Karen Taylor

Dr. Shana Hartman

Eng 683
6 May 2015
Through my experience in working with students one-on-one in the
Isothermal Community College Writing Center and working as a Graduate Assistant
in the Gardner-Webb University Writing Center, I have developed an understanding
which has evolved into a philosophy on the teaching of writing.
My beliefs encompass the writings of Donald Murray and Peter Elbow
because to my way of thinking, writing should be taught with the emphasis on the
process and not the product. The scholar who has most significantly influenced my
philosophy is Paolo Freire because he spoke against oppressive controlling teaching
techniques like the ineffective banking concept as opposed to the more effective
teacher-student, student-teacher model (71-72). Murray believes writing
produces writing (1), and Elbows freewriting, drafting, and revising approaches
have changed the teaching of writing in classrooms and writing centers.
I believe that if enough attention is given to the steps in process work, the
product will take care of itself. More importantly, the process will translate to other
courses, not just English and Literature coursework.
Writing is interdisciplinary, and now multimodal in nature due to the
emphasis on digital productions of assignments, and later, artifacts for potential
employers. If a student can learn how to create and follow her own process and finetune it, the product of her endeavor will be something she can be proud of and take
with her in any field.

As Donald Murray states, Writing produces writing (1). This may sound
rather elementary, perhaps even insulting or foolish, but if taken the way I believe
he intended, it is a statement on working with students within their writing, instead
of providing worksheets and sentence examples for them to correct. I have seen
students learn more by writing a draft, then working together as a class in a
workshop-type environment than dozens of worksheets ever did. The drill and kill
approach of worksheets for practice in grammar and punctuation never seem to
translate to other classes.
Reading and Writing should be integrated so that students can learn to read
something as a model for learning what good, concise, cohesive writing looks like. It
has been my experience that many students come into class with a preconceived
notion that one must sit down in front of the computer, bang out an essay and
turn it in without doing any type of preparatory work. Through discussion of process
work by using questions, mapping, pre-writing, drafting and revision, the students
can learn that it is perfectly fine to write messy several times before a final,
polished product is achieved. More than one student has confessed to me that he or
she would wait until the day or even the night before a writing assignment is due to
begin. These same students would tell me that they could usually fake their way
through with fluff. (This is not the term they used, but I will be polite.) I have told
these students that the fluff they compose is usually the unfocused, off-topic
writing I see when I am grading.
During a session of discussing students papers with them in workshops and
having them read their papers out loud, they are usually the first ones to notice
their errors on things like focus and clarity. They are generally quite amazed by the
difference reading aloud makes. The students tend to find their sentence fragment

errors while reading aloud as well. They also comment that the workshops usually
help them to understand the things they are doing wrong because others are doing
the same things and it makes it clearer when we discuss solutions to the errors as a
class.
My methods are not original. They have come from scholars in the field, but
with a few of my own personal twists, such as: simulated courtroom cases,
analyzing song lyrics, discussing literary devices in varied texts, and other types of
writing.
The court case is done in a way to illustrate to the students how to prepare
and present a proper argument by explaining how each sidedefense and
prosecutionmust be aware of the other sides points. In this way, they see that a
good argument paper must present pros and cons, yet still convince the
audience/reader of the writers opinion as the most logical and convincing one in
the form of a guilty or not guilty verdict per the scenario.
The songs are a means of demonstrating audience and how to say much in a
few lines effectively, sometimes even digging into the meaning underneath the
words. One song in particular I have used lately is Take Me to Church, by the
artist, Hozier. It is quite effective in inspiring critical thinking due to the controversial
nature of the lyrics. I discuss literary devices such as symbolism, irony, etc. in the
song lyrics as well as in other types of texts like television shows which tend to
produce two to three page essays from interested and engaged students.
I also believe that having a class prepare an oral presentation from a paper
assignment is a good way to show audience, purpose, and the importance of
condensing a long paper into a five minute presentation. It also incorporates multimodal composition in the technique of preparing visual aids in the form of Power

Points and Prezis. This type of assignment translates well to both upper level college
courses and the work force.
The final point I would like to make regarding my philosophy on the teaching
of writing is the importance of individuality and creativity. I believe every student
should be allowed a certain level of creativity and self-expression in an assignment.
As in Paolo Freires teachings, education should not be used as a means of
oppression or forcing students to fit into preconceived or preset molds, but to assist
them in finding their own voices in the world. Also, regarding my personal learning, I
intend to continue reading and studying current innovations in teaching writing in
order to guard against complacency and stale, outdated teaching practices, so that I
am always able to challenge and interest my students.

Works Cited
Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum, 2000.Libcom.org.
Web. 6 May 2015.
Murray, Donald Morison. "Make Writing Easy." Write to Learn. New York: Holt,
Rinehart, and Winston, 1987. 1. Print.