I am not going to sit here and try and say that I think there is something worse than having to write an essay, I know, that sounds terrible, especially with everything happening in today’s society, but really, when a teacher tells me I have to write an essay I get this pit in my stomach like when you know something bad is about to happen. The three things that go through my head are the due date, the first draft and the revision process, all which contribute to the now giant hole in my stomach. In Nancy Sommers “Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers” excerpt, she gives examples of both student and experienced writers ideas of revision strategies. From Sommers research, she concludes that the student writer focuses mainly on word by word revision, unlike the experienced writer, who for the most part state that their “rewriting is a constant process.” Although I agree with Sommers to the point that student writers could definitely use some practice when it comes to revision, I cannot accept her overall conclusion that student writers all posses these same informal revision habits.
Thinking back to when I was first taught even just how to write a paragraph, I remember focusing mainly on grammar and spelling, punctuation, and the overall proper structure of the sentences and paragraph. I remember being taught to first revise the basic elements of the paragraph and then, after focusing on the paragraph as a whole, making sure the ideas were all there, supporting the thesis of course, and that I hadn’t trailed off onto a different subject. Teachers seemed like they tried to imprint good revision habits on us at an early stage in our writing careers, but I have to admit, procrastination most likely plays a bigger role than any student is willing to admit. Where a teacher would give an assignment with a due date well into the future, it becomes easier to put the assignment aside and focus on what other classes needed our immediate attention. This is the part where I agree with Sommers, and her opinion of the student writer’s revision process. How can a student properly revise, when procrastination barely leaves time to even write the paper in the first place? It almost leaves us no choice but to read over the paper only looking at the micro issues as opposed to rewriting actual paragraphs, sentences or if it is necessary, the entire paper, and even worse, we only have ourselves to blame.
Sommers points out that, “The students understand the revision process as a rewording activity.” Although I do not think this is how every student revises every paper he or she writes in college, there is of course, some truth to her statement. When I revise for school, as much as I would like to say I always focus on writing for my audience and on the big picture of my paper, this doesn’t always happen. Sometimes revising, as important as it really is, just seems so tedious. It’s hard to put so much effort into a paper, knowing that I might have to go back and rewrite huge parts of it. This attitude toward revision is a major difference in the student writer and the experienced writer, because the experienced writer always recognizes the importance of a thorough revision process. Never-the-less, when I do write a paper, I tend to try and revise as I go, writing a paragraph or even a few sentences, and then going back to reread them, making sure they flow and are actually saying what I am meaning them to say. After I have finished the entire paper, I try to give myself some space, do something to get my mind focusing on anything but the paper, so that I can hopefully come back later with a different mindset so when I read over my paper, I will be able to see any mistakes I previously missed.
Ultimately, when it comes to how I learned my revision techniques, it is a combination of what I have been taught by teachers, and unfortunately, what I feel is appropriate. Reading Sommers has definitely opened up my eyes to just how bad my writing and revision habits actually are.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Writing Guide- Final Draft
How to write a paper? How to write an essay? How do you write an assignment that will be interesting and engaging, informative enough to answer everything the prompt the teacher may or may not have given you and get you a good grade. Learning to write is a constant process. For some people, the few lucky ones, writing comes naturally, but for others, the majority of us, it takes time to get the hang of it. Maybe your high school English teachers prepared you for college level writing, and maybe you don’t even think there will be a big difference, but college professors really do expect more from their students. So far, what I have experienced from college writing classes is that you need to have some sort of process, a set of guidelines to follow when you are given a writing assignment. Although I am still learning to be more confident and comfortable in my writing, here are a few techniques I use, that will hopefully be helpful to you as well.
