To Study Writing (what does it mean to study writing?)

Of course, to study writing can—and should—mean many things: to study the ways that texts are produced, by single writers, dyads, or groups; to study the functions of literacy in personal development and in social and institutional contexts; to study how writing is mediated and distributed; to study the practices of literacy in situ; and to study how written texts work within or against cultural discourses, among others. (Haas, et. al, "Young People’s Everyday Literacies: The Language Features of Instant Messaging" p 379)

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Speaking Up in Class, Silently, Using Social Media

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Readings

Presentation 1: Writing Before College (Graham)
Presentation 2: A Summary of Four Longitudinal Studies on Writing Development During
Presentation 3: Error in College Writing (Lunsford/Lunsford)
College Years (Sommers/Saltz, Haswell, Curtis/Herrington, Stanford Study of Writing)
Presentation 4: What We Know About Plagiarism (Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism: The WPA Statement on Best Practices)
Presentation 5:

In Hesse’s section “On Academic Writing and Discourse Communities: A Primer” Hesse tells the story of the increasing specialization of the academy and the implications of this process for discourse. He argues that, whereas, once, the academy could be defined as a single discourse community with shared conventions for communication, since the latter part of the 19th century, colleges and universities have been comprised of multiple discourse communities, each of which have developed their own epistemologies and genres and conventions for communication.

Hesse identifies and challenges a number of commonly held assumptions:

Colleges and universities form a single coherent discourse community with conventions of communication that span all communities within the larger community.

Generalized writing courses, taught by those outside of specialized academic discourse communities, can prepare students to communicate effectively in such communities.

Truth or knowledge are discovered outside of or apart from rhetoric (writing is a matter of conveying content or that which has already been discovered)

What interests/suprises you about Hesse’s discussion of academic discourse communities and their conventions for communication and/or the way in which students learn to communicate in academic discourse communities? What questions does this passage raise for you? How can you connect it with your experience as a teacher, student, or scholar?

Bb: Primary Posts and Secondary posts
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Morning Afternoon HW:
Day 1 Getting to know Each Other/Presentation 1: Writng Before College Reading: Hesse (1-6) & Bb Discussion Board Post Read “Making Writing Assignments, Especially Formal Ones” (15-17); Bb: Describe/brainstorm an assignment you have already taught and would like to revisit or one you would like to teach.
Day 2 Presentation 2: Longitudinal Studies on Writing Development During the College Years;

Plagiarism

Herrington, Anne, and Charles Moran. “What Happens When Machines Read Our Students' Writing?” College English 63.4 (March 2001): 480-499.

Criticisms of Plagiarism Detection Software

• detection services foster mistrust and poison teacher-student relations
• except in clear-cut cases of substantive and verbatim copying without quotation, the results of detection are often marred with inaccuracies and wrong conclusions.
• some plagiarism detection software companies contain student papers which were submitted without the permission of their authors. (312)

from Wilfried Decoo and Jozef Colpaert, "Detection Systems for Text-Based Plagiarism: Developments, Principles, Challenges, and the Aftermath" (Writing and Pedagogy, 2.2, 2010)

Reasons Why Students Purposely Plagiarize

• lack of clarity regarding the rules
• a sense that plagiarism is a common practice that others get away with
• a decision that particular assignments are not sufficiently meaningful to warrant the time it would take to complete them properly (323)

from Miriam Eisenstein Ebsworth, "Plagiarism, the Internet and Student Learning by Wendy Sutherland-Smith" (review) (Writing and Pedagogy, 2.2, 2010)

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