In what ways do you encourage your students to meet the challenges of writing in your discipline?
Claire Kramsch (German Department and Berkeley Language Center)
Writing is generally viewed as one of the “four skills”—speaking, listening, reading, writing—taught and learned in language classes. But learning to write in a foreign language is not about stringing together grammatically and lexically correct sentences, although these are, of course, the tools of the trade. Nor is it about expressing ideas that might equally well be expressed in English. Rather, the challenge is to let yourself, so to speak, be remade in the other language, by trying on the new combinations of words, the new patterns of sound and meaning that it alone can offer. I facilitate this experience by showing students how foreign writers use their language to write themselves into print. I have them experiment with style though “à la manière de” exercises, compose concrete poetry, write multilingual journals, communicate directly with native readers via e-mail or the Internet, and, of course, write academic essays as well. The goals are to foster authorial awareness and the conviction that the choices students make are only in part determined by native speaker use. My job is to show them their room to maneuver between native writer norms and non-native writer creativity.
Williams Banks (African American Studies)
“African American Life and Culture in the United States” is a lower-division course; typically 40-50% of enrolled students are freshmen. Through the years I have resigned myself to the fact that a hodge-podge of knowledge and sentiments entangle the study of African Americans. To begin to detangle students’ preconceptions, I assign a four- to six-page essay at the end of the third week. This carefully crafted question is grounded in the lectures and assigned readings. In order to answer it successfully, students must muse over issues of historical context, evidence, and diverse opinions. I strongly encourage students to discuss their ideas about the question-related material with other students in the class.
Students who follow the script come face-to-face with a range of sensibilities, interpretations, and beliefs about the topic and, more broadly, African American Studies. The act of writing this relatively short essay goads them into critical thinking and intellectual coherence, habits that are essential as they move into the rich and complex terrain of African American studies.
Kevin Padian (Integrated Biology)
It may seem strange, but in science one of the biggest challenges is not to write in the style of the prose that you read. Many scientists are excellent writers, especially when they write for the public. But usually, when our students consult the scientific literature for term papers and their own research projects, they’re reading the primary literature, which is virtually free of any editorial hand that elevates grace or clarity of expression to any importance. (John McPhee’s books on geology are a delight, but who would consider Newsletters in Stratigraphy absorbing bedtime reading?) So: write as we say, not as we do. In our classes we try to focus on avoiding the poor habits of primary science writing (passive voice, overuse of Latinate verbs, useless copulatives such as “due to,” “the nature of,” and “in and of itself”), and on communicating the logic and intellectual excitement of scientific questions. Good prose follows more easily from good stories, and science has some great stories.
Alan Weinstein (Mathematics)
In advanced mathematics graduate courses, I require a survey article on a topic in the area of the course. The paper is meant to be readable by the members of the class. Around the fifth week of the semester, the mathematics librarians give a presentation on electronic searching. Topic proposals are due by the sixth week, first drafts by the eleventh week, and final versions a week before the end of classes. I comment extensively on the drafts, and each final version is also reported on by a student “referee” before I issue a grade. Students are then invited to make further revisions and have their papers posted in a collection on my website. I make a similar assignment in an advanced undergraduate course in mathematical methods of classical mechanics, where the class is a mix of math, science, and engineering majors.
I sometimes give a writing assignment in Math 16A, a calculus course populated largely by social and biological science majors, many of whom have weak mathematical backgrounds. My goal in this course is to help the students become “educated consumers” rather than producers of mathematics, so I ask them to read and comment critically on articles about nontraditional (i.e., outside the “hard” sciences) applications of mathematics.
This article is inspired by the Harvard Writing Project Bulletin.
Originally published: Volume 1 – Number 1 (Spring 2000)