Alex Benavides Interview Paper

In Dan Berrett’s article, “Students Come to College Thinking They’ve Mastered Writing,” the idea of freshman thinking they are or must be a refined writer is discussed. Students may think this way coming into college, but their teachers do not. While students might feel satisfied and think that they are prepared with their writing skills, professors found that these students did not necessarily meet the expected level (Berrett 1). Many students reported that they would normally write around 25 hours every week. They said that most of those hours of writing was for more formal purposes like passages to make changes in society (Berrett 1). It was found that one reason the new students might feel this way is that their assumptions about writing differed greatly from those of faculty members and their expectations. One big thing that students will not get for a while, is that good writing is not just listed as a bunch of steps one is to follow that automatically make one’s writing good. Good writing requires one to be in different mental states; it requires the understanding of how to write for different audiences and different reasons (Berrett 2). Berrett includes in the article that writing is not just universal and that in order to do very well, writers must use different forms of writing specifically for their purpose (2). It seems as though students think that, before they even take a class, they are supposed to know everything about writing; in reality, they are supposed to learn new skills and enhance others (Berrett 2). Berrett says that many believe the schools these students previously attended with their test focus might cause these feelings about writing (2). Berrett ends his article by saying that students these days do not think that informal writing actually counts as writing, and that students should practice writing for informal purposes because it can help them (2). Even if they feel like it, students are not fully prepared to write in all contexts when they arrive at college.

The art of writing is a complex and difficult process. Proper writing requires careful planning, revision, and proofreading. Throughout the past semester, the quality of my writing has evolved significantly. At first, I struggled with the separation of different types of paragraphs, and I found writing them laborious. Constant practice, however, has eliminated many of my original difficulties, and helped to inspire confidence in my skills. As a collegiate writer, my strength lies in my clear understanding of the fundamentals of writing, while my primary weakness is proofreading my own work.

The Importance of Writing Badly was written by Bruce Ballenger. His intended audience are students who are victims of strict English teachers as well as the strict English teachers, themselves. In his essay, Ballenger portrays that students are more focused on being grammatically correct than the message in their essays. This is because of teachers who grade strictly on grammar errors and punctuation. Ballenger says, “A colleague of mine, an Ivy League graduate, is among the self-appointed grammar police, complaining often about the dumb mistakes his students make in their papers. I don’t remember him ever talking about what his students are trying to say in those papers.” (Page 74). Bruce Ballenger has effectively argued and persuaded his intended audience with his use of ethos, pathos, and logos.

Murray is insightful not only to instructors but also to learners. Murray argues that the challenge facing writing is the fact that teachers have treated it as a product rather than a process and the same concept passed on to students. The author holds that the main problem with this view is that students get to receive irrelevant criticisms that are not related to their learning goals. While I tend to agree with the author based on the arguments presented, it is notable that Murray has paid little attention to the idea of education in the contemporary world. In most learning institutions, the outcome of the writing is considered more than the process. As a teacher paying attention to the process of writing but not be consistent with the students, who are mostly driven by

As a University of Tampa freshman, I would have never guessed how much progress I could have made as a writer in class FYW 100, taught by Professor Birnbaum. Coming out of high school from one of the most prestigious, well-known schools in the nation, gave me an ambiguous amount of certainty to receiving an A in her class. Before beginning my journey in college, Jesuit, which was a college preparatory high school, gave mandatory four-year English courses to every student. With that being said, there was no doubt of me coming into freshman year of college with high confidence in my English skills.

In the article by Downs and Wardle “Teaching about Writing, Righting Misconceptions”, the author’s state a common misconception of writing for first year composition is that academic writing is somehow universal. This idea can be misleading since teachers have always taught that there is a basic set of rules for writing. However, I agree with the idea that writing is not universal because college students write for a various number of discourse communities and do not have one general audience. Content, context, and genre are bound to change while attending a university.

