Responding to students writing Q&R

Question: Is teacher’s commentary really helpful?
Sommers talks about how teachers commentary on student writing can be effective in improving their writing. Comments are “a guide to composing” which leads to the idea that comments can be helpful to students when they are editing their essays. It tell students exactly what needs to be modified. Sometimes though, teachers comments can be a little to broad and leave students in question of what they need to fix in their essays. Sometimes teachers comments are worded in way that makes it difficult for students to understand what they need to fix leaving them instead in a worse position rather than a better position when it comes to writing. Teachers make mistakes as well and sometimes their comments don’t even make sense but the students feel like the teacher is always right so they try to fix what might not even need fixing. Commenting is a huge catastrophic dilemma that students face when it comes to trying to improve their writing.
In my opinion, students should choose which comments they want to take to heart and actually try to fix and which comments are completely unorthodox and should just be trashed and forgotten. Students, by the time they’ve reached college, should have a good understanding of what good writing is and therefore should be able to tell the good helpful comments from the bad pointless comments. Some of the teacher’s commentary can be really helpful. For example, your comments Shoney are really helpful on our drafts. Well to me they are. You ask me questions about my paper I would never even think to ask myself. You help me understand exactly where my essay needs fixing and what I need to fix. On the other hand, you also say that you don’t have time to comment on every single thing you want because of lack of time. I know you hit the biggest most problematic parts of my essay but it still doesn’t cover everything. Obviously I think your commentary is very important and helpful but in a way I think its still the student’s responsibility to make sure they proof read and make their own editing. Students shouldn’t just rely on the teacher to do the editing for them through their comments.

Getting it ‘write:’ Essay styles vary by country, creating difficulties for international students sq&r

Summary: This essay is about how international students have trouble adopting to the writing styles in the United States. This article involves the differences in the ways nations around the world write essays differently. This article focuses on how these differences in writing styles of international students affect the student education at Tufts University. In the United states we focus primarily on things like the thesis sentence, introductions, and conclusions. Every essay has to follow a certain format. Its all very structured and traditional. “The American way of Writing” Its starts at a young age and then it just evolves. Its called the “five-paragraph essay” which we all know consists of an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. To international students this sometimes comes off as something completely new to them. They have no background as to how to write Americanized essay and this can sometimes end up being an issue especially in college. Professors sometimes don’t understand this and thus international students are placed at a disadvantage in comparison to someone who is native to the United States.
Question: Is a language barrier important when it comes to writing? Do students born in the United States have the advantages of being better writers than someone from another country?
Response: My essay involves different styles of writing and how some students may be good at writing in a certain style such as poetry or fictional writing etc. I chose this article because i thought it could broaden my question and now I can even include language barrier as a disadvantage when it comes to writing styles. I could say that students from different countries have different writing styles and incorporate that into my writing draft. I learned a lot about how writing styles differ between nations. I always thought writing was a global thing. I always thought that writing was the same in America and it was in China but through this article I have learned otherwise. "The Chinese have something called the ‘Eight-Legged Essay,'" Lowe said. "It's this extremely ancient, complex form in which you as a writer are supposed to explain to the reader why you chose this topic, why it's interesting and what past scholars have said about the topic, etc. To an American reader, it may seem like ‘Where's your point?' But it's just another very different style of writing." I thought that was interesting because it shows how us Americans think as writers. We’ve all been taught the same basic things and people in China have apparently been taught a different form of writing. It does make it wrong. Its just different. I definitely want to add styles of other countries to my draft two and expand my question to involve not the United States but the world as a whole.

