Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Posting
I'm having a lot of trouble posting comments. I'm being somewhat superstitious here, hoping that a successful post in my own blog will let me successfully post elsewhere.
Friday, August 25, 2006
Comp Tales: You're a writing teacher
The moral is: Always remember that you're a writing teacher.
You take a story like #28. The student uses cliches to substitute for simply saying things in her own words. Her instructor marks every one he sees, to point out to her how much of her writing is being taken over by token expresssions. But his comments seem to have no effect--if anything, the problem gets worse. So he actually talks to her about it, only to find out that she never realized that he marked the cliches because he wanted her to use less of them. Never having been taught why to avoid cliches, the student had little reason to think she was doing something wrong--instead interpreting that he was enjoying the expressions.
That's the way I would tell the story, of course. The teacher who submitted it made it snappier, more entertaining. When Leon Coburn told it, it had a punchline.
You see, I find this story striking because it's from a writing teacher. As a writing teacher, it's his job to help the student communicate her ideas with words on paper. And the teacher himself totally failed to communicate his own ideas. The story, told in an entertaining way, doesn't explore this irony. As a writing teacher, it's Coburn's job to help his students understand why certain kinds of communication are more effective than others. I retell the story in a way that emphasizes that--using phrases like "actually talks to her", implying the communication is unusual, and "never having been taught", to point out that he's failed in his duty.
Nobody's perfect. But what strikes me most about this story is that the writing teacher doesn't express his ideas well on paper--he can't spare an extra few words to make a complete sentence which tells the student to reduce her use of cliches. But what's worse is why he can do that. He can assume that his students already know how to write. That all he needs to do is remind them of when they're breaking the rules. So he doesn't actually need to teach.
So that's what I get from this book. You're a writing teacher, so teach the students how to write.
You take a story like #28. The student uses cliches to substitute for simply saying things in her own words. Her instructor marks every one he sees, to point out to her how much of her writing is being taken over by token expresssions. But his comments seem to have no effect--if anything, the problem gets worse. So he actually talks to her about it, only to find out that she never realized that he marked the cliches because he wanted her to use less of them. Never having been taught why to avoid cliches, the student had little reason to think she was doing something wrong--instead interpreting that he was enjoying the expressions.
That's the way I would tell the story, of course. The teacher who submitted it made it snappier, more entertaining. When Leon Coburn told it, it had a punchline.
You see, I find this story striking because it's from a writing teacher. As a writing teacher, it's his job to help the student communicate her ideas with words on paper. And the teacher himself totally failed to communicate his own ideas. The story, told in an entertaining way, doesn't explore this irony. As a writing teacher, it's Coburn's job to help his students understand why certain kinds of communication are more effective than others. I retell the story in a way that emphasizes that--using phrases like "actually talks to her", implying the communication is unusual, and "never having been taught", to point out that he's failed in his duty.
Nobody's perfect. But what strikes me most about this story is that the writing teacher doesn't express his ideas well on paper--he can't spare an extra few words to make a complete sentence which tells the student to reduce her use of cliches. But what's worse is why he can do that. He can assume that his students already know how to write. That all he needs to do is remind them of when they're breaking the rules. So he doesn't actually need to teach.
So that's what I get from this book. You're a writing teacher, so teach the students how to write.
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
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