The six course goals of this English 109W course are to Engage in writing as a process that includes planning, revision, and editing based on feedback from peers and instructors; Critically read and analyze academic texts; Understand, identify, and analyze the rhetorical situations of academic texts, including their contexts, audiences, purposes and personas; Understand, identify, and analyze the rhetorical situations of academic texts, which may include genre, format, evidence, citation, style and organization; Develop an awareness of and preparedness for the writing they will do through their majors through research, exploration, and or practice of the discourse community’s conventions; and Engage in formal and informal writing that analyzes and critically reflects on their major’s writing conventions and their own writing practices and choices. I perceive that I have achieved all the goals for this course through the various drafts I composed, polished papers I produced, and the supplemental work that I have selected to include enclosed within my portfolio.

He walks around with a full head of hair, grey beard and a coffee mug, that’s Chad Kebrdle. One of the coolest English professors at Ancilla college, let-lone the entire state of Indiana. Mr. Kebrdle is the sort of teacher children pray for. He’s a really relaxed guy with a very unique teaching style. He is very understanding of his students, he emphasizes the use of scheduled working habits and he provokes an eagerness in his students to want to learn. By utilizing these three learning techniques, Mr.Kebrdle has efficiently been able to enhance my writing skills.

On the one hand, my mind was filled with the creative material of an intellectually curious young adult. Yet, on the other, I was afraid of the criticism my grammar skills would impose on me. What I had not realized, and did not until sadly late in my undergraduate study, was what the words grammar and conventions truly meant. Moreover, I kept waiting for the day I would walk into one of my classes and have an English professor de-liver an impromptu grammar test while also seriously evaluating my papers for grammatical errors. What I came to realize, however, was that I had an ability to present my ideas clearly. Reflecting upon this chapter, I know recognize that I was following one of Trimble’s pieces of advice: I was writing to imitate how I would speak to my intended audience. And this is the one thing I want to achieve with my students. I want them to have a clarity in their writing and for their authentic voice to shine

My experience as a scientist and writing consultant has taught me that learning to become a good academic writer requires doing it, not just listening to an expert speak on how to write, as in traditional lectured-based classrooms. Active learning strategies are backed up by evidence from the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and by my personal experience in helping non-native English physicians and scientists write more concisely and persuasively. In the context of academic writing, active learning gets students involved in discovering, interpreting, and explaining why selected examples of good writing are effective, and then applying what was learned through short, in-class writing and discussion exercises. Active learning works, because as with soccer players getting coached on the field during practice, students become better writers during class through writing and discussing, not just listening to the “coach” while sitting on the “bench” and then “working out” later at home.

As I entered the college realm, the practice of “academic writing” made it known to me fairly quickly. In the article written by L. Lennie Irvin, the author pertains to the difficulty of transferring from ordinary writing to college writing. “Writing is hard, and writing in college may resemble playing a familiar game by completely new rules (that often are unstated).” To create “successful” work

“I came to understand that apprenticeship would involve building content knowledge and displaying it by writing skillfully. Successful apprenticeship would necessitate (a) figuring out the expectations of “old-timers”—initially, my professors (the experts and gatekeepers) — and (b) discovering effective strategies for satisfying those expectations.” (Hedgcock, 2008, p. 36)

Writing takes up a significant portion of high school English classes. However, it is often the same research papers and personal narratives that students have written since the sixth grade. While it is beneficial to students to write these types of pieces, once they hit high school it becomes increasingly important for them to learn not only how to create stories but how to communicate in the professional world. In high school, students begin to entertain ideas about what career path they will choose, and to pursue internships and other opportunities related to the fields they find interesting.

Over the course of this past semester, my ability to write has improved tremendously. Prior to undertaking this course, my expertise in writing was not as fine-tuned as it should have been. I had never previously been enrolled in a class specifically tailored to writing-- which was quite clear. Upon reading my past works, it becomes apparent that my writing style consisted of fluff, small words, and inconsistently structured sentences. These problems have, for the most part, been remedied with the coursework I have tackled in College Writing. Rather than long, drawn out papers that take an eternity to reach the primary point, my recent work is much nicer in terms of composition and grammar. I credit these improvements to the three primary

Writing has continuously been a major focus in academics, yet recent graduates find it challenging to communicate clearly and concisely while using appropriate grammar. There can be numerous of reasons for the increasing trend of lack of communicating effectively. Three of the main reasons I believe students are not performing as expected include: a wrong focus on length versus clear and concise content, exponential growth of technology, and a new era of mastering multitask skills. When entering professional fields, the definition of good writing can differ between recent graduates and experience business professionals.