Lindemann Freshman Comp SQ&R

Summary:
Literature should not be what is most discussed in a first year composition course. If the course is entirely based on literature then there isn’t enough writing involved in the course because the majority of the time the professor is lecturing. Freshman English should serve the purpose of showing students what no high school course was able to do; to master the genres, styles, audiences, and purposes of college writing. In this course, focusing on critical writing ( writing essays on literature) limit’s the students to one form of writing which isn’t good because students need to be able to familiarize with other perspective writing styles. Studying literature doesn’t necessarily teach style. Response criticism is a good way to help students learn how to write. Literature doesn’t help graduate students learn how to write. The truth about professors is that they also need to be undated with new teaching techniques like work shopping and holistic grading methods.
Question:
Why should literature not be taught in freshman composition? Do I agree it shouldn’t be taught?
Response:
I believe that this is a very unimportant subject that has absolutely no right being taught in freshman composition. Composition to me is the art of learning how to write. Studying literature doesn’t play a role in doing so because a student needs to practice writing to learn how to write well. I believe that is the only way to progress with writing. I just don’t think literature plays a significant role in the learning how to write world. Lindemann has some very good arguments against teaching literature in freshman composition and strongly agree with her. Literature is important but I believe that to be able to greatly appreciate literature one must be able to write literature. I guess what I mean is that in order to be able to understand literature I have to become a really good writer first. Last year I took AP Literature. In the course all we did was read novels and write timed essays on them. I know my writing didn’t improve with all those timed writing. If anything all they did was make me paranoid. The year before last I look AP Language and Composition where I learned the “proper way” to write essays according to my English teacher. Well after reading this article and being a part of this 1301 English course I have learned there is not proper way. I have learned that literature isn’t everything and it most definitely isn’t necessary in an introductory English course.

my SQ&R on Joel_Chapa

Summary:
His problem with writing is that if he isn’t interested in what he has to write about then he has trouble writing about it. He has to be able to relate to the topic. He used an example by saying that when it came to TAKS in high school he hoped he liked the essay topic and that he could relate to it so that he would be able to write about it. He then states another example in which he froze and wasn’t able to write because he didn’t like “Great Expectations”, the topic. He was able to find a solution to his problem which was to brainstorm and take notes on what he would read. These notes would later come in handy when it came to essay writing time. The notes would make writing easier and help him relate to the essay topic. In the end, he realized that sometimes we just have to deal with topics we don’t like and learn to write about them no matter what.
Question:
Does being interested in what you write play a sufficient role in becoming a more proficient writer?
Response:
I think the author made a good point when he stated that being a “well rounded person” helps achieve good writing. Being able to write about anything in the world isn’t the easiest thing to do. I know for me when it comes to reading books I’m very picky. I love to read but only on matters that interest me such as romance and mystery. I have my favorite author Jodi Picoult and I tend to stay within her little circle of novels. Sometimes I’ll read other books but usually they don’t interest me. The way I’m picky with reading I’m also picky with writing. Why would I want to write about something I’m not interested in? It just seems like a waste of time but sometimes those are the topics that turn us into better writers. A good writer can make anything sound interesting. A good writer could write an article on cottage cheese and immediately make me interested in cottage cheese. Topics shouldn’t matter as much as the quality of the writing. I know throughout the rest of my life I am going to come across a lot of essay topics that I don’t want to write about but I’m going to write about them anyway in hope of someday becoming a writer as good as Shakespeare. :D

Neubert&McNelis SQR #5

Summary:
The Article begins with and example of a student evaluation to an essay. It shows that peers are not very comfortable with critiquing other peers work. They would rather be general about it rather than specifically pointing out errors and revisions. For that reason a method was brought forward called "PQP" or "Praise-Question-Polish." Basically, what this means is you say what you like about the essay followed by something you dont understand followed by something that could help improve the essay. Students responses were usually said to be vague, general but useful or specific. The article gives explains why some of them are good responses and why some of them are not helpful at all. After students were taught the method of PQP they were able to give more specific response.
Question:
Why is the PQP method more effective rather than just making a response without it. (When critiquing essays)
Response:
The PQP method is very effective because it gives a good balance of constructive criticism and praise when it comes to responding to other peoples essays. I think peer to peer learning is a very good way to enhance our revising capabilities. Without the PQP method I think I would just be one of those students who gives general responses. I would probably say something along the lines of "I liked your essay. It was good. I would fix the last paragraph." but now after reading the ariticle my response will be more specific and I will try to pin point every detail of what needs to be altered in my peers essays. I will definately use the PQP method. Its effective because it tells you the good traits of your essay, the things you need to work on, and the things that are unclear and need more explanation. I feel like the PQP method is full proof for critiquing essays. Its going to be very helpful when we use it to revise our second draft's.

