Traditional Writing Instruction

Is writing instruction allowing students to explore their abilities, enjoy possibilities, and develop their own style? Is writing instruction too simple for the complex subject of composition?

Writing is definitely a complicated subject because it is largely a personal experience. We would never expect or desire to see two essays that are exactly the same, so why is there a standard procedure taught for writing? In Gordon Rohman and Albert Wlecke’s “Pre-Writing: The Construction and Application of Models for Concept Formation in Writing,” the short comings of the traditional writing process are explored. They claim that much of writing instruction fails because current writing instruction does not allow the students to be accountable for their own writing. “His (the student’s) involvement in his own writing and in the writing class is phony. He is not essentially engaged as a human being in what he is doing because the only motivation he is made aware or is extrinsic: he must write correctly and effectively because the teacher and society commands him to.” (217-218). The student is rarely allowed to write for herself or create her own writing identity, so the power of her writing style is lost to her, and she may never realize the true rewards of writing.

The student begins to realize that the only reward for writing is a grade. He or she begins to work merely for completion and not for development. Rohman and Wlecke touch on this matter as well. When seeking a solution to the problem with writing instruction, one of their projects seemed to have failed at first. They reported, “They (the students) quickly converted our exercise for concept-transference into games to ‘solve’ assignments rather than using them as roads to real discovery of themselves and their subjects,” (219). As one of the responses to Dr. Souder’s blog indicated, students should complete assignments while planning for the future and not just for the particular assignment. The students seem to be learning how to complete assignments but not how to learn on their own, so they never realize their abilities, their identities or their thoughts on their subject.

It is easily forgotten that because writing is personal there will be varieties in process and styles. What works for one person may not work for another. In “The Frequency and Placement of Topic Sentences in Expository Prose,” Richard Braddock explores the placement of topic sentences in twenty-five expository articles. Braddock is not arguing where the topic sentence should be placed but if it should be taught that the topic sentence is always the first sentence in a paragraph. In the twenty-five articles Braddock used for collecting data, he found that many topic sentences were placed in alternative areas of the paragraph or implied. Braddock then determines that it is the duty of members of reading and writing instruction to demonstrate the ability of the topic sentence to reside in other areas of the paragraph than at the beginning. “Certainly teachers of reading, devisers of reading tests, and authors of reading textbooks should assist students in identifying the kinds of delayed-completion and implicit topic statements which out number simple topic sentences in expository paragraphs,” (Braddock 282). Not show reveling this possibility to students limits their choices in writing structure and style. Still, it is commonly expected, at least in writing instruction, for the topic sentence to come first. It may even be a preference, Braddock even suggests that the topic sentence occurring at the beginning of a paragraph makes sense: “In my opinion, often the writing in the 25 essays would have been clearer and more comfortable to read if paragraphs had presented more explicit topic sentences,” (282).

Like Braddock states, this is his opinion and the opinion of many others. Since this is an opinion, we should make allowance that some topic statements will not occur at the beginning of a paragraph or be implied. Should we allow students to write freely using what style makes sense to them and works for them, or should we continue to push the students into the commonly accepted model, set down for them because they are more comfortable for us? Would it be possible for a student to take part in his or her own writing if he or she is directed to use a commonly accepted process or style rather than his or her?