Why Your Students Can

1
Why Your Students Cant WriteAnd What You Can
Do about It

• William H. Thelin
• The University of Akron

2
How Much Can We Do?

• I told him, 'Son, what is it with you. Is it
  ignorance or apathy?' He said, 'Coach, I don't
  know and I don't care.
• --Frank Layden, Former Coach, Utah Jazz

3
Lore vs. Research

• Lore 5-paragraph essays, knowledge of kinds and
  forms of essays and paragraphs, de-contextualized
  grammar instruction, etc.
• Researchform is dictated by content, genre is
  decided when topic and audience are established,
  paragraphs vary in length, grammar is taught in
  the context of a students writing, etc.

4
What Are They Doing in English Composition??!!??!!

• Enough Rigor?
• Grammar?
• Appropriate Grading?
• Just Passing Them On?

5
Labor Conditions

• Hours It Takes
• 66-67 hours per class reading bare
  minimum number of papers (20 minutes per paper)
• 8 ½ 40-hour work weeks spent reading and
  responding to assignments if teaching 4 classes
  (not counting prep)
• Hiring Situation

6
Curriculum

• Assignments based in personal experience
• Focus on structure and grammar
• Lack of reading
• Lack of Conceptual Learning/Transferability

7
Once They Leave (Who? Me?)

• Assignment Construction
• That was only for English Composition!
• Disciplinary Knowledge

8
What Were Doing

• Full-Time Hires
• Accountability through Assessment
• Multi-Modal and Service Learning Projects

9
What We Cant Do

• Control curriculum from programs with
  articulation agreements
• Teach parameters and conventions of every
  discipline
• Solve the ongoing labor problem

10
What You Can Do

• Assign a handbook
• Multiple drafts
• Reinforce concepts learned in English Composition
  (Thesis, Audience, Organization, Language Use)
  and translate those into the conventions of your
  discipline

11
What about Grammar????

• Reasons for problems
• Not knowing rules
• Dialectical Issues
• Hyper-Corrections
• Regression
• Not seeing errors
• Grammar Check
• Previous teaching
• Remembering rules incorrectly

12
How You Can Help

• Do not correct errors for the students (circling,
  crossing out, etc.)
• Refer them to the handbook
• Spot patterns of error (do not over-correct)
• Translate from their dialect
• Do not panic!
• Grammar has to count
• Model correct prose for students