Major Pedagogoical Theories

Article: "Contemporary Composition: The Major Pedagogical Theories" by James A. Berlin

According to the author, James A. Berlin there are four elements of pedagogical theories: Writer , Reader, Reality and Language. These theories are also the basics of the rhetorical theories which plays a major part in the writing process. It is Berlin's belief that whom ever is teaching writer they should keep in mind that true writing is about arguing for a version of reality, and the best way of knowing and communicating. This ideal leads to his firm belief in the New Rhetorician pedagogical approach. In this process the truth is relative, the truth has to be discovered by the writer. The Writer creates his/her own meaning, shapes reality to their liking this is the true ideal of making, making your own meaning, your own reality on paper.

The following video is a writer who explains his writing process, according to his speech he would be considered a New Rhetorician according to Berlin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLY_uXod8FQ

I agree with Berlin and the author in the youtube video, you have to write about what inspires you, it makes the story more realistic and more interesting to read because you paid more attention and invested a lot of time into what you were writing. So there is more of a believable writer's reality and meaning. The writer's version of truth is quite clear. As it goes to applying this concept to writing papers for classes with specific prompts the student would have to invest more time and thought into the assignment to make it more of their truth but also incorporating what was asked of them. If done probably they can get quite a satisfactory result.

For Example, Here is an excerpt from a paper written for class with my version of truth:
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"What the University of Richmond’s Westhampton College has done within the course of nine months was to condition their daisy buds to thinking as future wives, as debutantes, and as ring dancezillas demanding that everything is not only in order but picture perfect. Westhampton College teaches their women, “Gender is not the expression of a seamless internal identity; the essential ground action… the gendered self is ‘structured by repeated acts that seek to approximate the ideal of a substantial ground of identity… through recitation and repetition of actions that are always public or shared.” [1] To be an official woman of the Westhampton College it is felt that one must attend ring dance, if you could not make it your junior year, you are allowed to do it as a senior. You are not doing it because it is the only way in which you may obtain your ring since you can do that at any point of your life. No you are doing it because of the presentation ceremony to one’s peers, to the University of Richmond society. It was very necessary for the Westhampton College to display their women in this manner. Society must bear witness to their heterosexuality; there will be no question of a Westhampton College student’s sexuality after that night. This attitude discourages lesbians to participating in this ceremony. Although in reality no one would know because the father and not the date who walks the daisy down the stairs, it could still create awkward, uncomfortable situations. "

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[1] Nikki Sullivan. A Critical Introduction to Queer Theory. New York: New York University Press, 2003. Page 85.
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Then there is the creative writing portion as presented in the youtube clip:
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"He screams, “Wake up Cassandra! It’s not your time to go, talk to me… please talk to me!”
He started to sob, “Why did you do this?!.... Why!”
“Move out of the way sir, we’ll take it from here,” said one of the paramedics as another gently lifted him to his feet and attempted to walk him away from the scene.
“I need to ask you a few questions sir, can I count on you to co-operate with us for a while?” asked a pot-bellied officer, who appeared to careless about his feelings.
He paused and looked at Cassandra, her hair matted with blood, her clothes soaked in the crimson liquid. That morning she appeared to be so excited, they were going rock climbing in the Andes Mountains. Oh how excited she was, he couldn’t help to wonder if it was because of the adventure or… tears started to stream down his face again.
“Sir, are you okay?” asked the pot-bellied officer
Outraged he screamed, “Am I okay?! Am I okay?! My friend is on the verge of death and all you have to say to me is ‘Are you okay?!’” and with the last word he ran to her side as the paramedics were placing her in the vehicle.
“Is it okay if I stay by her side? I’m her friend,” he asked timidly.
“Go ahead,” said the paramedic with her blood now over his shirt.
With tear filled eyes he stepped into the vehicle with the one who had her blood on his shirt, the doors slammed behind him. He looked around and then at Cassandra, picking up her right hand and said, “It’s going to be okay.” With that they blared off, boring through the traffic filled street.
At the hospital there was nothing but mayhem, doctors and nurses running everywhere and barking orders, “Get her into Trauma eight now!”
“Her pulse is dropping doctor,” warned a nurse
“Hurry please SAVE HER, SAVE MY ANGEL!” cried the man and with that the doctors and nurses rolled Cassandra away to surgery leaving him alone in the waiting room."
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But either way, at the end of the day we tutors, regardless of the writing assignment have to do our best to help our tutees find their truths and realities and meanings no matter how serious or laid back the assignment the writer has a write to find meaning in their and the so does their readers.

Really Useful Knowledge

Article: Marilyn M. Cooper. "Really Useful Knowledge: A Cultural Studies Agenda for the Writing Center." found in The St. Martin's Sourcebook for Writing Tutors; edited by Christina Murphy and Steve Sherwood. Boston, MA 2008.

