Phase 1: Murray's Argument

Phase 1: Murray’s argument

Claim: We should teach writing differently.

Why?: Because the way we are teaching it now is not effective

Warrant: People want writing instruction to be effective.

How or why is it not effective?

·      We are using a teacher-centered approach where teachers are doing the work that students should be doing (see “Finding Your Own Voice”)

·      We’re working in the wrong direction, starting with finished texts and working backwards. We should not start from “language that has already been written” but, instead, start with language that is in the process of being written. (“Your Elementary Pupil”)

·      Those who teach writing are not, often, or often enough, themselves, writers (“Your Elementary Pupil,” closing section)

·       

What should we do instead?

·      Use a student-centered approach which forces the students to assume the responsibility for their writing (see “Finding Your Own Voice”)

·      We should teach by workshop method, not traditional teaching method where the teacher is a “spouting fountain of wisdom” (“Your Elementary Pupil” p. 4)

·      Not teach by genre/form (i.e. don’t give writing assignments): “the writer first has to have something to say to an audience before he can choose his form. He cannot choose the form until he knows the audience, knows the quantity and the quality of his evidence, knows his subject. You don't buy a wedding dress and then look for a wife. And yet I, too, fall into the pattern of asking my students to write description when they have nothing to describe, editorials when they have no opinions, reportage when they have nothing to report” (Finding Your Own Voice, p. 120)

·      Of what does a student-centered method consist (these come from “Finding Your Own Voice” p. 119-120):

o   The freedom to find his own subject

o   To find his own evidence

o   To find his own audience

o   To find his own form (“the writer first has to have something to say to an audience before he can choose his form” p. 120)

·      A new role for the teacher: he “reacts” more to students who have written than he teaches students who are about to write. “The teacher is a diagnostician” (Finding Your Own Voice, p. 122.) What does a diagonsitician do?

He does not write long, careful, but easily misinterpreted comments on papers most of the time. He listens to the student in conference, reads the papers selected by the student, listens to the student's own diagnosis of his writing problems, confirms it or pro- poses an alternate diagnosis, listens to the student as he proposes his own solutions, and possibly suggests alternate treatments. (Finding Your Own Voice, p. 122)

·      Also, along the lines of role, he becomes more of a facilitator and less of a teacher (traditionally defined). “He can not take the aggressive role of pouring information into the students' heads; he must wait for them to write so that he can react.” (Finding Your Own Voice p. 120) Also, “The teacher's primary responsibility is to create a psychological and physical environment in which the student can fulfill his responsibilities.” (Finding Your Own Voice p. 121)

·      More on role, he will not be a “corrector” of student writing: “The effective teacher rarely corrects a paper. That's too easy for him. Some- times he will edit a paragraph or a page, particularly on a good paper, to show how it may be shaped into a still better paper, but this must be done with discretion. The teacher who corrects an entire paper is doing the student's job of editing. He is cheating the student of the opportunity to learn, for ultimately the student must be able to diagnose and treat his own problems when he has escaped the protective custody of his writing teacher” (Finding Your Own Voice, p. 122)

·      No grades (Finding Your Own Voice p. 121)

·      Write with our students (see Cycle of Craft p. 9 and Finding Your Own Voice p. 122)