Carnicelli Feedback

Dear Mike, You’ve done a wonderful job! Get it into print without further ado. I don’t have any emendations to recommend, really. The story about Don’s star falling pisses me off, but It certainly happened as the field became more academic. If there’s any way to emphasize even more strongly that Don’s influence on the actual teaching of writing in schools continued to remain great during this period, I’d like to see it. (ref. Pp.24-6) You’ve done a great job summarizing Don’s writings, but what I remember best about him are his talks with teachers, both here in English 401 and in workshops around the state. 

 In 1975-9, I followed Don as director of English 401. Then, at the end of my career here, from 2007 through 2013, I did the job again. My thoughts about my second term might be interesting to you, 

When I came back to the course, there were some changes, but the basic structure was the same, just as Don had set it up, and, as I set about helping young teachers to teach writing, I realized I was using ideas and practices that I’d gotten from Don Murray. 

 1. The writing teacher should help/allow the student to discover his/her own subject. 

 2. The writing teacher should provide regular writing conferences for each student. 

 3. The student should write frequently - at least five pages a week. 

 4. The student should be encouraged to revise; he/she can work on the same piece for several weeks. 

 5. The writing teacher should focus on larger issues first: content, point of view, organization. Issues of grammar can wait until later in the revision process. 

 These things may seem commonplace today, but they were new to me when I entered college teaching. I had a Ph.D. in literature and had never taken or taught a writing course. As such, I was typical of people entering college English departments back in the day. 

I’m not sure things are all that different today. There’ll always be a need for writing teachers who truly understand the writing process. Hence, I expect that Don Murray’s work will remain useful to the teaching profession for a long time to come.

 Tom Carnicelli