2.+Essential+Writing+Skills

__**Section Outline **__

Chapter 11: Writing Process in Action Chapter 12: Writing Effective Paragraphs Chapter 13: Effective Compositions Chapter 14: Elaboration Chapter 15: Revision Strategies Chapter 16: Stylistic Choices


 * "There is no right way to write. Along the way, you have to figure out what works best for you" (Language Network 291). **

This quote comes from the first paragraph of Chapter 11, immediately signaling to students that this book will let them explore the different paths that writing can take them on and lets them know that one correct way is not always the right way. This sets the tone for the textbook by alerting students and teachers that it is going to focus on more of a process type of pedagogy, rather than a current-traditional approach to teaching the writing "process." Although this is what is portrayed in the first paragraph of the chapter, there are some times throughout the "Essential Writing Skills" section that current-traditional methods are utilized, but in a way that doesn't make it seem like that is the students' only option of attacking the writing process.

All of these chapters focus on the different writing tactics that can be used to approach the writing process. Something that all of these chapters included was a "Write Away" section at the beginning of each section to get students ready to think about what the chapter was going to elaborate on. This is something that could easily be tied in with process pedagogues, such as Tobin and Elbow - letting the students write about the way in which they write, instead of jumping into a linear process that only deals with the pre-write, write, revise way of writing. The first "Write Away" for Chapter 11 denotes process pedagogy and gives the students the following prompt:

//What kind of writing do you like best? What kind do you dread? What is the biggest problem you face when you write? How do you overcome it? //

This aligned with the process pedagogues by immediately trying to get students to concentrate on what works for them as writers, how they can concentrate on their strengths and weaknesses, and even the type of writing that they like to do best. By having this at the beginning of a chapter as an exercise for students to complete, it is showing that this textbook concentrates on the way that students come to the writing process - it makes them focus on themselves as writers, rather than just be given a prompt and begin to answer the question.

Other chapters in this section of the book focus simply on giving students advice. Although the advice they give is for the most part linked to current-traditional theories, they are able to throw in aspects that let the student know that if they don't follow certain steps, it is okay. At one point, Language Network even says, "Writing is recursive," associating itself with the similar ideas of Faigley and Emig when they propose that "writing isn't realistically attacked by a pre-write, write, re-write course of action." This textbook concentrates more on informing students of different approaches to the writing process, things that will make their writing better, but never seem to push the fact that there is only one way to do it. Language Network adheres to the theories of process pedagogues, but still alerts students of current-traditional ways of attempting the writing process.

__**Strengths and Weaknesses **__

Some of the strengths of this section of the book were the ways it portrayed the writing process. As we have noted in the Section Outline above, Language Network does a great job of letting students know that it is okay to have your own way of writing. It encourages students to write in ways that work best for them, and to find their own stylistic voice, but also provides direction when it comes to the essential parts of writing, or what may enhance students' work. At one point, Language Network even refers to the writing process as 'recursive,' associating itself with the similar ideas of Faigley and Emig when they propose that "writing isn't realistically attacked by a pre-write, write, re-write course of action." Here is how Language Network defines the writing process:

"The writing process generally involves five stages: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing/proofreading/publishing/reflecting. The process is recursive. You can begin writing at one of the later stages or return to an earlier one throughout the process. As you write, you will develop an individual process that suits your style and occasion for writing" (Language Network 292).

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Here, we can already see the combining of two types of pedagogies: it is describing to the students that the writing process usually includes going through these specific, linear motions, but then counteracts the current-traditional theory by saying that it is also acceptable to approach the writing process in a recursive, independent way.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Another strength that is shown throughout the "Essential Writing Skills" section is the focus on promoting peer response, focusing on self-reflection after the completion of an essay, and becoming aware of the audience in which they want to reach. The attention to the audience also relates to the social view of Faigley's essay and the decoder portion of Kinneavy's Rhetorical Triangle.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Some weaknesses that seemed to come to the surface in these chapters were the seemingly knee-jerk reaction to using the current-traditional theories. As much as they included many ways of letting students know that current-traditional is not necessary, they still seemed to feel the need to include these types of rules. There seems to be a little bit of a battle between the current-traditional theory and the process theory because they are so intertwined throughout the section. It may be hard for students to find a different way to write when reading this because they will be given examples of things such as the five-paragraph essay, but not really know how to approach the writing process in any other way. We think it is great that they are letting students know that there are other options to writing and that a 5-step, linear process is not mandated, but it lacks in the areas of teaching students how to write in ways that are not current-traditional.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">From a future educator's standpoint, many parts of this section would be useful to use in the classroom, but there are also some things that we decided could be eliminated. Using this in our future classrooms would give us a way to concentrate on our students as potential and growing writers, rather than enforcing a specific way of writing. This section could serve as a template for teachers to concentrate on, but it would be up to us, as teachers, to portray to students the different ways of writing, instead of the 5-paragraph essay and the linear steps that lead up to it.

__**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Activities/Exercises **__ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">In general, the activities and exercises used in this textbook seem like they could be quite helpful for the improvement of students' writing and letting them explore what personally works for them as writers. The "Write Away" exercises at the beginning of each chapter really set the tone for what the students need to be concentrating on and what they will come away with from reading the chapter. Some other "Write Aways" include:


 * 1) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">"Try writing a paragraph about one of your personal strengths that could be included in a college application essay. Clearly state your strength; then support it with details or an example."
 * 2) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">"Find you’ve already written and analyze it. What large picture would you use to illustrate its thesis? What smaller pictures would you use to illustrate the main idea in each paragraph?" (This one could be especially beneficial to students who are visual learners and would help with meeting different areas of diversity in the classroom)
 * 3) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">"Use vivid details to describe the "elaborated" truck shown above."

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">These seem to be beneficial for students because not only are they asked to complete a task at the beginning of each chapter, but in many of the chapters, they are asked to come back to what they wrote and reflect on it, depending on what they know now after having read the chapter. This is a great way for students to look back on their own ways of approaching writing prompts and letting them have a little self-discovery when it comes to whether they think they have sufficiently completed the task.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Also, at the end of each chapter the "Student Help Desk" focuses on the aspects of the chapter and provides a review for the students. Many of these "Student Help Desks" seem to correlate mostly with the current-traditional theory by concentrating on proofreading for mistakes such as grammar, spelling, or correct punctuation. It also provides tips for students when it comes to the writing process and gives advice on how to overcome certain obstacles that they may be facing throughout their personal writing experiences.