Feeling overwhelmed? Try not to share the "wealth."

“Individual opportunity in the United States depends critically on the ability to present one’s thoughts coherently, cogently and persuasively on paper” (Hesse) 

Or as I’ve warned some of my more reluctant (a politically correct way to say “lazy”) students: learn how to write, or otherwise you could easily spend your life saying... 

                 “You want fries with that?” 

But clearly, we shoot ourselves in the educational foot if when we get students to write, we don’t do something productive and beneficial with that effort. In other words, the eternal question arose in this week’s readings – “what’s the best way to grade a student’s writing?”

Frankly, I’m amazed at how much formal and informal education I’ve received over the years about writing, and so much of it should have prepared me how to teach writing, but so little of it really addressed how to respond in BOTH a practical (so we’re not burning ourselves out as educators) and beneficial way to students’ efforts.

Therefore, you would have thought I’d greet Lynn’s writings with open arms this week. I had high hopes when I started the reading, and after a few exhausting pages on hand gestures while speaking, I seemed to see the light when he started on a very practical, straight forward approach to demystifying a syllabus, the first day of class, etc. But after awhile, I honestly felt like I wasn’t reading anything I hadn’t heard/read before. It was,  admittedly very well organized and a down to earth overview, I guess just not the magic bullet I was hoping for.

But that seemed to be my general reaction to all of this week’s articles. Hesse’s starts off with this grand question of “Who owns writing?’ and I thought it was going to be some great debate on appropriating ideas, and work that was considered now in the public domain and free for multiple interpretations, etc. and it just became "– who has the right to have a voice in how we teach writing?" Not something I felt a burning desire to know.

Haswell’s also offered predictable advice, but perhaps his went over better with me because I’ve just recently finished up a program with the University of Penn that strongly advocates selecting “focus correction” areas for students to concentrate on when trying to improve their writing. Or as Haswell summarizes, “Know your student: limit your responses...to no more than two things they can do.”

In other words, don’t overwhelm them. For me, personally, life has been extremely overwhelming lately. So perhaps Haswell caught me on a “good” day, and in my heart I agreed with him. Certainly, the last thing I want to do to my students, to my reluctant writers, is to overwhelm them, to scare them away from what they could potentially learn and accomplish with their life by discouraging them so much that they then truly think the only thing they are capable of saying is “You want fries with that?”