The author, Marilyn Copper distinguishes the types of writers into two types: traditional and organic. A traditional writer according to the author is a writer who are not in control of their writing, they follow a more structured set up and do what is expected of them, they do not attempt to blur the boundaries with their writing styles. They are the typical of students, actually traditionalists are common from where I am from in Guyana. We like do everything in a structured way, it may take a while for us to do the task as hand since we also believe in the saying "Slow and steady wins the race and slow down and take your time and do it correctly the first time". In Primary Three we had a class called Composition and we were always given a prompt and the teacher always told us what exactly he or she wanted and the students followed. I do even remember in Art Class we were specific instructions to draw a certain event and what color and materials to use. There was always a right and a wrong way to do art and write. However, this method is not that horrible in my opinion because although we were limited by a prompt or specific there was always opportuntities to blur the boundary and because we are individuals naturally all of our pieces whether it was an Art project or Writing composition were significantly different. One's individual self will always add to the limitations of a traditionalistic society. An organic intellectual however is a writer who is the agent of his writing, the author describes them as "agents of change...they develop through their fusion theory and practice and... critique of the common sense of their group." The organic intellectual is more of the idea of what the writer center wants to develop and protray but it may take a while to get used to this more liberal/ free spirited way of thinking about student writers. This concept always follows with the idea of having the writing tutors collaborate with their tutees, writing is not a task it is a talent and a craft and therefore the idea is not to give it structure and limitations but allow the student to explore and express their views in a welcoming environment.

This leads to Copper's ideal of making the writing center as a type of home away from home for the student writers. Writing should not be intimidating and students should be able to come to their tutors and feel right at home. The writing center should also be able to correct anything that may hinder the writer's ability to produce pieces worthy of the term, great. These centers are empowerment sources for students to be the agents of their papers. The tutor should only be a resource, the guide for the student writer; they should be able to help the student writer in such a way that they will know what mistakes not to make on their paper. The notion that the writing tutors are "paper fixers" is a myth; the tutor only makes suggestions and protects the tools and strategies for writing great papers. Tutors are not to criticize. Writing in the writing center is a collaborative effort.

I like the idea that the writing center should be the form of home away from the dorm/home but the only concern is that students may not able to see this perspective. Like the author said in this article students care about the grade and they do have the time to come to the writing center to feel like they are at home, they come to the writing center expecting the tutor to fix their paper to what the professor would like. A good majority of students at this school are probably the traditional intellectual type, they want to hear the phrase, “great paper” but they don’t want to formulate and strategize and explore their writing skills; they want whatever is going to get them the grade they feel they deserve. Also I find it hard to believe that a tutor would not find it easier to just fix a students paper especially if the student is not open to the longer process of learning how to write instead of learning to write that particular paper.

A Community of Teachers and Tutors

Article: Essid, J. & Hickey, D. "Creating a Community of Teachers and Tutors." Electronic Communication Across the Curriculum. Eds. Donna Reiss, Richard Selfe, and Art Young. Urbana, IL: NCTE, 1998: 73-85.

Link to Article:

http://blackboard.richmond.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab=courses&url=/bin/common/course.pl?course_id=_14559_1

Before reading this article I always thought that a writing fellow like any other tutor job's to help you "fix" your paper by telling you want to do to make it acceptable for the professor, after which that was the end of the process. However my assumption like most was wrong, the authors, Essid and Hickey explained in the article the main aspects and expectation of the University of Richmond writing fellow. A writing fellow at the University of Richmond is should play the role of a peer editor, in other words, they should resemble or act in the manner of an authorative figure; but as a friend helping to collaboratively write the tutees paper. Students should also be made aware that the suggestions the tutor makes are in facts just suggestions and not law. By doing this the tutors seem less intimidating to the tutees. Also because it is a collaborative effort the student should be more involved because it is in fact their paper by having equal say on how to improve their writing skills.

This method is an interesting way of looking at tutors and tutees relationship, for any other subject it's usually a very formal and rigid way of going about the process. Usually the tutee is a confused vessel waiting for the tutor to fix the problem in the same matter a teacher would. So it's interesting to look and refer to the writing tutor as a "fellow". Students helping students achieving writing success together, learning for each other and improving on their writing skills as partners in the learning process. However I do think it would take a while for this teaching method to catch on since most students are used to being told what to do and what is the right way of doing something and really thinking for themselves on how to do the process because most people in my generation are used to being babied and spoon fed everything.

The authors also talk about using technology mostly online programs to help English as a Second Language (ESL) students in their writing progress since there is a predicted increase in these students and it may be beneficial to be more accessible to them and other students of course by offering online sessions. This could be a good idea if this is done in addition to an one on one section or else students would just take what the tutor suggest as law and not really put a lot more revision effect into the writing process. I say this a very important reason, as a student from a different country, I personally think it's a bad thing. Technology makes it more efficient to handle more people at a time but IT MUST be done in addition to one on one sessions. It would be more helpful to do especially for an ESL student, it helps to hear suggestions out loud than to read them on paper or on a screen.

In the book, Online Education: Proceedings of the Sloan Summer Workshop on Asynchronous Learning Networks By John R. Bourne, Janet C. Moore, Sloan Center for OnLine Education, Sloan Center for OnLine Education, SCOLE, SCOLE; the authors talk about the going the technological way with online schools. Although the schools are online the students are still encouraged to be an Organic Intellectual and collaborate because that is what works for the students and that is how you find out about your writing skills. Even though the students are in different place doing work online they must learn also that learning is an inactive stage and so when they work together not only will they write a better paper but they will learn more about their writing skills.

Click on the link below to have a look at the online book:

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=fKkYquOtXEEC&oi=fnd&pg=PA101&dq=the+importance+of+learning+how+to+write+great+papers&ots=can3Tq9CF9&sig=VB4pNP3Z-NuQtQoQgkAir8ANLoo#PPA101,M1