The first thing you are going to want to do when given the writing assignment is organize your ideas. Make an outline, brainstorm and just jot down a few notes, do something to make sure you are not going into this assignment totally blind. Most likely you will be given a prompt, make sure you understand it, dissect it, and when you are brainstorming and/or writing an outline, stay on topic of what the prompt is asking of you. If there is reading involved or any necessary research, be well prepared; writing a paper is hard enough work, actually having a strong grasp of what you are writing about will definitely be to your advantage. Also, if your teacher has given you any tools, i.e. books, excerpts, essays, utilize them! Believe it or not, the professor more than likely put some effort into picking these things out to be helpful for you. Which brings me to the professors themselves, they want to help you, so don’t be afraid to ask them questions if you don’t completely understand the assignment or just want them to read over your paper before you turn it in, it will only be to your benefit.
The next thing might be two of the most important things you are going to do regarding your writing assignment, writing your introduction and establishing your thesis. These two things are going to set up the vibe of your entire paper, and really set it up for the reader so they know what to expect when they are reading it.
Your introduction should be diverse, put some of your own character into it, but also make sure it’s not too playful by adding some facts or quotes to give it some solidity; you want to be taken seriously. Make all of the information valid; even if it has some character to it, you don’t want to veer off what the topic of the paper actually is. With that seriousness, you want to make it interesting, hook the reader so that they actually enjoy reading your paper.
Once you have introduced the paper, you have hopefully set yourself up for the thesis, the essential backbone of your paper. The thesis is like the road map to your paper, it should have the main idea of what you are going to be talking about in the next several paragraphs. The thesis is almost like a very formal list of what will be discussed in the remainder of the paper. Developing a thesis is not always the easiest thing to do, ergo, a book that I have found to be very helpful is, “They Say, I Say.” Using the templates they provide is a sure way to develop a strong thesis when you are beginning to write at the college level, and also a way to “enter the conversation” setting yourself up to now support you ideas with the remainder of the paper.
Once you have written an introduction paragraph, along with a strong thesis, you are ready to write the bulk of the paper, the body paragraphs. You may think that this is the part where you’re allowed to be wordy or repetitive, just get enough down to suffice the minimum length the paper is allowed to be; but guess what? You’re not in high school anymore, meaning what you write should be more than one thought rewritten several different ways. Use your thesis to stay on track and validate what your argument, analysis, or discussion for the paper is. This is where you can express yourself most, and really get the point you are trying to make across to the audience. Like I previously stated, use the thesis almost like a check list. If you said you were going to talk about “A, B and C,” make sure you hit all of those points, and be sure and refer back to the prompt for the essay.
After you have established your point of view, backing it up with your opinions and also some facts and maybe quotes, the conclusion comes along. This is the part where you pretty much summarize everything you have said in the paper, and also rewrite your thesis, remind the reader what they were looking to find when they first started reading the paper.
The final thing I suggest you do is REVISE!!! That’s right, revision is key. I know, I know, it’s the thing we dread most (apart from actually writing a paper), but it really is important. Now I am not saying revise your paper immediately after you have finished it, let it sit a while, go take a nap, or go to bed if you have been up writing it until 3 in the morning like I know so many of us do, take a walk, do something to get your mind off the paper. After you have let what you wrote digest, come back to it, reread it, I suggest out loud, and then see what parts can use work. Reword some parts; redo some sentences, even paragraphs if it is called for, but don’t just get the thesaurus out and start trying to make yourself sound smart, it will not make a significant difference.
Like I said, writing is a constant learning process, one which I don’t think anyone will ever completely master; but in time, you will develop your own techniques and hopefully your own style that will make you more comfortable writing.
The first thing you are going to want to do when given the writing assignment is organize your ideas. Make an outline, brainstorm and just jot down a few notes, do something to make sure you are not going into this assignment totally blind. Most likely you will be given a prompt, make sure you understand it, dissect it, and when you are brainstorming and/or writing an outline, stay on topic of what the prompt is asking of you. If there is reading involved or any necessary research, be well prepared; writing a paper is hard enough work, actually having a strong grasp of what you are writing about will definitely be to your advantage. Also, if your teacher has given you any tools, i.e. books, excerpts, essays, utilize them! Believe it or not, the professor more than likely put some effort into picking these things out to be helpful for you. Which brings me to the professors themselves, they want to help you, so don’t be afraid to ask them questions if you don’t completely understand the assignment or just want them to read over your paper before you turn it in, it will only be to your benefit.
