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I have mentioned this in class before. When I was a sophomore in high school I had a teacher who actually taught me how to write an essay. Before that I do not really remember how I learned to write. Apparently whatever I was doing was working because my teachers seemed to enjoy my essays, but when I got into my sophomore class my teacher had to spend quite a bit of time teaching us how to write an essay that analyzed a text. He showed us good and bad examples and walked us through various texts showing us how to do a new critical reading. Of course, I did not know it was a new critical reading at the time.
After that I don't really know how I advanced in my writing. It seems like it came naturally, but I was obviously copying or learning from something. I took the principles I learned from that teacher and that pretty much got me through the rest of high school. All of my other teachers never had any problem with my writing. But when I entered college there had to be something that helped me augment my writing. Back in high school it was 2-3 page papers and now it's 20 page papers so I am not really sure when and where I learned to add to what I already learned. Maybe it was all those literary theory essays I was forced to write. In reality I am still learning to write because each professor is slightly different and each professor has different expectations. So every semester I have to learn how to make my writing fit each professor's expectations.
Since I do not really remember how I learned to write in college I do find it difficult to talk about writing sometimes. Students come to me with problems in their papers and occasionally I don't know how to say what I want to say to make their paper better. It seems like these students have never really been taught to write either so we are working from a foundation that does not really exist. I try to use writing terms like content, clarity, and organization, and they want to call it flow. I try to explain what the terms mean, but they do not always understand why they should use the terms I suggest. Tutoring has really helped me develop a language about writing. I feel much more comfortable talking about writing now then I did last semester. At the same time it can be difficult to teach a concept you do not really remember learning. At least this is an area where I can join others in confusion about how to learn to write. This topic seems to be controversial because learning how to write is something people seem to think they always skip over.
After that I don't really know how I advanced in my writing. It seems like it came naturally, but I was obviously copying or learning from something. I took the principles I learned from that teacher and that pretty much got me through the rest of high school. All of my other teachers never had any problem with my writing. But when I entered college there had to be something that helped me augment my writing. Back in high school it was 2-3 page papers and now it's 20 page papers so I am not really sure when and where I learned to add to what I already learned. Maybe it was all those literary theory essays I was forced to write. In reality I am still learning to write because each professor is slightly different and each professor has different expectations. So every semester I have to learn how to make my writing fit each professor's expectations.
Since I do not really remember how I learned to write in college I do find it difficult to talk about writing sometimes. Students come to me with problems in their papers and occasionally I don't know how to say what I want to say to make their paper better. It seems like these students have never really been taught to write either so we are working from a foundation that does not really exist. I try to use writing terms like content, clarity, and organization, and they want to call it flow. I try to explain what the terms mean, but they do not always understand why they should use the terms I suggest. Tutoring has really helped me develop a language about writing. I feel much more comfortable talking about writing now then I did last semester. At the same time it can be difficult to teach a concept you do not really remember learning. At least this is an area where I can join others in confusion about how to learn to write. This topic seems to be controversial because learning how to write is something people seem to think they always skip over.
posted by Tamar at 1:53 PM
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