In Teresa Thonney's Teaching the Conventions of Academic Discourse, she is upfront about the problems with first-year college student writing. But not only that- she describes how to fix them! Teachers are her primary audience, not students like you and me, but this makes the writing much more valuable.
She clearly breaks down why first-year students struggle with writing, where they go wrong in academic writing, and what tools teachers can equip them with the fix these problems. Her language is very academic, but the overall piece is easy to understand because she breaks it down to six main issues.
The way the journal was split up was the most enjoyable part for me. Of course it was, because it was simpler to understand and although I am not her primary audience, it appeals to me. By breaking the piece into six common problems and their solutions, it made the piece friendlier to the audience and seems like a check list for students like me. When I write my next essay, I can go through the six steps and see what I can improve. It is also beneficial to other scholars because they can base their teachings off of her organized six step approach.
The one thing that definitely doesn't appeal to me: all the citation. I see how the citation would appeal to other scholars: it is appropriately done and adds a lot of credibility to her main points. But for me, it made the reading harder to get through and it was hard to focus on specific examples.
One point that Thonney makes that stands out to me is when she says, "Some composition instructors want students to avoid statements of purpose that begin 'In this paper' and to avoid 'blueprint' statements,"(CR 47). This is the opposite of instruction I have been given in the past. In fact, I had many AP teachers who would hammer home the idea of the statement of purpose and blueprint, they even used those exact terms. Thonney concludes that section by explaining why this IS an important skill for writers; she explains that teachers read so many papers so quickly, that being clear and having direction will make it more likely that the student will get a higher grade. My AP teachers would always always always tell me this, and I believe it helped me pass many of my AP tests. At the time, I thought it was so annoying how my teachers would make us practice blueprints and statements of purpose over and over again, but now I'm grateful and understand that they were helping prepare me for college. Thanks AP teachers!
Interestingly enough, I had the opposite experience when it came to my AP English classes. Back to back, they emphasized the importance of a solid 5 paragraph essay with buildable thesis and argument, till the point where I felt as though I was doing mind-numbing purposeless busy work. I didn't really care about what I was spitting out, all I really cared about was the number that I would get. For that reason, I feel like I wasn't well prepared in essay writing; I think I have the skills on my own to handle it, but instead of actually being passionate about and caring what I was producing, I was taught to stifle that.
ReplyDeleteWhile my AP English teachers may not have been the best, I'm glad you enjoyed and have gained from yours. I too also liked Thonney's article, and the way she broke it down. It makes it a nice checklist to refer to for later academic writing.
I also liked how the article was split up into sections, that made it a lot easier to understand and follow Thonney's writing. I'm definitely with you in taking some of the techniques and steps for improving my writing when I write my next essay. However, I was never told in high school to make a blueprint for my paper or state what the paper was going to be about, but I can see the appeal to letting your audience know what your paper will be about as it makes it easier to understand.
ReplyDeleteThe way she broke it up into sections definitely made it easier to read! The start of each section made it seem like a little reprieve. As students, we read, well, a lot. And we have short attention spans. So, even though we weren't her primary audience, she definitely made it much easier for us to read by breaking it up. And the citations, ugh, THE CITATIONS. They totally messed with the flow of my reading. I just want to get the point she is making, not read last names in parentheses. But I know that's necessary; it was just a little irksome to continually read them.
ReplyDeleteI relate to AP teachers hammering in the need for blueprint statements! It seemed as though those statements were a necessity if you wanted an A or even pass your AP tests. Also, the format of Thonney's work was so simple, definitely an aspect of writing we should all consider. Personally, I was taught so many strategies and skills to make my essays more complex which, in turn, made them seemingly way too complex. Her simplicity made it very easy to follow and perfect described aspects of writing that many young college students are missing in their writing.
ReplyDeleteI agree with all the citations making the article more difficult to read. It just didn't flow as well, I think mainly because of all the names were awkward to read. Also, your point about AP teachers is beyond relatable. Personally, I hated literature and language arts classes, and the repetition of things like the blueprint statements just added to my irritation. But I do think it made me a better writer because it makes my writing easier to read. The straightforward structure takes out any guesswork for the reader.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you said about the amount of citations. The use of citations is good in that it helps add credibility but for reading what she had to say it made it harder to read what she had to say. I also think that using a blueprint in writing is good in that it makes the purpose very clear in the writing. My teachers in high school almost always told me to make it very clear what the thesis or purpose is in the paper in order to make the paper easier to grade and to clearly show that we are answering the prompt.
ReplyDeleteI could not agree more with your blog opener. Author Teresa Thonney presents us with our issues in writing, explains them, and provides numerous examples of what she is talking about. She is clear in her explanations as she identifies our fatal flaws. This is also very relevant to us, especially being first-year college students about to write our first ever college papers. I know several people who received amazing grades in English in high school who went on to college only to receive Cs on their papers at best. This is not because they devoted less time and effort to their college papers, in fact it is usually the opposite, but this is due to the professors looking for something else. It is difficult for us to understand without losing points on it first, but this is why I really enjoyed reading Thonney’s article as she discusses what we do wrong and how to fix it.
ReplyDeleteI loved how the writing was split up. Not only was it easier for me to read, but in the future, it is much easier to get back to certain topics. Similarly, subtitles give you a very small glimpse as to what is coming. I 100% agree that all the citations and referring back to studies and people get overwhelming for me. Especially as I do not know many of the people, in order for me to understand and fortify the evidence, I need to separately search up who this supposed scholar is and why they are so important Thonney felt the need to include this. It becomes like additional work for me... not what I need when I am already trying to figure out what the rest of the scholarly article is saying.
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