Writing Assignment 1, Wed, Aug, 24

The readings from Johnson, TC taught me what I, as an English composition teacher, have to pay attention when I read students' writing, and how to guide them to the basics of academic discourse. Reading the students' essays and the analysis in the chapter 1 reminded me that many students in a freshman composition course wrote just their experience in their essay, but they did not expand them to something beyond the experience. Better essays have something distinguished from ordinary essays, not just stating their experience, but also unique ideas that came up from students’ experience or conventional points of view. It cannot necessarily be said that an essay which has a commonplace is bad, as long as the essay includes an analysis or argument against the commonplace. I want to keep in my mind that a basic or lower-level writer is not necessarily a writer who makes sentence-level errors frequently. The more difficult vocabulary a writer tries to apply in writing, the more syntactic difficulties appears to the writer, which the writer may not manage by oneself.

I was very glad to know Elbow’s theory, “ignoring audience can lead to worse drafts but better revisions.” This will help students find their ideas and synthesize them as a brain storming when they start their writing. I found it very interesting the interaction between private writing and social writing. Through working on a private writing, the writer can write reflectively for themselves without interaction with others, but the process also motivates and prepare the writer to tell own ideas and thoughts to others.

I was aware that it is usually difficult to shift to academic writing to high school writing, and motivate students to produce good writing with materials. Through Sommer’s reading, bringing personal connection to writing course helps students start writing and motivates them to keep their interests in writing, like Jeremy’s case.