Letter_to_an_Author_2

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University of Nevada, Reno *

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102

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English

Date

Feb 20, 2024

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docx

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Uploaded by paytonsalter8

Payton Salter Professor Adler English 102 15 February 2023 Dear Peers, I have taken your excellent advice into consideration while writing this letter and have made a lot of changes that I hope were beneficial to my argument. As one of my peers suggested, I have broken up my letter a little more to show the difference in Fish’s argument and my own personal opinion and it seems to have created a better flow that was more easily understandable. It was also brought to my attention that I used Young as another author when I was not supposed to do that which made a huge difference in the outcome of my grade. It seemed that my personal experience of trying to learn a new language in high school was beneficial to my argument because I was trying to prove the point that learning something new isn’t always easy and we should try to be more patient about it. I expanded my perspective behind that a little bit more to try and convince Fish that there are other methods of teaching when it comes to learning a new language and trying to be more inclusive of others’ backgrounds. I have always had an interesting writing process when it comes to proving my argument and this was specifically challenging because I had to ultimately pick a side and argue how we can improve language barriers in schools. I wanted to make sure that Fish knew that I was supporting his claim of teaching proper English to students in schools, but, I also wanted to make sure that he was more considerate of the feelings of the students he is expecting this from. I hope that I used your advice in the correct manner and that I improved my skills in writing. Thank you for all of your advise and I wish you the best of luck. Sincerely, Payton Salter Dear Mr. Fish,

My name is Payton Salter and I am writing to you to discuss your article “What Should Colleges Teach?”, and how we can further advance the learning of standardized English in the school systems. Your technique for improving reading and writing in secondary schools is very compelling and although I agree with most of your arguments, I do believe the conversation on standardized English can be opened up to different perspectives. In your article you quoted the Conference on College Composition and Communication saying, “We affirm the students’ right to their own patterns and varieties of language - the dialects of their nurture or whatever dialects in which they find their own identity and style.” (Fish 2). So if students choosing their own language is a constitutional right, why should we try and change that? I fully support your claim when you said “You’re not going to be able to change the world if you are not equipped with the tools that speak to its present condition. You don’t strike a blow against a power structure by making yourself vulnerable to its prejudices.” (Fish 3). This is so well written and provides an excellent analogy to the conversation of discrimination in the school community and how we can be more inclusive of languages. I do believe there should be some sort of process in secondary school systems that can teach students how to speak and write proper English but we should not have to limit their creativity because they can not express themselves in a different language as well as they could in their first language. To add some personal insight to this discussion, when I was taking Spanish in high school I always struggled with forming a sentence because it was not my first language. If I had a teacher that asked me to write an essay in “proper Spanish”, I could only assume it would make little to no sense. I think sometimes we have to put ourselves in others’ shoes and imagine how difficult it would be to fight the language barrier they may be struggling with and try to be more sympathetic to what we are asking of them. I would like to introduce a new perspective if you don’t mind, what about opinions on racial injustice? I’m sure that your intentions behind your writing were not meant to be perceived that way but many people can argue that forcing children to learn a new language or “proper English” can be misinterpreted as trying to force something on them. Quoting from someone who has a lot to say on this

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