I can't how many times I forgot to end an adverb with the -ly, as I would say things like "I want to play soccer real bad." Matt would chime in, saying, "Real-LY and Bad-LY; they're adverbs." So, you're all probably wondering why I just went on a long tangent complaining about my brother's annoying ways. Well, I'm afraid, after about the 1000th time he corrected me, a little voice (only sounding slightly similar to my brother's tone) began to correct me.
When seeing the errors presented in Under the Grammar Hammer, I was a bit surprised. Most of these were mistakes that I knew were common, but were mistakes that I usually didn't make. I tend to struggle with commas, but other than that, I generally understand grammar. However, there is one BIG exception. Lay vs. laid vs. lying vs. Je ne sais pas! I lay in my bed or I laid in my bed? Or, I was lying in bed? If anyone knows, please explain, thanks!

Class Progress

I am not an avid blogger. I write when I'm really interested in something or when I'm in my writing mood, but other than that, I don't get inspired (yeah, I'm one of those artsy type people who need to be inspired before I do something). But I do like to talk...a lot. I think I'm making good progress in the class with participation, but I would like to talk even more in class. I find it so interesting that there are so many varying views and opinions about writing and what it means to be a good writer. When we got into discussions about academic bullshit and how we can teach writers to not be bullshitters, I identified with that particular subject. I need to make sure that I find something in the readings that I feel relates to me or is in direct contrast to my views, so I can blog more. Additionally, I would like to comment on more people's blogs. I'm TERRIBLE at remembering to blog and to comment; maybe I'll set aside time where I just write? I love being able to read and write when it is not assigned, but I find myself putting things off when I have to do something. For example, I'm blogging in class now because this is specific time for blogging. Hopefully, you'll start seeing more blogs from me in the following weeks!

DS Grading

I believe that grading a DS is no different than grading a paper. A bold statement, I am aware, but there are definitive elements in each that would aid an instructor in assigning a grade. However, there are also elements that are more abstractly graded: style, quality of analysis, etc. So how should we expect to see our DS graded? The use of the seven elements is the most obvious; partial credit should be awarded for the use of each. Full credit should be given for its effectiveness concerning the overall story. Of course, the script is also an important factor in the DS and should be an important part of the grading process. If a professor is able to grade an essay and assign a grade for the work produced, there should be no problems when trying to grade a DS. However, the grade on this project does not seem to be the important part of the assignment. We are being tested for our understanding so that we can teach others how to use this kind of literacy to express themselves better. In order to help people with their own essays or projects, we must understand how to do them as well. Although this is a different kind of assignment, I don't think that the grading needs to be entirely different. Like an essay, it is giving us the ability to show our knowledge and understanding of the particular subject. Because I have used DST in the past, I believe I understand it is graded in comparison to papers. I am interested to see how the final grading will turn out, but I am confident that we have come up with a good rubric.

First Consultation Shadowing

Yesterday was my first time shadowing a writing consultation. The student had a writing assignment in which she had to write 3 short essays about various subjects. I thought it would be difficult to address all 3 essays in such a short time, but the consultant did it with ease. He read over each essay and then discussed them individually. Through my observations, his main focus was to explore her ideas and make sure that her essay was clear. Because of the restriction of length of each essay (500-750 words), he also wanted to make sure that her sentences were to the point and not "wordy." He quickly worked on the structure of the essay as well because there were sentences in the essays that would have better belonged in other parts of the essay. I was also able to give my input because I was able to read the essays and generally noticed the same changes that I would have made to the essays. In addition, we talked to her about what she meant in her essay. For example, the assignment asked that one of her essays define a word that was difficult to describe. She chose the word "freedom," and she began by writing a riddle to try to best define the word. Her essay was strong, but we were curious to see if she was actually writing what she believed the word to be. She articulated what she thought about her definition and was able to clarify her ideas. it was interesting to see the writing process in a non-biased way, and I am excited to learn about how to better edit my own essays in the future.