The next thing might be two of the most important things you are going to do regarding your writing assignment, writing your introduction and establishing your thesis. These two things are going to set up the vibe of your entire paper, and really set it up for the reader so they know what to expect when they are reading it.
Your introduction should be diverse, put some of your own character into it, but also make sure it’s not too playful by adding some facts or quotes to give it some solidity; you want to be taken seriously. Make all of the information valid; even if it has some character to it, you don’t want to veer off what the topic of the paper actually is. With that seriousness, you want to make it interesting, hook the reader so that they actually enjoy reading your paper.
Once you have introduced the paper, you have hopefully set yourself up for the thesis, the essential backbone of your paper. The thesis is like the road map to your paper, it should have the main idea of what you are going to be talking about in the next several paragraphs. The thesis is almost like a very formal list of what will be discussed in the remainder of the paper. Developing a thesis is not always the easiest thing to do, ergo, a book that I have found to be very helpful is, “They Say, I Say.” Using the templates they provide is a sure way to develop a strong thesis when you are beginning to write at the college level, and also a way to “enter the conversation” setting yourself up to now support you ideas with the remainder of the paper.
Once you have written an introduction paragraph, along with a strong thesis, you are ready to write the bulk of the paper, the body paragraphs. You may think that this is the part where you’re allowed to be wordy or repetitive, just get enough down to suffice the minimum length the paper is allowed to be; but guess what? You’re not in high school anymore, meaning what you write should be more than one thought rewritten several different ways. Use your thesis to stay on track and validate what your argument, analysis, or discussion for the paper is. This is where you can express yourself most, and really get the point you are trying to make across to the audience. Like I previously stated, use the thesis almost like a check list. If you said you were going to talk about “A, B and C,” make sure you hit all of those points, and be sure and refer back to the prompt for the essay.
After you have established your point of view, backing it up with your opinions and also some facts and maybe quotes, the conclusion comes along. This is the part where you pretty much summarize everything you have said in the paper, and also rewrite your thesis, remind the reader what they were looking to find when they first started reading the paper.
The final thing I suggest you do is REVISE!!! That’s right, revision is key. I know, I know, it’s the thing we dread most (apart from actually writing a paper), but it really is important. Now I am not saying revise your paper immediately after you have finished it, let it sit a while, go take a nap, or go to bed if you have been up writing it until 3 in the morning like I know so many of us do, take a walk, do something to get your mind off the paper. After you have let what you wrote digest, come back to it, reread it, I suggest out loud, and then see what parts can use work. Reword some parts; redo some sentences, even paragraphs if it is called for, but don’t just get the thesaurus out and start trying to make yourself sound smart, it will not make a significant difference.
Like I said, writing is a constant learning process, one which I don’t think anyone will ever completely master; but in time, you will develop your own techniques and hopefully your own style that will make you more comfortable writing.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Brain Storm for Writing Guide
I think I will definitely use my own writing and its mistakes as examples as what not to do, incorporating the "They Say/I Say" as a demonstration on how to improve it. I will most likely also do a comparison on what the differences and similarities are between college and high school writings. I will try to give as much insight as possible concerning revision and the importance of sitting down, putting pen to paper and just writing a first draft, which will probably lead to a section on the importance of avoiding procrastination. I will give some suggestions on tone and style but most of that will probably be sited from things we have read in this class. All in all, this guide will probably be an eye opener for me as well, which is good, considering this most likely will not be my last writing class, or at least the last time I have to write a paper.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Essay #2- First Draft
Why do we need school? Why do we have to learn about so many different subjects in school? Will these subjects really be beneficial when we grow up to be whatever we are destined to be when we are older? Will it help us with our majors in college? But most of all, is that really the point of school? I can tell you right now, I do not remember what I learned in my 3rd grade history class, or my 5th grade science class, so what was really the point of it all? Was it all a complete waste of time for all of us, and maybe money for some of us who went to private schools? Was going to a school for a good portion of our lives just implemented so our parents could have some time to themselves for seven hours a day, five days a week? From the day we are born, education is in our future, no matter the quality or quantity, we are born with intentions set out for us to go to school and learn something, anything. An education that will hopefully have some sort of impact on us, even if it is just instilling good morals, nevertheless, does school automatically mean, educated?
