Winsor
Winsor’s article made a lot of sense to me. I have worked with engineers for years and have been surprised in the past that they think the writing they do is separate from design work, and that it is a linear process. In reality they were always taking notes, revising those notes, re-writing requirements based on something learned in research, etc. In some cases they even had to revise a design based on information that was going to go in the user manual that brought design problems to light. The writing and the design process were quite codependent in most cases.
It was interesting to me how the subjects of this study worked so cohesively together on their ideas. I wonder if this is true of most engineering students, i.e. they are taught to do this, or if these particular students enjoyed a special rapport.
Reynolds
What I found most interesting about the Reynolds article was not the article itself, but rather the information about bell hooks. Somehow I managed to read several paragraphs about her before I noticed that her name was not capitalized. At first I thought it was a typo, but then I decided, given the subject matter, it had to be a personal statement on being either a woman or a minority, or both. I had to look this up, and was actually surprised to see that it was to distinguish her name from her grandmother’s, and to emphasize that what she wrote was important, not who she was. I have to wonder though, if there is some background rhetoric at work here – a minority feminist author could certainly pack a lot of meaning into choosing to avoid capitalization in her name!
Haswell
This was an interesting piece that brought up a lot of good points. The task of finding an ideal way to grade student writing seems overwhelming to me, but Haswell seems to have a good start and explains a lot of methods very well. The one thing that bothered me was that although he seems to admit that his method of minimal marking is flawed because it may not actually reduce work if students do not find the correct errors, he then goes on to defend it by saying that if teachers do not recorrect the paper, they are lazy and perhaps cruel (p. 1281). This seems a bit unfair – if he’s trying to make a time-saving method, then it must actually be more efficient, and calling the teachers lazy does not really make it a better idea.
hi, rebecca...
ReplyDeletere: capitalization
it is interesting that we really notice capitalization in its absence, and that its absence sends such a strong message...the poet e.e. cummings and singer k.d.lang, to name a few, would no doubt agree :-) the lack of the capital letter at the beginning of the name really sends a mysterious "look at me, I'm different" message. interesting.
Re: Engineers and Writing
The problem with technical information is that it is often for CYA (cover your *ss) purposes. For some, the real fun is in the creation of knowledge and the sharing of it is just a chore...which is too bad.
Re: Fixing Student Errors
I was also bothered by Haswell's minimal marking method...I am eternally grateful to my Grade 4 teacher who corrected and corrected and corrected my work until the lessons stuck. She managed to get her entire class of 30 students to understand the basics of grammar and spelling...but in a college or university setting this may not be possible because there are so many more students.
Nice discussion, Becks and Debs. In regards to Winsor's article: It is so funny how engineers seem to view everything mathematically, too. During the Maymester, Peter England asked a group of us to review student feedback on teacher evaluations for his diss topic. The engineering majors were always bringing up percentages and formulas for their final verdict on the teacher's effectiveness. It was funny and telling, and perhaps I need to keep this in mind during my next round of Freshman Comp. (Lord, I feel as though I've been writing that last sentence this entire semester.)
ReplyDeleteRebecca, you enlightened me about bell hooks. Although I've read several of her articles for Cyborgs and Visual Rhetoric, I didn't know that this was to discern her from her granny. More food for thought to me, since there appear to be 100 other Joseph Williamses in the field!
Although I quite liked Haswell's article, I don't see myself as commenting minimally. More likely I will re-question the validity of my remarks so that each one counts, each one performs a task. I do this already, but I could definitely sharpen this approach further. I do agree with you; he needn't call us lazy as he offers up a time-saving method. Ouch!