The Megaphone (Georgetown, Tex.), Vol. 70, No. 20, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 10, 1977 Page: 1 of 11
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MEGAPHONE
Southwestern University, Georgetown, Texas 78626
February 10, 1977
Volume 70, Number 20
Why Johnny Can’t Write Either
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the Faculty Workshop on the teaching of
Photo by Mike Floyd
writing.
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Dr. Susan Wittig, English professor from
UT Austin, served as resource person for
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GEORGETOWN 11
of learning will have much to do
with how receptive students
are.
"Improving writing ability
cannot really be imposed on
students. And, again, we cannot
help students adequately unless
we improve our skills as faculty
people. Students and faculty
often have many of the same
problems in improving skills
and analyzing writing."
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by Steve Cotton
"I know we need to help
students more with their
writing, but when we give them
low grades right away, they
just sigh and drop our
courses."
"How can you motivate
students to learn good writing
skills when a properly-earned
low grade is so demoralizing to
many of them?"
These comments were
typical of those made during
the workshop on the teaching of
writing which was held last Fri-
day and Saturday in the
library.
"The question is, how do we
make the giving of low grades a
respectable and cared-about
enterprise?", asked Dr. Walter
Herbert, English department
chairman and organizer of the
conference for faculty, students
and administrators.
"There is nothing more
demoralizing to a professor
than to spend a great deal of
time grading, critiquing a
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The conference sessions Fri-
day were centered around par-
ticular problems with writing,
errors which appear often ir.
writing assignments. Sentence
construction, faulty logic,
paragraph development,
sentence variety and the
students' grasp of the subject
matter were dealt with by Wit-
tig using transparencies and an
overhead projector.
"Most students have
problems with their arguments
and conclusidns as well as the
construction of sentences,"
said Wittig.
Dr. Francis O'Brien stressed
the need to diagnose students'
writing strengths and
weaknesses early on.
Susan Wittig, UT English
professor and conference con-
sultant, pointed out the impor-
tance of proceeding carefully in
helping students with their
writing.
"The concept of the teacher
is central here. Whether he or
she is seen as the Gatekeeper of
the Profession or the stimulator
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After a list of these problems
were analyzed with faculty par-
ticipation, the group broke up
into smaller groups of five or
six. There were four handouts,
copies of actyalpapersdone by
Southwestern students, which
each group analyzed and
reacted to, commenting on the
problems outlined earlier.
In one group, a professor
stated that he had an informal
policy of grading much more
closely the writing of students
destined for a career requiring
a great deal of writing, such as
law. He generally was easier on
those students whom he felt
were. not that concerned with
their classwork or their
writing, feeling that the former
category of students is a more
critical one.
He acknowledged that this
policy is fraught with prob-
lems, but seems to be one way
to deal with a bad and worsen-
ing situation.
In one group, one of the two
students present maintained
that "what the faculty has to do
is show the student the necessi-
ty for good writing in the world
outside the University. We need
to be shown the importance of
writing in real terms, in terms
of getting and keeping a job,
writing a letter to the complaint
department of Ford Motor
Company, and so on. You've
got to get to the student 'where
he lives'."
Weldon Crowley, history de-
partment chairman, claimed
that "it's the reading one does
that helps one's writing. . . "
"Well, what specifically?",
asked Bob Soulen, science
professor.
"Everything", replied
Crowley characteristically.
The group began Saturday's
meeting with breakfast in the
SUB, then moved to the library
for the resumption of the con-
ference.
Wittig discussed classroom
techniques at length, with per-
sonal and professional ex-
periences offered by those
attending.
"Establish the importance of
writing early in your courses,"
encouraged Wittig, "and es-
tablish the criteria for
successful writing."
(continued on page 12)
paper, then have the student
get it back, perhaps see a poor
grade, and promptly dispose of
it in file thirteen", said
Herbert.
Dean Clifford raised the
question, "Is the grading
system the enemy in learning
to write? I don't really com-
pletely evaluate a student's
overall performance until the
end of the year — in some cases -
isn't this a better time at which
to use actual grading to
measure student progress?"
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The Megaphone (Georgetown, Tex.), Vol. 70, No. 20, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 10, 1977, newspaper, February 10, 1977; Georgetown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1559984/m1/1/?q=%22Religion+-+Denominations+-+Methodist%22: accessed July 9, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Southwestern University.