In Gatto’s, “Against School,” he really opens up the floor for a questioning of something that I’m going to assume, most people don’t necessarily think to question. Gatto claims that the rigorous twelve years of school are not as important as we may think them to be, and I have mixed feelings about this.
On the one hand, I agree, is twelve years of the same old repetitive classes just at a different level too much? Have we already taken as much as we can get from those classes at a certain point? When does it become repetitive? When do we begin to memorize the necessary information to pass the class only using our short term memory, only to forget it all almost immediately after we have been tested on it? But on the other hand, I must say that I felt well prepared to move on to the next level of each grade. And as much as we were more concerned with when recess was or lunch, something must have stuck with us to a point that we feel it necessary to continue to send our children to the same educators that we were sent too.
Gatto uses history to back up his idea that “school” not education, may not be necessary, stating that if people like Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, to name a few, did not attend what we know as school, yet still managed to impact us as they did, then why aren’t we expect to do the same? What he so quickly overlooks is the fact that this is the twenty-first century, where the little lady might not have a man to go out and bring home the bacon, she might not even have a husband at all. Not to mention that school also means much needed jobs! Teachers, counselors, principals, janitors, the list goes on; all are surviving from the paycheck they receive from these jobs. I dare to say it, maybe we don’t need school for our core education, that’s what college is for, but we do need school to get us into the routine of having a structured life. It puts on a schedule, and requires us to learn time management and prioritize.
Which brings me also to Gatto’s touching on the idea of, “being more flexible on time, texts and tests…” I’m sorry, but what?! These are just the beginning steps to teaching children about deadlines, punctuality, and good study habits. Do you think your boss is going to be flexible on when you show up to work, hoping that eventuality you will pick up on the idea of what time is appropriate? I highly doubt it. All of these things may not be a contribution of our actual education we receive in school, but they certainly come with the territory of getting an assignment, working on it in a timely manner and handing it to the teacher on the due date.
Gatto also references Alexander Inglis’s, “Principles of Secondary Education,” which list what he believes to be “the six basic functions” of modern schooling. They say things such as, “Schools are to establish fixed habits of reaction to authority,” and, “its intention is to make children as alike as possible. People who conform are predictable…” Although I can agree with schools forcing us to react to authority, why is this considered a bad thing? Would they really rather we grow up never respecting the figures that are only established to keep us from hurting others and/or ourselves? These “fixed habits” are implemented in the earliest stages when we are taught to stand in a straight line, not talk during class, and raise our hands to ask questions, but again I ask, what part of this is a bad thing? A school where none of these behaviors are applied would be in complete chaos at most hours of the day. So I say give me rules and let me respond to them. If I’m considered predictable because know how to respond to right and wrong behaviors, then I’m predictable.
In Gatto’s, “Against School,” he really opens up the floor for a questioning of something that I’m going to assume, most people don’t necessarily think to question. Gatto claims that the rigorous twelve years of school are not as important as we may think them to be, and I have mixed feelings about this.
On the one hand, I agree, is twelve years of the same old repetitive classes just at a different level too much? Have we already taken as much as we can get from those classes at a certain point? When does it become repetitive? When do we begin to memorize the necessary information to pass the class only using our short term memory, only to forget it all almost immediately after we have been tested on it? But on the other hand, I must say that I felt well prepared to move on to the next level of each grade. And as much as we were more concerned with when recess was or lunch, something must have stuck with us to a point that we feel it necessary to continue to send our children to the same educators that we were sent too.
