Essay #1: Introduction Chapter--Master's Thesis

 Introduction

            During the fall semester of 2000, I completed an internship with Dr. Judy Walton, a Geography Professor at Humboldt State University.   Her class, Geography Research and Writing, which I helped develop, is a skills class designed to prepare geography students for the writing demands of the upper-division coursework in their respective major.  Part of the course is also dedicated to learning research techniques, finding appropriate sources and information, and how to correctly use citations in a paper or project.  Courses designed to prepare students for writing in their major are not common at Humboldt State, so naturally I jumped at the chance to participate.  During our first meeting she explained that she needed help teaching writing, and had contacted David Stacey, the Director of Composition, to request a graduate student for assistance in creating lessons and assignments. 

             Writing assignments in the Geography Department are typically based largely on the product approach.  This traditional method focuses mainly on the grammar and style of a paper, rather than the writer’s intended meaning, and during the process of composing the writer receives little feedback from other students or the instructor.  The final draft is usually turned in for a one-time grade, allowing the student little or no chance for revision.  However, writing assignments in the composition program are based on the process approach, a method based upon collaborative learning and writing to learn theories. Proponents of the process approach believe that writing occurs in stages, and writers produce multiple drafts before handing in a final product to the instructor.  In this system student writers are given the opportunity to read each stage of their draft to other students for feedback via peer response groups.  Also, students revise their papers to ensure their intended meaning is conveyed to an audience of readers, not to correct grammar or other sentence level errors.  I introduced Dr. Walton to process concepts, and suggested her geography students may also benefit from this method of writing instruction.  We agreed to integrate process approach practices with the assignments already predetermined for the class.  Students practiced abstract writing, integrating images with text, critiquing journal articles and conference presentations, citation exercises, introduction writing, topic generation, embedding sentences, and cover letter writing.  Students also participated in small in-class collaborative writing activities. 

            The idea to turn my experience as an intern into a Master’s Project emerged when I thought how useful and practical it would be to apply process approach methods to all content courses that involve writing.  When I refer to content, I am speaking about disciplines that teach particular information, rather than a skill.  Composition teaches the skill of writing and, for example, Biology teaches information about the natural world.  One of the failures of composition is that it is often thought of as a discipline without any content, therefore all other courses are hence “content” courses. Though I focus solely on my particular geography class, instructors in any discipline could easily learn the concepts of the process approach and apply them to writing assignments and other projects in their classroom.  As a student who has completed a BA and is working on a MA in English, I grew so accustomed to the process approach that I thought it was the norm, especially in the humanities where writing is the practiced method for expressing ideas and communicating with colleagues. To my surprise I found these assumptions to be incorrect.   The process approach is relatively unknown and almost never practiced outside of the discipline of English.

   Currently many universities, including Humboldt State, only require one semester of writing—English 100 or its equivalent.  Our composition program states, “English 100 is a course in expository writing with the intent to begin to prepare students to write in their majors as well as for personal growth and the acquisition of knowledge” (Stacey).   Though the goals of freshman composition state that students will be prepared to write in their major, this is not entirely true.  English 100 teaches students how to think and write critically, and write analytical expository essays.  It prepares them for a myriad of writing situations, but never delves into anything specific, such as how to write in the sciences or professional studies.  Many instructors in content areas expect students to arrive in their classrooms fully versed in the discipline’s proper writing format.  There are also several different citation styles besides those outlined by the Modern Language Association, the system used to teach composition.      

Content area instructors often complain of students’ inability to write effectively and correctly in upper-division coursework, and they often lay blame on their respective English Department (Moore 2). Yet, there is simply not enough time to teach students everything about college writing in one semester, and many times they enter English 100 with inadequate writing skills.  When faced with complex writing assignments in upper-division classes, strong writers will adapt while weak and developing writers, arguably a large percentage of all students, will arduously compose papers and reports that loosely follow the instructor’s guidelines.  It is wrong for the university to expect students to “know how to write,” and it is wrong for the university to continue pumping out semi-skilled writers.  It is wrong because writing, or the ability to transpose thought to text, is one of the most important skills learned in a student’s academic career.  Fortunately, this problem can be remedied by having universities require students to take two semesters of writing—the first would be basic expository writing, or a course similar to freshman composition, and the second would be a skills class designed to prepare students to write in their specific discipline, similar to the one I will detail in this project.  This skills class would use the process approach as the guiding method of instruction, and introduce the student to the proper citation and typical writing style for their major.  It could also introduce students to research techniques, including learning how to find both electronic and print sources of information. 

In our geography class we employed process approach concepts because it seemed we could accomplish more per assignment and the students learned the intended lesson more quickly.  They had an opportunity to see how other students (their colleagues) write, form and organize their thoughts, and how they feel about a given topic.  Students also received feedback from multiple sources besides the instructor.  They become more involved with their own paper when writing is completed in stages, rather than hurriedly producing a final product the night before it is due.  By requiring stages of drafts, our students had more time to develop their thoughts, ultimately producing better papers.

The ideas and concepts I have just briefly outlined will be thoroughly discussed in the following pages.  Though there are numerous ways to interpret and analyze the process approach, I wish to present it according to beliefs I have discovered and cultivated about writing and learning while an undergraduate and graduate student.  I am very intrigued by the developmental and learning habits of human beings.  The first essay, “Teaching to Multiple Intelligences” discusses why Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences is important to teachers and other educators.  I examine the current definitions of intelligence, learning, and knowledge, and attempt to offer alternative ideas about creating classroom curriculum.  The next two essays, “Collaborative Pedagogy” and “Product, Process, and the Stages of Writing” were designed to provide some theory, background, and history of collaborative learning and the process approach.  I attempt to clearly define these and other related academic terms that are either unknown or commonly confused with other methods.  The fourth essay, “Geography, Research, and Writing” discusses and outlines the specific assignments in Dr. Walton’s skills class of the same name.  It is a case study, per se, of the process approach applied to a specific class.  The final essay, “Writing Beyond English 100: Teaching Process in Content” is a final summation of the topics discussed, as well as an overview of instructor and student responses to a questionnaire I supplied.  Then the project ends with a short conclusion.