Murray SQ&R #4

Summary: The article reflects on the idea that writers have to write before writing. In the article Murray describes four forces which help a writer move forward when they are trying to complete their first draft. The first force is resistance to writing. It can also be referred to the “Law of Delay”. Murray intention for this article is when someone gets an idea about writing they feel themselves stray away from it. Its almost like procrastination is inevitable when it comes to writing. The second force is the forces for writing. This involves what the writer feels. It is the perception of the writer. It is how much the writer knows about the subject he/she is talking about. The writer now puts the audience into consideration. The third force is Rehearsal for writing. The point that Murray is trying to get across through this force is that before a person begins to write they should discuss what they are going to jot down. A person should draw pictures the way little kids do before they write. The last force is “The signals which say write”, which pertains to the moment when the time has come to write. When the signals are there like “smelling a poem” or “catching sight of rabbit”, then you know its time to write. Lastly, a teacher should give his/her students enough time to brainstorm; to get their thoughts straight. The prewriting process is very important and should be taken into careful consideration when assigning a deadline for a paper. The student needs to have time for rehearsal; they need to have time to write before writing.
Question: What is the purpose of resistance to writing?
Response: Before reading this article I always thought it was a bad thing to keep putting off my writing assignments but now I see the other side of the spectrum. I think it’s a great philosophy to be able to say that putting off your writing is a good thing. It gives you more time to think and plan what you are going to write about. In high school, my teachers have always been big on timed writing. Timed writing essays usually go one of two ways. A, I spend all my time brainstorming and then I have very little time to write or B, I start writing right away and my thoughts come out all jumbled on paper because I have no time to think about what I was going to write. No matter which method I choose that doesn’t really show a person’s true writing ability. I believe what Murray believes. He says writing is waiting. Waiting for ideas to pop into your head. Waiting for a thought to come out of no where and hit you on the head. I shall wait…

Three views of english 1301 SQ&R #3

Summary: The first view of English is writing as product. Product is depending on text to learn how to write. In other words, being a good reader will help give students ideas about what to write and therefore they will be transformed into sufficient writers.The product view is based on writing essays. It is based on traditional teaching methods and on the teacher-as-critic form of grading such as,the teachers search for misspelled words or grammatical errors, etc. The second view is writing as process. This view often called "Process-centered" or "expressivist-teaching" relies on having students write about the things that interest them. This view is more about free writing. The teacher's job in this view is to help the students build their confidence. Some of the things that students write for process are journal entries, autobiographical material, personal reaction assignments etc. Students also comment on other classmates writing drafts and call it a "work-in-process." The third view is writing as system. In the view of system writers look at their world and turn their own experiences into knowledge. Students in this view collaborate with one another. This view focuses on the ecological model. Students must learn that good writing comes from being able to look at a task, a language, a rhetoric, and an audience. The article end with finding the "common ground" between all three views. This is teaching because no matter what the method, students are all still trying to learn how to become better readers and writers.
Question: Which of the three views can I relate to the most? Which do I like best and why?
Response: Although all three views seem helpful and effective, I think the one I can most relate to could be writing as process. In this view students are allowed to have an open opinion. Students are given the opportunity to express themselves. I, myself, am a journal keeper. I love writing my journal. This form of writing is just easier for me because I'm no writing for a purpose or even for a grade. I'm simply writing for the fun of it. Its more like free writing. There really isn't any guidelines or rules. There is no right or wrong. This method is very effective in the sense that it helps students develop their own opinions about what they want to say or how thy feel about a certain topic. I think even you, Mr. Shoney, have used this method in our English 1301 class. Whenever you tell us to take out something to write with and write on. When you tell us to write about what we got out of the article. You aren't exactly telling us what to write; its our opinion. Its just writing for the sole purpose of us being able to tell you what we think. (kind of like this response about what I think) :)

