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While reading the various articles by Peter Elbow and David Bartholomae I have been introduced to many ideas that I have never thought of before. In my experience with writing classes, I have learned various styles of writing and then was required to produce whatever style for my teacher. My grade was often based on grammar, organization as well as many other criteria. For the most part, the writing processes in my classes have been as follows: come up with a topic, outline, draft, and final copy. There have been a few exceptions and variations but all included teacher supervision. Some of Elbow's concepts seem to be a good idea in the writing classroom such as free writing and writing for oneself. I have used some of these ideas in some of my writing process just in the last few weeks and in some of my writing over the years without even realizing it. Although some of Elbow's techniques may be useful in the writing classroom, the idea that the classroom should be teacher-less is impossible to achieve. Furthermore, his concept of being able to write as oneself without the outside influence being part of that personal self is impossible.
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Elbow states in his work, Writing Without Teachers, "It is possible to be a student and not have a teacher. If the student's function is to learn and teacher's to teach, then the student can function without a teacher, but the teacher cannot function without a student. (ix)" This is only true if the definition of a teacher is a person who talks at a class for an hour while the students vigorously take notes and then grades their papers and judges whether or not their writing is "good." I think a teacher is more than that; I would also argue that a teacher does not even have to be the person who critiques the work of the student.
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I would define teachers as people who take the knowledge they have learned, the techniques that work best for them, etc. and pass it on to another (the students) so that students may use it to help them with their writing. So if this is the case, then the student's job to learn is always from a teacher even when it is not directly from a human grading the work and directing them in the best way to write. The student's "teacher" could come from a book called, "How To Write Like an Academic." The teacher is the author; the student most likely will not know the teacher; the teacher may not even be alive. In my English 123 class the required text was the Bedford Researcher. Supposedly this handbook had all we needed to write an accurate, well written research paper complete with accurate citations with credible sources. In this sense the book could almost replace the students' teacher and the students could have been just as successful; the book could have been the teacher.
2
The same concept could be applied to a student learning to write by imitating a famous writer. Suppose a student takes David Willbern's work and imitates that, uses a similar argument structure. Willbern would in a sense be the teacher. The only difference is Willbern does not know that he is teaching somebody something. However, even if it is not the intention to teach somebody something through writing, ideas are expressed, opinions are stated and those opinions and ideas may be used through another's work.
2
A student can also learn from another student. In the collegiate level especially, every student comes from different back rounds so some may be better educated in writing than others. Perhaps a student gets help from another student through just proofreading a paper or brainstorming ideas. Is the student helping being the teacher? Some of the most significant things I have learned in some of my writing classes have been from my peers. When I have been given help from another student whether it be proofreading something or helping me rework a paragraph, am I not learning something from them; are they not teaching me something they know that I may not have known? I am actually learning something from the person critiquing or make suggestions to improve this work. That person, whether it is another student or the teacher, is teaching me something.
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Furthermore, the writing classroom can never be teacher-less because the student is always producing their writing from an outside source. Bartholomae states in his work Writing With Teachers that "Students write in a space defined by all the writing that has preceded them, writing the academy insistently draws together: in the library, in the reading list, in the curriculum. (64)" His point is that all writing is influenced by someone or something; every writer produces work from previous elements in their life. Just in writing this paper I look back to what others have said and to my past experiences. I could not write this paper if I did not have the back round information and experiences to help me.
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Looking back to the "How to Write Like an Academic" scenario, suppose that this author is the teacher figure. The influence from the outside still comes from the possible topics in this book because the student is assuming that the instructions on how to write is the best way to write and the results will in theory be good writing and acceptable writing topics. There have been many times that I write in order to impress my teacher because they have a certain opinion or they teach a certain way of what acceptable writing is.
So there can never be a teacher-less classroom nor can a student write solely from within themselves without having the outside come through their writing. There is too much influence and diversity in the classroom for students to just teach themselves to write without some kind of teacher whether it be an author, one of their peers or a teacher standing in front of the classroom and then to write from within and everything else being on the outside cannot work because many of these outside influences make up what a person is.
Posted by illaria on September 14, 2008
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