College Essay Applications

On Saturday, we met with a group of high school seniors who were beginning to come up with their topics for their college essays. My student had several ideas about possible essay topics for the common application; she had a series of possible topics she thought she would be able to write about. I asked her which ones she thought were the most interesting to her and she revealed that she liked 2 or 3 topics the best. I wanted her to focus on a topic that would show growth in order to demonstrate the person she has become. She then revealed her possible idea for the Richmond supplement essay which asks the student to discuss an experience in which they went out of their comfort zone. She started talking about how she was a mentor and the experience with mentoring brought her out of her comfort zone because she no longer hesitated to help people and had no problems talking to people. As we continued to talk, however, she mentioned that she had gone out of the country for the first time last summer. She talked about how she had to adapt to a new culture, as well as having to use her limited knowledge of Spanish for the first time in her life. I wanted her to write about her feelings of the trip whether it was what made her nervous or what she overcame. She began to brainstorm about her experience by showing positive outcomes about her time in Barcelona and also about what made her go out of her comfort zone. By the end of the session, she had told me her doubts before going to Barcelona and what she had gotten out of the experience. Through our session together, she realized that she had a lot to say about going out of her comfort zone and had ideas for a promising essay. I'll be excited to see what she comes up with when I see her again in November!

Writing: The True Test of Preparedness for College

http://www.collegiatechoice.com/mycarts.htm

I recently read an article in the Collegian about falling SAT scores amongst the classes at Richmond.  While the class of 2006 to 2007 had a range of SAT scores between 1240 and 1390, the class of 2013 had a range of 1170-1360. The author argues that Richmond’s choice to accept students with lower SAT scores harms the academic reputation of the school as well as making it less competitive with other schools that have raised their standards of SAT scores. Although I agree with his zeal to admit the brightest students into the University, he fails to look at the big difference in the SAT scoring: the writing section.

In 2005, the SAT added a writing section in which the student is asked a series of grammar and punctuation questions and must write a persuasive essay on a certain subject. Therefore, the class of 2006 and of 2007, who would have graduated from high school in 2002 and 2003, were not required to take that section. While the author does not focus on the writing section in the article, it is my belief that this is the most important factor as to why the range of SAT scores has dropped amongst Richmond students. He does not suggest that we aren’t as smart as those who graduated in 2006 and 2007, but he does imply that our performance on the SAT should indicate our preparedness for college. So, I ask, if he is looking at preparedness for college, why doesn’t he factor in the writing section on the SAT?

In The Transition to College Writing, the first chapter discusses the orientation of two new college students, one whose transition goes smoothly, while the other struggles. The latter student, Marie, attended an exclusive private high school where she was said to be prepared for college. However, her view on receiving good grades was “Learning is remembering what teachers and textbooks say.” Isn’t it possible that some of those students who graduated before 2007 had a view of learning that was comparable to Marie’s? After all, the SAT without the writing section can be seen as mostly a test of memorization and the ability to “beat the system,” something that I failed miserably at doing.

I was one of those students who was at the lower range of the SATs. I just wasn’t good at the SATs. I took classes about strategies and did multiple practice tests, but on the sections that this author discusses, I did not exert a strong performance. On the writing section, however, I demonstrated my ability to write and analyze effectively. I argue that my performance on the writing section as well as my admissions essay helped admissions officers overlook my mediocre scores on the two other sections of the SATs. My writing better displayed my preparedness for college than my performance on a test. In response to the author of this article, I would agree that Richmond has made a change, but where he sees it as a bad change, I see it as an improvement. While the University may not appear to be as “competitive” or as difficult to be admitted into as it was before, it is admitting students who will thrive here. These students who have been taught to analyze and write effectively are more prepared for college than those who simply have memorized their way through school and have performed well on the SATs. If the University is admitting students who are more prepared for an education here, they will gain more from what they have been taught, allowing them to flourish in college and beyond. So, if I am surrounded by students who will challenge their thoughts and my own, I appreciate the University’s decision to admit the students who they feel are prepared for college. If Richmond wants to admit students that show their preparedness through writing rather than to gain a statistic, then call me crazy, but I see absolutely no problem with that.