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Andrea M. Edwards
Kraemer, Dr. Donald
English 587- Teaching Basic English
5 November 2012
Revised: Fall 2015
Notes and Presentation on Teaching Style
Karen Vaught-Alexander states working with meaning and style interests my students
more than working with grammar and mechanics. The intentional use of style for emphasis of
ideas, for readability and visual impact, and for conciseness is often a new idea for student
writers who view grammar and mechanics as correctness (546). I disagree with her
pedagogical style to a certain degree because I believe that style in writing is valuable to
students, and they want to write interesting papers, but I am a realist, and I acknowledge if a
student does not have the grammar of a language, and the mechanics to write a stylistically
engaging paper, then style in their writing will be the least of their problems.
From personal experience, I will say grammar and mechanics are as important as style
and being able to get a message across. Without grammar and mechanics, a students paper can
end up devoid of structure and syntax. This would make the paper might appear sloppy and not
well-produced. Yes, students want their intended reader, or their instructor, to understand the
ideas they have produced in their papers, but they know his or her instructor will be going
through and correcting anything he or she can on his or her paper. They believe (in the students
mind) their professor is the only person they are writing for, but they are also writing for other

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instructors who may read their papers for assessment

purposes. They may go back and look at those papers, and
think to themselves, wait, I used to write like this? What
was I thinking?

I have clearly had these thoughts as

I was reviewing my own writing,
and realizing how flawed it was.
Re-reading my own papers has
forced me to review my writing, and
acknowledge I have work to do.

In the passage entitled Creating Readability and

Emphasis for Your Ideas (547), Vaught-Alexander
discusses the usage of SVO or Subject-Verb-Object (we all know this one from English 321 or
any other grammar course equivalent), the Independent Clause (IC) or sentence. This is known
as the basic structure of our English sentence. This is part of the grammar and mechanics of the
English Language, and this is where I believe that Vaught-Alexander is slightly contradicting
herself because she claimed style and ideas are important. However, I believe she may have
realized, as many of us have, students cannot have a certain style to their writing without first
having learned grammar basics, and having tutored at a middle school, I can attest that having a
grasp on grammar is of upmost importance if a student wishes to succeed in writing. Honestly,
who has not had this grilled into their brain since grammar school? On second thought, students
need to constantly review the rules of grammar if they wish to produce comprehensible writing
to their peers and the academic community as a whole.
She also mentions Dependent Clauses (DC), or the part of the sentence that has to be
conjoined with the rest of the sentence in order to make any true sense because if left alone, it
will not be understandable to anyone gazing blankly at it. (For example, a phrase such as: And
they went there. Where did they go?) As a tutor, and as a peer editor for many of my fellow
students in the Cal Poly Pomona English Department, I have seen everything from papers that
are well-written and could be beautifully orchestrated research papers, to papers that are works

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in progress. Having tutored college students at ARCHES, tutoring at a middle school, and at an
elementary school, learning how to write a
I have tried not use the red pen of doom to
correct a students paper, although as a middle
school tutor, I realized I was given no other
choice at certain moments in my tutoring
sessions. I believe the core problem is finding
better methods of teaching students how to
write that will require educators to use red
pens less often out of frustration.

paper has to start as soon as the student

knows how to write proper sentences. There
are papers where all of the mechanics are
available, including the clear usage of ideas,
to papers in need of tender loving care from
someone who is not willing to use a red ink

pen or marker to rip apart their paper, destroying any hope they have of ever wanting to write for
anyone ever again. I have seen that look of anguish, anxiety, and fear students have on their faces
from getting their papers back, and seeing a horrible grade written on it. I have seen frustrated
students cry, scream, yell, and panic from getting back a paper they thought was their best, only
to find out their paper did not meet their professors demands. I had a student at ARCHES who
became extremely frustrated, and I let him vent it out for a couple of minutes, because he thought
he turned in a great paper to his professor, and he worked tirelessly on said paper, but according
to his professor, it still wasnt good enough. We went back and made as many corrections as we
could, and his professor finally gave him a better grade, but I began to wonder if the professor
and myself needed to change our pedagogical strategies in order to ensure our students produced
better papers, and how we could have gone about making those changes? It could very well have
been the students not understanding their professors discourse, or they have not met with their
professor enough times to understand what he/she is asking to see in that students writing.
Vaught-Alexander also states on page 549, experienced and proficient writers have a
mature syntax and diction in which style reinforces meaning, and I believe she is right about

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this, but I also believe that something has to be done to reinforce style before style can reinforce
meaning and/or ideas. When a student, or writer, has good control over grammar and mechanics,
they do develop their own style and their own way of writing which works to their advantage
over time, but again, they need to have that control in order to have style and meaning. She also
goes on to quote one of my favorite authors, Ursula Le Guin, who calls this connection
between meaning and style the craft of writing. Without style and meaning, a paper is left
without purpose, but if a student, or writer, does not have all of the parts needed to create a
cohesive and coherent paper, then the style and the meaning are the last parts of the paper the
student will be concerned about. What good is a paper if said paper is missing all or any of its
parts?
(Note: Everyone needs to correct their own undergrad paper, or they need to correct
another persons undergrad paper with a yellow highlighter, a highlighter of another color of
their choice, and a pen. See page 547 and 548 for the process.)
Now, look at your papers, and notice what is on those papers. What kind of corrections
did you make? Where are you completely honest with your paper? What would you have done
differently?
Do you agree with Vaught-Alexander? Should writing be more about style and meaning
than grammar and mechanics? What key ingredients do students need for a well-produced paper?
What kind of papers can students create if they only focus on style and meaning? What
kind paper do you think you can produce with only the usage of style and meaning?

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Since I have tutored college students at ARCHES, tutored middle school students at San Fernando Institute
for Applied Media, and elementary school students at Pacoima Charter School, I can now declare that as
important as style is, and I do believe it is; I also believe grammar and mechanics are vital to a students
survival throughout their academic career. I believe this to be true because I have seen students turn in
papers so terrible the only thing I could do was take the student aside and say to said student, You have to
start over again, and this time, we need to do this one sentence as a time.
For years, I had believed many educators were being facetious or condescending about their students
writing, and then I became a tutor, and now I realize how difficult and how awful many students writing
can be, and I feel a great deal of pity for these educators. The majority of them are right when they say
grammar and mechanics are important, and if students do not have these skills down when they are in
elementary, middle school, and high school, then gaining these skills in college will be a challenge, as I
have had to deal with when I had to repeat English 321. If a student masters those skills as soon as they
can, then college writing will be far easier for them as they become more proficient in it.