Writing and Williams

In Chapter 3 of Preparing to Teach Writing, while James Williams is bemoaning such things as the horrific declining literacy of our students (although so many things have changed the population and the task in the last 60 years - the GI bill, equal opportunity schools, the television, the computer, the Internet - that this "Golden Age" of high quality or quantity literacy must have happened from March 21-April 2nd, 1952, or somesuch), he does bring forth an effective model for teaching writing as a student-centered, process-focused activity. The writing process he describes is especially unique because it is descriptive rather than prescriptive, and anyone who knows me knows I am a huge fan of descriptive processes.

I especially like the idea of the phase model, as he describes it. While it is a bit messy, it is important that students recognize that writing can be an organic activity, that good writing doesn't neccesarily have to feel like an undue burden, or a bunch of work. The important parts of each step (Prewriting, Planning, Drafting, Pausing, Reading, Revising, Editing and Publishing) is that the student can and does recognize them when they happen, not that each one takes a certain form or amount of time ("OK students, pencils down! It's time for our Pausing! Who brought the deck of cards?").

The problem is that this is tough to teach, even in college classrooms. This is why, when teachers teach outlining, they focus so much on structural details, why planning is not discussed, and why for the longest time, my method for making a thesis statement for a literature essay was:

1. Read the book.

2. Gather significant quotes/actions.

3. ??????

4. You've got a Thesis statement!


It's easier to just give the students a standardized form and structure and hope they come up with the good ideas on their own. It's hard to communicate what exactly goes into an outline and how exactly you come up with a thesis statement, especially in group lecture, since these are individual, unstandardized activities. In addition to that, there is a large, almost unspoken taboo about unduly influencing students thought processes by "giving them the answers". In my view, we as teachers should be all about "giving them the answers". That way, if they still get it wrong, then there's no excuse, is there? Writing is hard enough as an activity without having to guess if the arguement itself is valid.


So, if I plan to use Williams's phase model, I think I have to make peace with the fact that it's going to be a lot more work, in that I have to know where every student is in the writing process, and what they are writing about. I have to be willing to guide and correct them, as well. Fortunately, I doubt that this is going to be too much of a problem.

MadS