Although this article, written by Toby Fulwiler, ostensibly focuses on Writing Center tutors, much of his advice seems to target instructors more. He does add a caveat on page 166: "Many professors who assign research projects will have a specific idea of what such reports should look like, and tutors need to be careful to counsel the student in those directions." I like many of his ideas, but I'm not sure we tutors want to take on as much authority as he seems to suggest.
Still, Fulwiler targets some of the areas that inexperienced writers often struggle with, specifically, "over-generalizations, prejudgment, and directional uncertainty." But that's what early drafts are for: to figure out the perimeters of a student's topic and to understand exactly what she wants to write. How does she know until she starts writing?
We've read other articles about writing-as-discovery, and that theme is repeated in Fulwiler's reference to the potato paper. Sometimes early drafts are simply exploration, that pre-writing that Ellen Harcourt likes to emphasize with her students.
However, many of our students convey the attitude of "Just tell me what to fix so I can be done with this assignment." The idea of using writing as a tool for thinking more deeply and imagining more broadly is difficult for some students to wrap their minds around. They're busy and they may have to be here and they may not want to be here. In some cases, they just want to be told what to do so they can do it and leave.
So how do we engage students in their own writing? How do we get them excited about the possibilities? How can we encourage them to recognize the importance of finding their own writer's voice? How did you all get excited about finding your voice? Was there a specific trigger or influential person who encouraged you?
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I don't even know where to begin to comment on this article. You would all laugh to see how many of Fulwiler's sentences I have starred, underlined, or otherwise annotated. I love his four "provocations." The first two will probably be most useful to writing tutors. The others seem to be more techniques to be used in the classroom. "Generalization is death to good writing." How true! I had a student write that her thesis for her research paper was going to be "We should provide food for people who are suffering from hunger in developing and undeveloped countries." My suggestion to her, and to the majority of my students, is to narrow down the topic. They often react with shock and bewilderment. The idea of changing what they have come up with seems so foreign. Fulwiler's idea of "limiting" seems difficult to understand. Later on, when these same students send me their 8-10 page papers that are only 6 pages long, we'll be talking about Fulwiler's idea of "adding." Again, I will get resistance.
ReplyDeleteWhen my children were in school, there was always talk of the importance of thinking of writing assignments as a series of drafts. What has happened since then? Has what teachers emphasize changed? Is the desire students show to ditch the draft and just "get on with it" a product of today's forces of quick and simple writing? You know, the kind of writing exemplified by Facebook status or Twitter speak? Whatever the reason, I wish students could learn to embrace the concept of the first draft. I want my students to "accept as natural and useful" the idea of not having an assignment that is perfect, or done, on the first go-round. I use the analogy of playing with Play-doh with writing. Go ahead and play with it. Don't be afraid. You can always change it! There seems to be so much fear associated with writing. What in the educational system is making students be so afraid? I rack my brain trying to figure out how to make the beauty of the process of writing more evident to my students.
I thought Fulwiler's idea about first drafts usually being a summary or overview is so true, even though I never really noticed it until he brought it up. I think the first step to writing a successful essay is to have a general overview of where you are going to go with your paper. As long as this general summary is not your final draft, it can be an important step in writing. I personally do not like writing more than one draft for a piece; I am an edit-as-I-go kind of girl who does not usually revise all that much in a paper, but I am open to the idea of revision. Fulwiler also mentioned the true joy of reading is learning something that you do not already know, which is why generality can be boring in a piece. I definitely agree with this; relevant details really draw the reader into a paper.
ReplyDeleteI also found it interesting that Fulwiler emphasizes an almost journalistic style of writing research papers. He tries to get his students to talk to experts in the field or representatives from the businesses or organizations they are writing about. I think that is a great idea, because real-world information makes writing more relevant. Since my father is a journalist, journalistic traits have influenced my writing style, and I think a combination of journalistic and traditional styles would make for an engaging paper.
In addition, Fulwiler supports divergence from the normal form of a research paper. I agree with Fulwiler when he says, “Research papers are all too often the reports that students hate to write and faculty hate to read.” The word research paper makes me feel bored just thinking about it. Usually they are not as bad as I anticipate, but I never would have thought about writing a research paper as a script or incorporating the data into a narrative story like some of Fulwiler’s students did. I think students and professors would benefit from some flexibility in format. Scholarly writing turns off many students because they feel there is not as much room for creativity, but this is not the case. I personally have found a way to put my own voice and pizzazz into scholarly writing, but I would enjoy a class that would challenge me to break out of my comfort zone and write a paper in a different format.
I think today’s students want to do something different with their writing. We are tired of doing the same-old-same-old APA research paper. We want to write about ideas that impact our lives and in a style that reflects today’s culture. I am not voting to abolish the traditional research paper all together, but a blend of creative and traditional forms of research assignments would be a welcome breath of fresh air in the writing classroom.
In reading Fulwiler’s article I was intrigued by the variety of ways he suggests approaching revision, especially as he mixes tried and true methods with several creative ideas that would not have crossed my mind to try. It does not seem right to incorporate dialogue, fictional elements, and the like into academic writing, yet after perusing this article I can understand how those additions to a paper could make it more interesting to read (and write) while still maintaining the “seriousness” of a college essay or report. Although in my own writing I generally enjoy trying to work my own personality into an assignment, I have always felt I had to draw the line when it came to research papers or other assignments that I considered “no nonsense.” After reading this article, I agree with Laura that it would be a fun challenge to try and find a way to mix in some creativity in order to figure out the best way to balance something slightly unexpected with a research report.
ReplyDeleteAnother point of Fulwiler’s that caught my attention was his comment that “…learning to re-write is an alien activity that doesn’t come easily.” Reading that sentence brought to mind the surprised look I often get at the beginning of the semester when I explain to lab students that they will be writing multiple drafts of their papers. It can really be a sticking point for people, especially if they feel there is “nothing left to add.” I found all of Fulwiler’s comments on how to help generate more ideas to expand, limit, or drastically change a paper through revisions useful. I am looking forward to passing his advice along the next time I encounter someone really at a loss as to how else to change or lengthen a paper.
Fulwiler’s is definitely one of the most practical articles we’ve blogged about, and I’m keeping it in my tutoring reference material. It was refreshing that he didn’t make the mistake other authors do in assuming peer tutors have authority — and pedagogical motives — we simply don’t have, especially when instructors don’t want students deviating from specific assignment criteria.
ReplyDeleteFulwiler’s descriptions of limiting, adding, switching, & transforming help clarify just what revision is; having read this article, we tutors will have that much easier a time explaining it to students who have difficulty getting to their theses sooner and more coherently, and being more specific than general. Also, his comments about novice writers trying to cover “too much territory” in their drafts are particularly relevant. One of my most common observations as a tutor is that a novice writer’s paper often contains material for two or three essays. Fulwiler’s exercise about writing two new pages about just one of the ideas in the first draft may be worth trying for WRT 1000 and 1150 students.
To his comments about the banality of generalization, I add that they not only make for boring reading, they can lead to offensive or inaccurate writing. In an online tutoring session last Friday, the student tried to cover her lack of understanding about a Shakespeare love sonnet by filling her Blackboard post with cynical generalizations about male / female relations. It occurred to me the root of overgeneralization is lack of understanding — or more specifically, lack of initiative to correct that misunderstanding. Some students need to be encouraged, prodded even, to take a more proactive role, claim more responsibility, in their own reading comprehension and writing. After cautioning this student that many of her generalizations could be insulting and alienating to her male classmates, I recommended she do some research before revising her post, to see what the words she misinterpreted meant back in Shakespeare’s day, as opposed to their totally different meanings today.