Before I dive into the analysis of the two articles on multiculturally sensitive rubrics and

composition assessment, I would like to react to the main notions of the pieces with an over-
simplified paraphrase, mainly that composition courses should be designed to educate novice
writers to define and then refine their own authorial voice while still learning to compose in
different styles depending on the audience. Ive been very hesitant this semester to let go of (or at
least diminish the perceived importance of) the assessment of a students ability to manipulate
the grammatical nuances of the formal English language. Our last reading made me realize that
much of that fear is out of a sense of a duty to protect those students who may struggle with or
not move comfortably within the world of formal English grammar, punctuation, and form is at
least partly due to the eleven years Ive spent working for Corporate America.

Since my first two years at college until my rejoining through ASU, I have spent so much time
navigating the highly kairotic space of the corporate ladder, that it makes me nervous to not
equip a student with the tools that are appropriated and accepted by the business
community. Although this is recognizing a widely known and long-lived prejudice within that
world, the fact still remains that a majority of the academic institutions are ahead of the business
institutions in their acceptance of otherness. I wish things were different and I believe they are
changing slowly (although, unfortunately, mostly through federal mandates), but I would feel
remiss in my duties as an educator to not equip students with the tools they needed to move
courageously through the business world in which they seek to succeed - a place where prejudice
of all sorts maintains a thriving pulse of standardization though the voice may be softened,
regulated, or translated.