Theory of writing and where it should be taught

Brief Introduction


Douglas Downs and Elizabeth Wardle’s “Teaching about writing, righting misconceptions” brings a valid and interesting point into the light of education in a bombarding yet thorough manner, if maybe in an intricate dictation that proved difficult for the majority of the intended audience. Their research is solid, and advocates several remedies to the transgressions made to the stereotype of the First year composition course.


Article Critique:


This articles main point was an eye opener for me. It demonstrated something to me that I had seen but never actually put thought to. In my previous English courses, all I was taught were syntaxes and proper methods of writing an essay, and only recently was I taught how to inject meaning into my words. This article proposes theory of writing, which I hadn’t fathomed until I trudged through its cryptic lines, which were worth doing so because I now know the dangers of using a single form of writing for all academic areas.

One thing I find myself questioning on this article is their claim that the form of syntax shouldn’t be taught in First year Composition. If it isn’t taught there, where would it be taught? My logical answer would be to take a day from the target course and teach it there, but would a biology teacher, or a psychology teacher, teach English? My English teacher taught me how to criticize a poem, but he didn’t prepare me how to write a lab report.


Brief Conclusion


This article has opened my eyes to a new view which would have bypassed me without a thought. On forward from today I shall think to myself as I write,” am I saying anything in this text, or am I just writing to fill the page?” I wont be shy about it, I’ll exhert myself to fill the pages with content, not syntax. Not only this, but i will do my part in dispelling the myth of FYC being a course to teach structure and not theory of writing.