McCormick decides to focus on the skills required to write a research paper becasue it is a type of writing the majority of students find most challenging and it is the least taught. She presents a collaborative pedagogy involving the discussion and debate of perspectives and genuine revision. She claims that this encourages students to move away from formulaic writing and to take an original position on a topic. With this we will the elusive college-level writing we are looking for.
In presenting her pedagogy she critiques what she calls the silent classroom, insiting on "instructing students explicitly in the process of how to engage in an assignment" (207). Many teachers leave the instructing to the textbooks, but they are not clear enough and oftentimes leave students confused and isolated. She proposes allowing the class to research together and collaborate/workshop products and progress at all stages, including finding sources. They help each other along, but write their own papers. This gives them an opportunity to see different models and methods of it supports thinking. They learn from eachother and discover, along with the teacher, their strengths and weaknesses.
I thought that this was a very good idea for students that are new to the researching porocess, adn I really liked her synthesis activity. Having students review each other's sources and summarizes and connect the information provided is a great way to teach a combination of skills. Although the focus on research presented a helpful and unique perspective, it is not the only type of writing necessary at the college level and is very different than other formats. However many of the skills enforced, if learned, should transfer well.
The idea that college-level writing should not be formulaic has been discussed in several other essays, and studetns taking an original position is akin to having an original voice, original thoughts. Overall, I felt the information provided was helpful, but not groundbreaking as far as defining college-level writing. Haven't really seen it in most of what I've read so far.
And yet another article that skirts the question of what is college level writing.
ReplyDeleteWhile the focus on research is helpful, how would this be implemented? i doubt we would seriously want every FYC to be converted into "How to write a College Level Research Paper 101". So what then? do we start offering differend kinds of FYC's? one semester's research, another semester's compare and contrast, the next's argumentative...
I bring this up because the structure of the research class that he suggests implies that it would require a lot of time, meaning that a research paper would be the sole focus of the class.