Sustaining our Writing Students

"To be asked to write in college is to be asked to see farther, wider, and deeper, and ultimately to develop one's own lenses through which to see the world. Writing does not shape a student's education in one course or one year. It is the cumulative practice and sustained instruction...that gives students opportunities to participate in the world of ideas first as novices and later as experts" (Sommers 2004).

In the fall 2004 issue of College Composition and Communication, Sommers and Saltz identify the novice writer as an expert by these key pedagogical theories and practises:

1. Help students see in writing a larger purpose than fulfilling an assignment.

2. Try this in the classroom: Have conversations with students about why writing matters. Ask direct questions like: Why do you think faculty assign writing? What is missing from so many discussions about college writing is the experience of the students. Do students experience writing as learning and thinking and, if so, under what conditions? It might be a nice idea to start the first week or two with this conversation of writing. Readings could be grouped where students read literacy narratives about how other learned to write and value the process of learning itself.

3. Students who see writing as something more than an assignment, who write about something that matters to them, are best able to sustain an interest in academic writing throughout their undergraduate careers.

4. Experiment with different types of writing.

5. Try this in the classroom: At the opening of the semester, have students reflect about the role of writing in helping them make the transition to college. Give them the confidence "to speak back to the world." A literacy narrative might be a more meaningful assignment rather than just an autobiographical assignment. What has shaped the student and who they are today? Perhaps this might be another nice prompt for the first or second day of class as a diagnostic essay. Possible idea: Looking back at your years as a student, where have you been with your writing? What experiences have shaped the writer you are today? How do you plan to move forward as a writing student this semester? It calls for specific answers and organization, which might be a nice way to find out the individual strengths and weaknesses of each student.

6. As writing teachers we should remember that writing serves many functions during the freshman year, both academic and social, to engage students with their learning. Don't you love the word engage?

7. When faculty construct writing assignments that allow students to bring their interests into a course, they say to their students, this is a disciplinary field, and you are a part of it. What does it look like fro your point on the map?

8. Freshman need to see themselves as novices in a world that demands something more and deeper from their writing than high school. This is the beginning place of growth.

9. Writing allows students to bring their interests into a course but also to discover new interests, to make writing a part of themselves.

10. Writing papers lets students think and show them how they are thinking.

11. Learning to write well is a slow process, infinitely varied, with movements backward and forward, starts and stops, with losses each time a new method or discipline is attempted. The surprise is that some students are able to sustain an interest in academic writing throughout college, while others lose interest.

12. Students who initially accept their status as novices and allow their passions to guide them make the greatest gains in writing development. As teachers this is where we come in. It is key that we help our students understand the relationship between writing and learning. College is a time for students to learn how to think broadly and deeply, to ask questions and be questioned. The classroom should be a place where students can discover that academic writing can be an exchange of sorts.

13. Writing will help students find or discover their identity.