ACE: Improving Discipline - Based Writing
by Kevin Cassell, University College Instructor

At a recent university function I shared a table with instructors from Criminal Justice, Nursing, and Economics. During our conversation one of them described, with chagrin, how he had spent the day grading students' papers that were, "as usual, abysmal." What struck him was that, in class, students who spoke very well on issues germane to the course could not seem to 'translate' that eloquence to the printed page. The others agreed: undergraduates at Northeastern have trouble expressing and conveying ideas in writing.

     At that point, all eyes turned on me, the sole English instructor who has taught many core curriculum writing classes. I told them what I tell you now: Once you factor out second language issues, learning disabilities, or plain old laziness, there is no one easy answer to why so many students do not write as clearly, cogently, and convincingly as their instructor expects. At any rate, the situation is not hopeless. If you are an instructor who requires students to write papers in your course (and I hope you are) and would like them to pass in work you can read and understand, then please consider these suggestions.

     Before assigning a writing task, provide your students with copies of, say, three papers produced by students in a previous class (minus names and IDs). Give them as well a copy of the assignment description. Begin by having the students read and interpret the assignment aloud. Then have them read each paper, after which ask them questions: Does the writer do what the assignment asks her to do? If so, could she have gone further? If not, what does she do instead? Being sure that students understand how to interpret and respond to an assignment is an important first step. If you assume they will all understand it perfectly well on their own, you are probably assuming wrongly.

     Discuss each paper thoroughly. But when doing so, be conscious of the words you use. The terms "composition," "essay," even "paper" tend to conjure images of a material entity (five pages, typed, double spaced, stapled) rather than focus attention on the more important subject matter. I prefer the less loaded term "discussion" because it connotes comfortable, informal discourse. And you may want to resist students' efforts to categorize these discussions according to best, adequate, and worst; instead I have them evaluate the relative strengths and weaknesses of each one. Making comparisons merely hierarchizes the material and has little practical merit.

     This may sound unorthodox, but I strongly encourage you to use as sparingly as possible conventional terms like "thesis," "topic," "introduction/body/conclusion." Why? Because these words give the impression that all college writing conforms to an ideal model, the Academic Essay, which few students feel particularly close to. Rather, use words that mean the same things but that students can relate to. For instance, ask: "What's the overall point (thesis) this writer is making?" "Is this discussion (topic) compelling?" "How does the writer present or develop it?" By using vernacular equivalents of technical terms, students' attention will be directed less at some omniscient model and more at the actual writing in front of them.

     Ask students to critique a paper and you'll find that the vast majority of them will look immediately for errors in spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Try to redirect their attention, first, to the larger features. An important one is tone--the writer's "voice" or "style." Start off with the peculiar question: How does the writing sound here? Then: Is it too formal? Too informal? Does the writer come across as knowing what he's writing about? Or is he just (sorry) "bullshitting"? As these questions are pondered, ask them to identify specific words, phrases, and sentences that work and don't work. For whatever "doesn't sound right," ask for alternatives that do.

     Having their written work assessed by a brilliant and credentialed "Professor" can be very intimidating for many students. Hence, they may be reluctant to adopt an assertive or persuasive stance (this is common as well with students for whom English is not their first language). Overcoming this psychological obstacle is a formidable challenge. You can help, though, by prescribing a hypothetical reader, or "i'audience." Ask them to present their written discussion not to you, the instructor, but to someone who doesn't wield a red pen--an uninformed but interested peer, perhaps.

     Fina))y, a few words abota rnechanks. AW@ough spegcheck and grarnmarcheck programs have made a significant impact in this area, much gets through unmolested. Ask students to find spots in the sample papers where an idea just doesn@ seem to take shape, where a point seems muddled and obscure. Then ask them to circle all the nouns and underline all the verbs (yes, feel free to use these standard grammatical tem-r,). If "be" verbs (is, was, wer*--) are numerous, then that may be a sign that the passive voice prevails. If too many of the nouns (or pronouns) cirr-led are "@," "this," or "ffiings" (or words with 'thing' in them), or even "aspect," "concept'N," "Phenomenon," etc., then an idea is most likely being buried under vague or abstr-act diction.

     These suggestions can not promise the kinds of results that only an on-going thinking/rethinking and writing/revising process can, but they can help focus students' attention on the conventions of academic discourse and, hence, provide them with a context within which to situate their own written discussion.