Blog Prompt: Why do we teach First Year Writing? What should we be teaching in this course? Why?
We teach first year writing to give everyone the chance to write and write well regardless of their profession/occupation/interests. I believe that the fundamentals, like basic grammar, sentence structure, idea forming, research, are absolutely necessary to any first year writing program. I guess a sub-objective of this would be helping the students feel comfortable writing with these points in mind regardless of their aptitude. Also, being able to discern key points in a text are imperative to any profession and life in general. I believe a well read and well written individual is worth more, therefore I am all for writing objectives in every class, even in math and science. The basic need for humans is to be able to communicate and in order to communicate, we need to understand what is being said, written or explained.
Amie Sheffer said,
September 8, 2009 at 3:14 pm
I like your sub-objective on helping students feel comfortable with the writing objectives, regardless of their apptitude. When I was grading the Brief Assignment 1′s, so many students expressed that they want to be more confident writers. I think comfortability and confidence are big elements necessary to produce a well written paper.
kkhammassi said,
September 8, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Dear Olivia,
You are pragmatic in your thinking. I noticed you have avoided all terms of arts and just went straight to the point. I wish students are like that, don’t you wish so?
A point you raised and still wish students be aware of is that they have to write for other classes. I think teachers also should work on the psychology of the students and, apart from the actual teaching of writing, they should also bring students’ awareness to the value of writing in college prosperity.
Cheers,
Khouloud
clc101 said,
September 8, 2009 at 11:01 pm
Olivia,
I like what you said about communication and writing. Writing is a lasting form of communication, and we all know how important it is to communicate with others effectively and to be able to communicate our own ideas. I also agree that we need to instill confidence in our students so that they feel capable and comfortable to use these basic writing and reading tactics we’re teaching and apply them in the future. I agree that other courses outside of the humanities should apply writing objectives. The key objectives in math, however, are not to be able to write but to be able to solve mathematical equations. Therefore, it gets a little tricky to try and incorporate writing into these types of “hard” sciences.
croesfaen said,
September 9, 2009 at 9:26 pm
I agree that students, whatever their experience as writers, should be directed in finding their own comfortability in first year writing. Freshman composition usually isn’t something students take to easily, so instructors should help them find their comfort level while teaching the fundamentals of college writing.