Gatto uses history to back up his idea that “school” not education, may not be necessary, stating that if people like Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, to name a few, did not attend what we know as school, yet still managed to impact us as they did, then why aren’t we expect to do the same? What he so quickly overlooks is the fact that this is the twenty-first century, where the little lady might not have a man to go out and bring home the bacon, she might not even have a husband at all. Not to mention that school also means much needed jobs! Teachers, counselors, principals, janitors, the list goes on; all are surviving from the paycheck they receive from these jobs. I dare to say it, maybe we don’t need school for our core education, that’s what college is for, but we do need school to get us into the routine of having a structured life. It puts on a schedule, and requires us to learn time management and prioritize.
Which brings me also to Gatto’s touching on the idea of, “being more flexible on time, texts and tests…” I’m sorry, but what?! These are just the beginning steps to teaching children about deadlines, punctuality, and good study habits. Do you think your boss is going to be flexible on when you show up to work, hoping that eventuality you will pick up on the idea of what time is appropriate? I highly doubt it. All of these things may not be a contribution of our actual education we receive in school, but they certainly come with the territory of getting an assignment, working on it in a timely manner and handing it to the teacher on the due date.
Gatto also references Alexander Inglis’s, “Principles of Secondary Education,” which list what he believes to be “the six basic functions” of modern schooling. They say things such as, “Schools are to establish fixed habits of reaction to authority,” and, “its intention is to make children as alike as possible. People who conform are predictable…” Although I can agree with schools forcing us to react to authority, why is this considered a bad thing? Would they really rather we grow up never respecting the figures that are only established to keep us from hurting others and/or ourselves? These “fixed habits” are implemented in the earliest stages when we are taught to stand in a straight line, not talk during class, and raise our hands to ask questions, but again I ask, what part of this is a bad thing? A school where none of these behaviors are applied would be in complete chaos at most hours of the day. So I say give me rules and let me respond to them. If I’m considered predictable because know how to respond to right and wrong behaviors, then I’m predictable.
Monday, October 12, 2009
3. My own experiences in high school affirm Gatto's argument that schools function to "habituate" students to authority.
My own experiences in high school affirm Gatto's argument that schools function to "habituate" students to authority. I attended a private high school, and although they did a fair job in teaching us to determine what was right and wrong for ourselves, they tried to do it in a way that we would come to the same conclusions as they did. Of course there were some teachers that stood out in really seeming to want us to make our own decisions, as I'm sure there are in every high school, but it was very clear that those teachers were not the schools favorites. Gatto nails it when he begins his argument by saying students were bored, cause we were bored! Every class was the same structure wise, it just discussed different subjects. And of course in high school all of the kids are more concerned with what we were going to do that night then what was actually going on in class, so rarely did anyone ever willingly participate in the discussions. We only voiced our opinions when we had too, and that goes with his theory that we are only being taught to obey authority in the classroom. With all of the materials available to us now days, i.e. cliff notes, pinkmonkey.com, the internet, we really didn't need to do any research of our own because it was all so accessible and easy to get too, who is going to think for themselves?
Difficulty paper- John Gatto
I can honestly say that I am pretty much on the same page as Gatto with his views on education. He really seems to cross the line in the best possible way and ask what our schools are really teaching children today, and I love it! He suggests that we are basically sending our kids off to school to create the same cookie cutter robots that have no imagination and find it hard to even think of questions to ask that aren’t spelled out for them already. For example, I have a friend that is finishing up her degree and planning on being a teacher. She currently works at an elementary school and oddly enough, not even a week ago she was complaining to me that the children, ages 3 to 6, literally do not have any imagination. She told me how she would read them a story and tell them to draw a picture of the story while she was reading it, and more then half of the class claimed that they wanted to see what she was going to draw and copy her. She then told them that they could not copy her and they needed to think of something on their own, suggesting that they close their eyes and draw what they saw in their head. They all said all they could see was black. So what are we sending our kids to school for at such a young age? I know I don’t want my child to feel like they need to be like everyone else, they should stand out, in a positive way obviously.
