During my first week of teaching Freshman Composition, I was met with a question that has stayed with me throughout the remainder of the semester. One of my students expressed his concern over the validity of judging a writer's work. Mike (an alias) believes that what a writer produces is personal, and therefore, cannot fairly be graded according to someone else's concept of correct of incorrect methods of expression. In other words, Mike believes in a writer-writer relationship, as opposed to a writer-reader relationship.

I am sure this is not an isolated incident. In fact, I have no doubt that almost every writing teacher has heard Mike's concern at least once in his or her career. I have heard this complaint myself expressed by fellow-students in my own classes. When Mike brought this up, I immediately reflected back to comments made by my own professors to the same inquiry. I tried to explain to Mike that a writer-writer relationship is the foundation for courses which fall under the heading of Creative Writing, as opposed to Academic Writing. I explained that in order to succeed in college and later in his career, it is necessary to learn how to address an audience with a purpose; in other words, a writer-reader relationship. Answering Mike's question was simple and I immediately continued with my activities from the syllabus.

My answer was apparently neither simple, nor adequate, for Mike because for the next several weeks, he continued to debate (albeit good naturedly) the importance of a writer's personality being allowed to show in his or her final product. I should mention here that because Mike's consistent aggravation over this issue was kept within the confines of private conversations and not in classroom disruption, it was never a cause for frustration or antagonism for me. It is my firm belief that if a student is debating with me about a particular topic from a lecture, that student must be thining it over and at least giving it consideration. That alone surpasses any lecture I could give from now until the end of the semester.

One thing I wanted to avoid where Mike was concerned was becoming so rigid in my philosophy that he, or other students like him, might get a poor first impression of college and its benefits. In addition, the discussions Mike and I have had over the relationship between creative writing and academic writing have caused me to rethink and reestablish my own definitions in this regard. Prior to returning to school, I spent 13 years as a paralegal. In that role, all of my writing was what I believed to be as far from creative as is possible. Indeed, one of the reasons I left to go into teaching was to work in a more creative atmosphere. I was keeping a journal which was, at the time, my only outlet for creative writing. Now, when I think of creative writing, I define it as allowing one's own voice to come forth. Within that voice, a writer has his or her own style. James Berlin confirms my defintions when he quotes Ann Berthoff:

When you write, you don't follow somebody else's scheme: you design your own. As a writer, you learn to make words behave the way you want them to . . . Learning to write is not a matter of learning the rules that govern the use of the semicolon or the names of sentence structures, nor is it a matter of manipulating words: it is a matter of making meanings, and that is the work of the active mind. (58)

This idea allows for the fun experience in writing. By the same token, a responsibility exists on the part of the writer to "make[s] a conversation possible . . . to write argument in ways that allow a reader to converse with it (Salvatori 450). This is where the structure of academic prose falls into place. It is possible to have both of these philosophies within one required freshman composition course. This combination will allow for the teaching of "conventional forms and better analytical skills," but also will "encourage them [students] to dream, to think in new cycles and to have visions for the future that are hopeful" (Bridwell-Bowles 47).

It is my responsibility to teach students a skill which they will carry with them throughout the majority of disciplines. I have not one English major in fifty students. For this reason, many of them, especially at the beginning, groaned at the very thought of having to learn to write in a "proper" academic style. It is my responsibility to help them realize that academic writing will be necessary for 99% of their various majors, as well as 99% of their future careers after college. I have also talked to my students about how writing can make differences in their lives, aside from collge and careers. We have talked about keeping personal journals for purposes of reflection, therapy, and future projects. We have also talked about the direct relationship between academic prose and a business style of writing. We have discussed the importance of thesis and audience with regard to writing to make a change in one's own city or expressing concerns in the upcoming presidential election. As Bridwell-Bowles said, "we must continue to make our classrooms vital places where students learn not only the various conventions of academic writing, but also the power of communication to change things, to transfer" (47). In the end, this is where it all comes to: writing to affect change.

In order to fulfill my responsibility, I feel a successful freshman composition course should give students the opportunity to become better thinkers, readers, and writers. The skills they develop should make them more successful in college, the workplace, and society. Writing can also be a powerful way of exploring and expressing personal thoughts, feelings, and experiences. Some of the writing assignmments in the class ought to allow students to examine their personal experience; while other assignments should stress writing a particular style of essay, as well as writing more to persuade an audience. The combination will allow students to learn more by connecting the work to some personal concern or interest.

I believe that most in-class time should be spent in short writing exercises, collaborative work, responding to other people's writing, and discussions. I expect and strong encourage everyone in the class to be actively involved. It is their education, after all. Each one of them has a lot to contribute. It just takes some of them longer to learn that they ahve something of value to contribute.

I should stop here and explain that while many students will never find the self-confidence to allow their experiences, thoughts, and feelings to come forth in the classroom or in their writing, most of them will develop this freedom and I believe all of them have the capability of doing so.

