[Teaching_Composition] Agency, Advocacy and Advancing Writing *hello*

[The Teach]

<snip>
> But there's another question of ownership that I haven't really touched 
> upon, and that's the students' ownership, or one might say, investment, 
> in the writing.  This is the hardest question of all, because it makes 
> us look very closely at assignments as varied as the "personal literacy 
> narrative" and the "longer researched essay" to try to find ways to make 
> them more meaningful to students lives and careers, academic and 
> professional....
<snip>
> portfolios, but I don't think we're there.  Reading the student 
> evaluation comments at the end of each semester, I still see very mixed 
> results in the area of relevance and ownership.

Michael, your question is a critical one..."the" critical one.  How do we 
get students to take ownership and realize they should have an "investment 
in the writing"? All too often students view the first year composition 
courses as dreaded requirements.  They do not see these courses as a means 
to help them in later courses.  Part of their resistance is fear, I think. 
Fear of failure. They have not enjoyed writing in the past; they do not 
want to write in a prescribed manner; they see little value in exploring 
topics unknown to them.  Now this is not every student, and certainly 
there are the reluctant, resisting student who "sees the light" and begins 
to enjoy writing.  Yet I have begun with entire classes who raise their 
hands as a no vote when I ask if the really want to be in a composition 
class.

alex