Thinking this over, I come to the conclusion, yes we need school, but I think we need to ask our teachers to expand their teaching techniques and try to be more creative. We need to send our children to school giving them the impression that it is not only for them to get an education, but for them to discover themselves using the education as a backbone. Overall, I really enjoyed reading John Gatto’s take on education and for the most part agreed with his theories on how we should approach it.
Thinking this over, I come to the conclusion, yes we need school, but I think we need to ask our teachers to expand their teaching techniques and try to be more creative. We need to send our children to school giving them the impression that it is not only for them to get an education, but for them to discover themselves using the education as a backbone. Overall, I really enjoyed reading John Gatto’s take on education and for the most part agreed with his theories on how we should approach it.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Essay #1 first draft
Even though I don’t revise, by professional writers standards, the correct way, I do have to pat myself of the back and say that for the most part, I recognize who I am writing for, and try to cater to my audience, making sure they will be able to follow my paper. For example, when I would have to write research papers or book reports middle and high school, they would usually go something like, a topic sentence, a quote and then support the quote, which seems very formal and structured, because it was. Now teachers in college classes want your papers to be less formal, but still have as much structure, but be more conversational.
Because I do not have a job, or any other activities that require me to write formal papers, the only writing and revising I do is for school. Nancy Sommers claimed that student writers only focus on the micro issues, only worrying about not being repetitive and revising only words, not restructuring sentences or paragraphs, or even the entire paper, and I must admit, at first I thought this was ridiculous. But now that I really think about it, it’s so true, that is exactly what I do when I revise. Although I’ll tell you it’s definitely not the most productive and resourceful way to write, I do think it’s unfair to expect student writers to do as much revising as professional writers do.
I have to admit, I am not the biggest fan of English and writing classes. I guess it’s because they are not my strongest gifts. I would much rather solve a lengthy math problem or really anything else then sit down and write a paper, let alone go back after I have written it and revise it. But if I were to pick the hardest part of writing a paper, it would definitely be getting me to actually start, just put some ideas down, and write something! I’m going to have to say that just about all of my English teachers have taught me to revise the same text book way; get a first draft down, let it sit, come back and read it over, changing what either doesn’t flow, or restructure some sentences and/or paragraphs, even delete some things all together and re-write them. What’s sad, is that no matter how many teachers have told me this, and I’m sure this is true for some other students as well, it still takes a lot for me to come back and revise! To think of completely deleting a paragraph or even just a sentence that took so much effort for me to even write in the first place almost seems ludicrous!
Because I do not have a job, or any other activities that require me to write formal papers, the only writing and revising I do is for school. Nancy Sommers claimed that student writers only focus on the micro issues, only worrying about not being repetitive and revising only words, not restructuring sentences or paragraphs, or even the entire paper, and I must admit, at first I thought this was ridiculous. But now that I really think about it, it’s so true, that is exactly what I do when I revise. Although I’ll tell you it’s definitely not the most productive and resourceful way to write, I do think it’s unfair to expect student writers to do as much revising as professional writers do.
I have to admit, I am not the biggest fan of English and writing classes. I guess it’s because they are not my strongest gifts. I would much rather solve a lengthy math problem or really anything else then sit down and write a paper, let alone go back after I have written it and revise it. But if I were to pick the hardest part of writing a paper, it would definitely be getting me to actually start, just put some ideas down, and write something! I’m going to have to say that just about all of my English teachers have taught me to revise the same text book way; get a first draft down, let it sit, come back and read it over, changing what either doesn’t flow, or restructure some sentences and/or paragraphs, even delete some things all together and re-write them. What’s sad, is that no matter how many teachers have told me this, and I’m sure this is true for some other students as well, it still takes a lot for me to come back and revise! To think of completely deleting a paragraph or even just a sentence that took so much effort for me to even write in the first place almost seems ludicrous!