One of the most obvious ways to assist in bringing out this hidden potential for participation is frequent classroom workshops. As one of my colleagues recently stated in an article, "our job is to help our students build their confidence, and step by step, get them used to the crowds they must eventually face and address" (5). By the time they have worked through a semester and reached paper 5, ideally students should be used to working in these "crowds," both large and small. Over the course of the semester, at least one time with each essay, the instructor and the students should sit together in a large circle. Each student then introduces his or her topic and fields questions and comments from the rest of the class. Early in the semester, the instructor may have to call on people to make comments, but typically, it doesn't take long for many of them to start jumping in on their own. Hopefully, by the time the middle of the semester is reached, the instructor will be acting more as a moderator, making sure the active students are not overwhelming the more passive.

This large group workshop is designed to give everyone a chance to speak. It also removes the teacher from the often intimidating position of authority in front of the room. There is the added advantage of being able to sit back and just listen. In addition, it helps those who are not necessarily comfortable with speaking in front of others. Often these students feel they have nothing of value to say or that someone will think what they say is ignorant. Some students might feel they stand alone in their opinions. Opening up the floor to the entire class at once with the teacher sitting in the circle instead of up in front of the room, offers a sense of near-equality and allows the passive students a chance to hear others who feel the same way they do. It is, of course, true that some of the less active students will simply allow others to do all the work. In this circular workshop, the teacher has a good opportunity to see who is talking and to encourage the more passive to take a chance. It is a slow and careful process to bring some of these students out of their "shells." Again, this will not work with all students, but it might just reach a few more than it will be paying them no mind. In any case, it is both rewarding and exciting to watch the members of a freshman class from this eye-level as many of them discover that they do have a willingness to speak out when the instructor is not the obvious authority in the room. According to Helen Rothschild Ewald and David L. Wallace, because "both teacher and student are constructed agents in the classroom, they both actually construct meaning and are, in turn, constructed by classroom discourse" (343).

Typically, the fifty and final assignment in the English 1301 course is a short research essay. This is the last opportunity in Freshman Compsoition to hone the students' skills in the structure of academic writing. This is also the essay in which to expand their knowledge of using the library, as well as locating and documenting sources; all information which they will need to succeed in college. A library tour should be scheduled very early in this final unit. This will assure both the students and the teacher that the entire group is familiar and hopefully, more comfortable with the idea of using the library's resources. It is also a good idea to have students go back to the library as a homework assignment and locate and copy one potential source for their research paper. This will not only introduce them to using the materials on their own (without the teacher present), but will also give them something to use for practicing the preparation of a bibliography. The teacher should plan a lecture on this material as soon after the library visit as is possible. Students can be put into smaller groups where they can use each other's resources to come up with a Works Cited page.

While it is true that research papers are definitive examples of structured academic prose, there are clear areas of creative writing that occurs. First, as has been previously mentioned, it is always more successful for students to deal with topics in which they are interested. Second, there is quite a bit of creativity that is needed in order to find workable sources and learn to incorporate these sources into the product itself. For this reason, it is a good idea to hold several editing workshops, as well as individual teacher/student conferences during this unit. This again, is the process of writing at its best.

Writing as a process is not a new topic. It is a paradigm that is in place with most of its "bugs" worked out. It is now up to us as new teachers to decide whether it is more successful in teaching freshman from the perspective of a purely academic prose style (writer/reader relationship), from a creative writing mode (writer/writer relationship), or from a combination of both of these. I don't believe that it is possible to teach writing from either of the first two in a pure sense. As Brian Stensall stated:

As far as I know, we have yet to investigate the potential connection between creative writers and uninhibited writing, but from all outward appearances, I would guess that the relationship suggests creative writers may have overcome their inhibitions by exploring themselves and their abilities without the pressures of reader consciousness. (5)

Personally, I believe this to be the foundation for Mike's debates with me outside our classroom. He has enough confidence in his creative ability to deal with his chosen topics from an uninhibited perspective. This allows for a strong writing style, as well as for a talented creative voice. The more conversations Mike and I have had in this regard, the more I am convinced that the main cause of his hesitate with regard to academic writing is his lack of confidence in his persuasive skills. He has expressed on numerous occasions that he does not feel it is his place to try to persuade an audience of anything. I could not resist the obvious opportunity here. As we talked and he continued to debate the structure of English 1301, I pointed out to Mike that he unquestionably feels very strongly about the course itself. He has a very persuasive tone and logically argues his point. He has vocally dealt with the opposition and has been extremely thorough. Suffice it to say that Mike is now drafting an explanation essay on why Freshman Composition should include a combination of creative writing techniques along with academic prose methods. I look forward to another of Mike's creations.


Works Cited

Berlin, James A. "Contemporary Composition: The Major Pedagogical Theories." College English 44 (1982): 47-59.

Bridwell-Bowles, Lillian. "Freedom, Form, Function: Varieties of Academic Discourse." CCC 46 (1995): 46-61.

Ewald, Helen Rothschild, and David L. Wallace. "Exploring Agency in Classroom Discourse, or Should David Have Told His Story?" CCC 45 (1994): 342-368.

Salvatori, Mariolina. "Conversations with Texts: Reading in the Teaching of Composition." College English 58 (1996): 440-454.

Stansell, Brian. "Perceiving the Writers Readers." Unpublished Essay. Texas Tech University, English 5360, Fall, 1996.