Wednesday, May 14, 2008
With all the discussion on making writing centers for established, dedicated writers-- or even going as far as North to suggest that it be a 4-year sub-category of English majors-- I wonder, where do the other students get left? It seems like the pendulum is swinging from "grammar crisis line" to an elitist mentality that only English majors can write, should write, and are capable of improving their writing. This is why people don't like to write to begin with: writing is portrayed as something that only a specific group is "good" at, and that makes it terrifying to even try. Furthermore, many majors do not leave time to make a commitment to 4 years of extra coursework, plus university core. If a student had other majors or minors, a "4-year degree" would be impossible if a student wanted to include any type of training in writing.
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I wonder about this as well, but I think that North is simply recommending that we stop compelling students to enroll in a sequence of composition courses. Instead he seems to be advocating that the English department focus its resources on the students who choose to pursue coursework in this discipline. Students in other disciplines would be welcome to enroll in composition courses in the same way that a student in our discipline is welcome to enroll in courses in any other discipline—but we would cease to function as if we are a service department to the entire university. North seems to believe that it is only slightly more unreasonable for someone to believe that a student can become a mature writer in fifty minutes than to believe that 2000 students can be become mature writers in two sixteen week semesters.
While I admire his writing style and willingness to reconsider (and even critique) his own previous assertions, I’m not sure North paints any less of an idealistic scenario in the conclusion of his 1994 essay than he hoped for in 1984. It is a different paradigm, to be sure, but the four “wants” assume that only students motivated to write are worthy of writing instruction and that they will volunteer willingly for the experience. My experience – both as a writer and an instructor – is that those students who enjoy writing might feel like they already have the skills and experience they need or that they do not have time for any classes they don’t “have” to take as undergrads. And those who don’t like writing or have “never been any good at it” still will probably need those skills as they move through the academy. I do, however, understand and agree with his point about the “literacy inoculation program” (87) and the resulting instructors who are “the underpaid, the overworked, the undertrained” (88). Surely, there has to be a compromise – a way to determine which majors (or students) need to have comp requirements and for which such classes are recommended but not compulsory. Or am I the idealist?
I took North as answering our question: who should the writing center (as it exists now)be for? He is saying that writing centers created in English departments should be for students in the English department. If students in say the History department wanted to create their own writing center as a source of classes, then that would be great too. Maybe I am bringing my own ideas of how things could work to North's idea, but I do think he is attempting to suggest ways of limiting students to increase the good work that the writing center can do.
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