(Page 48) “They don’t need a teacher who assigns writing; they need a teacher who demonstrates what good writers do.”
(Page 50) “Students do not understand that most first-draft writing, for everyone, is lousy.”
All writing is not created equal! Because of that, we have to show students what to do with the kinds of writing we want them to do. Just because I’m pretty decent at writing a blog thread does not mean I would remotely know how to go about writing some sort of law brief. (I don’t even know if the term “law brief” even exists…it just sounds like something I’ve heard on t.v. before!) So, as Gallagher points out, if we want students to produce good written work, we must show them how to do it. Though I took three years of science in high school (one more year than was required for graduation at the time, I might add!), I truly have no idea how to write a lab report. However, I suspect if Stephanie showed me how to write one—as opposed to just telling me to write it—I bet I could do a decent job. I’m sure my first one wouldn’t be the best, but each time I could be shown something to improve upon and eventually do a darn good job at writing lab reports.
I chose the second quote because students do have a tendency to think that teachers—and even professional writers—just write well naturally. Granted, the first draft of writing for teachers and authors may be better than what many students initially could produce; however, polishing is still necessary. For those of you who are Twi-hards (lovers of the Twilight saga) and have gone to author Stephenie Meyers’s Web site, you know she has posted a draft of Midnight Sun, a novel she was working on which is basically Twilight from Edward’s point of view. She did not want the manuscript “out there” and only posted it because it had already been leaked on the Internet. Meyers was not happy, to say the least, that the leak occurred, and she prefers that her fans not read the unfinished draft. She says, “the writing is messy and flawed and full of mistakes.” I love that she writes that…we’re talking about a woman who has sold MILLIONS books, and she says that her first draft writing is not so great. What I would really love is to be able to compare a final draft of Midnight Sun—if Meyers ever decides to finish it—to the first draft. I think being able to show that to students would be an awesome lesson in the revision process!
(Page 50) “Students do not understand that most first-draft writing, for everyone, is lousy.”
All writing is not created equal! Because of that, we have to show students what to do with the kinds of writing we want them to do. Just because I’m pretty decent at writing a blog thread does not mean I would remotely know how to go about writing some sort of law brief. (I don’t even know if the term “law brief” even exists…it just sounds like something I’ve heard on t.v. before!) So, as Gallagher points out, if we want students to produce good written work, we must show them how to do it. Though I took three years of science in high school (one more year than was required for graduation at the time, I might add!), I truly have no idea how to write a lab report. However, I suspect if Stephanie showed me how to write one—as opposed to just telling me to write it—I bet I could do a decent job. I’m sure my first one wouldn’t be the best, but each time I could be shown something to improve upon and eventually do a darn good job at writing lab reports.
I chose the second quote because students do have a tendency to think that teachers—and even professional writers—just write well naturally. Granted, the first draft of writing for teachers and authors may be better than what many students initially could produce; however, polishing is still necessary. For those of you who are Twi-hards (lovers of the Twilight saga) and have gone to author Stephenie Meyers’s Web site, you know she has posted a draft of Midnight Sun, a novel she was working on which is basically Twilight from Edward’s point of view. She did not want the manuscript “out there” and only posted it because it had already been leaked on the Internet. Meyers was not happy, to say the least, that the leak occurred, and she prefers that her fans not read the unfinished draft. She says, “the writing is messy and flawed and full of mistakes.” I love that she writes that…we’re talking about a woman who has sold MILLIONS books, and she says that her first draft writing is not so great. What I would really love is to be able to compare a final draft of Midnight Sun—if Meyers ever decides to finish it—to the first draft. I think being able to show that to students would be an awesome lesson in the revision process!