Sunday, September 13, 2009
difficulty paper #1
In Nancy Sommers excerpt, “Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Writers,” she begins by stating, “Most of the students I studied did not use the terms revision or rewriting. In fact, they did not seem comfortable using the word revise…” Where in the world did she interview these students?! An elementary school? It seems that there was some sort of miscommunication between her and whoever she was interviewing as to what she was actually asking them about. She continues to say that students more commonly use the phrases, “Scratch out and do over again, reviewing, redoing, marking out,” and my personal favorite, “Slashing and Throwing Out.” I’ll give her reviewing and redoing, but the other three? It sounds like she threw those in there herself when she realized we are not all that inexperienced in writing. Sommers implies that us as student writers have not been properly taught how to revise a paper, and if this is actually what she is implying, I think all of our high school English teachers should take serious offense to this considering they spent most of our four years there explaining the importance of just that, revision! I find it hard to believe that Sommers research is at all accurate, especially because she does not once explain the criteria she used when interviewing student writers.
Sommers also continues on in her discussion to imply that we as students only understand the importance of a word by word revision process. Abusing the thesaurus, assuming we are only using it to make sure we are not being to repetitive in a word by word manner as opposed to a conceptual manner. Once again, if she is saying she did this study on college student, can we please have some credit? We were smart enough to get in, does that not count for anything? Again, I revisit the question of where did she interview these students? Were they English or journalism majors? Or did she interview math, engineer and biology majors? Or was it a mix of all majors?
On the other hand, when Sommers begins her discussion of the experienced writer, it is written with almost an entirely different connotation. She gives examples of their description of the revision process saying they use the more appropriate terms such as “revising” and “rewriting,” also explaining that the experienced writer is more aware of their audience. I find it difficult to assume that the student writer is not aware of their audience, when this is one of the first things we are taught of when learning to write well. She also states that the experienced writer’s work does not have a time limit; they can always be considered a work in progress. Although this may be somewhat true, as a college student, I can pretty much be sure that I’m speaking for most of us when I say we have set deadlines! And most of the time we use the allotted time to write a paper as thoroughly as possible.
Overall, I think this excerpt from Nancy Sommers needs some clearing up, and she leaves a lot of questions unanswered. She seems to be very biased when it comes to comparing the student writer and the experienced writer, and does not clarify where her sources are actually coming from.
Sommers also continues on in her discussion to imply that we as students only understand the importance of a word by word revision process. Abusing the thesaurus, assuming we are only using it to make sure we are not being to repetitive in a word by word manner as opposed to a conceptual manner. Once again, if she is saying she did this study on college student, can we please have some credit? We were smart enough to get in, does that not count for anything? Again, I revisit the question of where did she interview these students? Were they English or journalism majors? Or did she interview math, engineer and biology majors? Or was it a mix of all majors?
On the other hand, when Sommers begins her discussion of the experienced writer, it is written with almost an entirely different connotation. She gives examples of their description of the revision process saying they use the more appropriate terms such as “revising” and “rewriting,” also explaining that the experienced writer is more aware of their audience. I find it difficult to assume that the student writer is not aware of their audience, when this is one of the first things we are taught of when learning to write well. She also states that the experienced writer’s work does not have a time limit; they can always be considered a work in progress. Although this may be somewhat true, as a college student, I can pretty much be sure that I’m speaking for most of us when I say we have set deadlines! And most of the time we use the allotted time to write a paper as thoroughly as possible.
Overall, I think this excerpt from Nancy Sommers needs some clearing up, and she leaves a lot of questions unanswered. She seems to be very biased when it comes to comparing the student writer and the experienced writer, and does not clarify where her sources are actually coming from.
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