Prompt: Philosophy of Composition

I struggled this week. How can I synthesize everything I value in the teaching of writing into a few bullet points? I started with a not-nearly comprehensive list of values, in random order, like this:

My values:

• Process-focused writing
• Engaging students’ internal motivation
• Class discussion
• Bring technology into the classroom
• New Rhetoric value of “dynamic and dialectic” truth
• Expressivist value of inherent value in writing
• Audience-focused writing
• “Real-world” writing
• Mimetic value of clear writing based on clear thinking
• Critical thinking

Then I began grouping them. What can fall under the same broad category?

Group 1

• Engaging students’ internal motivation
• Bring technology into the classroom
• Expressivist value of inherent value in writing (this almost became a separate category altogether)

Group 2

• Audience-focused writing
• “Real world” writing

Group 3

• Process-focused writing
• Class discussion
• Critical thinking
• Mimetic value of clear writing based on clear thinking
• New Rhetoric value of “dynamic and dialectic” truth (this almost landed somewhere else; perhaps it doesn’t belong at all?)

And then I attempted to synthesize them into cohesive values, below:

1: I believe in engaging students in the classroom in ways that are immediately relevant to them.

I believe in engaging students’ internal motivations by making the coursework relevant to their individual interests and realities. I value technology into the classroom in the form of blogs, discussion boards, or some other means of conducting asynchronous discussion, encouraging conversation that connects readings and class discussions to students’ personal experiences and ideas. There is inherent value in this kind of expressivist writing: both as an internal motivation to engage with coursework and as a kind fleshed-out brainstorm activity. This space would also serve as an area for students to connect pieces of their own realities (Facebook posts, relevant articles, etc) to larger ideas from class discussion (audience and purpose, for example).

2: I believe in the value of writing to a known audience and the pragmatism in preparing students for workplace writing.

I have always found significant value in assignments that required me to find my own client and complete a loosely defined assignment based on the needs of that audience. Selecting their own client allows students to write for and about audiences and contexts that may be directly relevant to their future career. In this way, my teaching would emphasize workplace writing – writing that is relevant to each student’s idea of “work” and “place.” In addition, I think that audience-focused writing teaches students human as well as practical skills, encouraging them to consider their place in society as a citizen as well as an actor.

3: I believe that classroom practices emphasizing critical thinking can engage students to think and write clearly.

This grouping feels a little garbled to me, but I’ll try to defend the choice to classify these together. I believe that critical thinking is one of the most difficult and most significant steps in the instruction of writing. Process-based (versus product-based) writing in the classroom encourages students to think about their assignments as intertwined pieces within a larger process, emphasizing things like class discussion and workshops as a means of brainstorming and revision. I believe that these practices lead to clearer thinking which leads to clearer writing.

So – what do y’all think? Would you have categorized my values in other ways?