Writing Assignment, Mon, Aug, 29

Question 1: What are the central points in these pieces?

Teachers comments and feedback on students’ writing give affect the students’ attitude and motivation on their future writing. If the comments are specific and thoughtful, the students will be encouraged and show positive attitude to revise their writing. But, if it is overcommenting or not specific comments to guide them how to fix, they will be overwhelmed. Also, rigid rules of writing, grammar errors and inflexible plans are restraining students’ production in writing. Students who struggle with writing a paper in college confront cognitive objects that prevent them from producing their writing. Those rules vary depending the student, like “grab your audience in the first paragraph,” “grammatical error free,” “DNA structured outline,” and “inflexible problem solution.” Non-blockers who do not have the writer’s blocks hold flexible attitude/approaches toward their writing. They tend not to restrict the composition process by sticking with one textbook wise approach or building a concrete outline before start writing. 

Question 2: How are these points relevant to teaching?

In teaching context, teachers need to ensure not to address writing saying “you have to stick with one approach, build a concrete and detailed outline.” Although it is, I think, nothing bad that teachers introduce there are different kinds of approach on writing, like build an outline first, think about your audience or attention to grammatical errors, but do not push the students to stick with one approach. As mentioned in Teaching Composition, the rules and plans are mutable and can be modified by providing feedback on their writing or suggesting flexible alternatives. To give flexible ideas on writing to students, I think, teachers may give an experience to have them read other types of readings or classmates’ writings. Also, when teacher write their comments on students’ paper, an encouraging tone must be applied to the comments and specific advice.

Here is the citation from Responding to Student Writers I want to keep in mind.

Our role as teachers is engage with students by treating them as apprentices, offering honest critique paired with instruction; and for students, it is to be open to the teacher’s comments, reading and hearing these responses not as personal attacks or as isolated moments but as instructive and portable lessons to take with them to the next draft or assignment. (Summors)