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A great, thorough review from @ryanaboyd of a book that adds a valuable perspective to the future of higher education. disq.us/t/3giygwi
The way @ryanboyd works with the book's argument, puts it in a larger context and adds additional insight from his own perspective is a model for how to write a "critical review. If you need a model to help students learn how to produce this genre, look no further.
One thing I'd want students to appreciate about this kind of review is how much other reading and background knowledge is embedded in the piece. A critical review isn't just giving your opinion. It's rooted in what has come before.
This is why when I ask students to write reviews they tackle subjects with which they're previously familiar so they have that background knowledge to draw on. So much of student writing that seems awkward isn't a sentence problem. It's a not having anything to say problem.
I think academics sometimes forget what it was like to try to dive in an be coherent on a topic where you don't have much of any expertise because after a time, you only write in your field.
One of the 1st things I ask non-writing instructors assigning writing in their courses to consider is how much and what students would need to know to succeed. The why's and wherefores of the genre are important, but often, we overlook how much background knowledge would help.
Some folks (and I've been among them) are literally assigning writing that would be almost impossible for students to execute well because of unconsidered underlying complexities. When students turn in awkward stuff, that's because they're struggling with meaning.
This doesn't mean you have to simplify or boil down the assignments. My approach is to allow students to write about subjects in which they have some existing expertise (as much as possible), while also helping them understand the complexities of the genre they're working in.
The goal isn't just to produce a "good" piece of writing, but to develop a deeper understanding of what goes into a good piece of writing to make it good. Sometimes that final artifact can disappoint, but if they've advanced their knowledge for the next time...that's a win.
One thing that clued me into this was to see the difference in student writing when they did it for school or for some other purpose. Almost universally the writing for not school was better, livelier, more interesting, clearer, you name it. School was a barrier to writing well.
Seeing not school writing from students I could point it and tell students, "do that," only for this other purpose. It takes some time and you have to keep pointing them away from the grade/school part and toward the purpose of the piece, but the shift comes eventually.
It's why The Writer's Practice focuses on "experiences." If we forget about the schooling part, and focus on the doing, writing will improve. This is a guarantee. Not too late to consider the book for your fall course. penguinrandomhouse.com/books/566892/t…