Haas and Flowers SQ&R #2

Summary:
This article is about reading; also, being able to know how to read and comprehend what you are reading. This article emphasizes the importance of reader’s understanding. Thus, knowing how to paraphrase, analyze, summarize and criticize. The point of this is to be able to build multi-faceted representations of the text. The article goes on to give instances of the kind of responses people give when reading a text. Kara (inexperienced freshman) and Seth (experienced graduate) are the examples and they both found the paragraphs they read to be rather confusing. Preceding, the article then moves on to focus on strategies for constructive meaning where we were provided with a graph that stated most students use content strategies. Content strategies help the reader get information from the text. Rhetorical reading is also a strategy, but it is hardly used. When using rhetorical reading it should be seen as the “progressive enlargement of the constructed meaning of the text.” Rhetorical reading and critical reading go hand in hand with each other. The real task for a person to improve their writing is by learning how to become a rhetorical reader.
Question:
Why is rhetorical reading the best strategy to use when trying to find meaning through a reading/article?
Response:
In my opinion, rhetorical reading is a great strategy to use and I know I probably fall into the percentage of people who never use that strategy. It’s a shame, because I know it’s very effective when I’m reading for comprehension, or when I’m just reading in general. In the article, there was a sentence (page 170) I really enjoyed. It was “Many of out students are ‘Good’ readers in the traditional sense: they have large vocabularies, read quickly, are able to do well at comprehension tasks involving recall of content.” I completely agreed with that statement. When I read that my mind just opened up and I realized that’s what teachers do. They drill certain strategies into you. They tell you to do things a certain way and they make you believe that’s the only way. I know in my high school, even in my AP English courses, my teacher was always telling me I needed to be a fast reader. She would drill us with SAT vocabulary tests just to expand our vocabulary, and for every essay she had a specific format which she wanted our essays to bee in. In a sense, I’m sure vocabulary, speed , and written content is important but it isn’t the only aspect of importance. Rhetoric plays a great role in the reading and writing and therefore should become a mastered strategy.

Downs and Wardle SQ&R

Downs and Wardle SQ&R #1

Basically, this article involves a new method of teaching a first year composition (FYC) course. The article emphasizes the importance of being able to understand some activities related to scholarly inquiry and it goes beyond the basics of grammar and reading. This new method called “Teaching about writing” creates a proposal that by learning the fundamentals of writing, students can in fact become better writers. Instructors of the course should also be able to respond to the writing, therefore making them experts at reading. In the first case study Jack is insecure about his writing but over time the course helps him start thinking for himself. Due to the course’s focus on the way writing works, Jack was able to learn some key principles of writing. In Stephanie’s case study she learned about the connection between reading and writing. She was able to expand her knowledge about her rhetoric and writing skills. The outcomes that came from the course included increased self awareness about the course. Students learned a lot about the techniques of writing just from reading about it. This course helps students look at writing as more than just words or required texts. It helps students to become aware of the “words of real people” with purpose sought out between the text. Research is a lot like a conversation. In order to research something you must have some sort of background knowledge on the subject beforehand. The pedagogy isn’t perfect like nothing in this world is perfect. The course work is demanding and hard to grasp at the beginning. There is very limited resources and no textbook for first-year students. Students writing assignments may not be perfect but with time they will improve. The teachers of these courses should be knowledgeable but a significant amount of teachers do not have the proper training. How will learning about writing help us become better writers?
As students we’ve always been taught to write a certain way or to follow a certain format but this is completely new. Learning about writing and about ourselves through our writing is the perfect way to progress our already smudgy writing techniques. Being that I am a senior in high school/freshman in college (any way you look at it) I know my writing skills aren’t the best out there. I firmly believe and support this whole “Writing about Writing” idea. I think it can, in the long run, become very effective because it will help me see what improvements I need to make in my writing.