from Issue 1; Fall 1986; Writing Their Way into the University; Editors: Margaret Himley, Faith Plvan, Molly Voorheis, and Bobbi Werner
    Academic Literacy and Teaching Writing Faith Plvan Familiar as an instructor may be with the profile of a basic writer, facing 15 or 20 placement essays like those just identified can be overwhleming. If our goal is to help our students become fluent academic readers and writers, the focus of our instruction must clearly extend beyond our classroom and take into account literary practices throughout the university. The question then becomes how do we deal with this first piece of writing and others to come so that our students learn to work with the various academic genres that they will face in the next three or four years? How do we bring students in to the academic discourse community?

    It seems easiest to begin with the voice of authority in each of these pieces since that stance is an important part of a persuasive essay. Both writers assume an authoritative position, but Writer B seems somewhat more comfortable with that role than Writer A. His voice clearly comes through in the essay since he is fairly comfortable with the role of student taking a placement essay. He knows the script. Writer A, on the other hand, is role-playing with less ease. Her tone assumes an authority, but her essay lacks any evidence that would attest to that authority. What might happen if in the classroom these students were given specific role-playing tasks? If they first talk out of a specific voice, they could later attempt to write out of that voice. The point is to create strategies that make them comfortable with what is now an alien role--the role of the college writer.

    As well as not having clear control over their new voice, these writers don't seem to acknowledge their audience; therefore, their essays sound self-contained. If we want to establish writing as an interactive, audience-specific activity, we need to help students write that way. A heterogeneous group offers many opportunities for peer editing and collaborating--a chance for students to get feedback from other writers like themselves, but also not like themselves. Students are instantly individual members (with individual stages of development) of a group of writers all working to be accepted into another group of writers--the university community. Peer editing and collaboration clearly and actively establish the hands-on idea of a writing community.

    Writing assignments create a context for students' fiction, a "place" for role-playing, peer editing, and collaboration. If we assume that we will use these strategies, we need to be selective about writing topics. Teachers expect that what we teach in a writing class will help students come to terms with the writing mores of an academic society. We make the assumption that our work with them has been meaningful, and that they will meaningfully apply it as they critically think and write in their other classes. However, the models for these expectations are writing assignments where the loftiest goal is to choose between two movies, or perhaps, on the other hand, to consider (and solve) weighty issues like handgun control. We want to help all writers become comfortable and contributing members of a discourse community, yet our writing assignments send them mixed signals. They are either too simplistic and isolated or too unwieldy and complex. If we want our writers to truly develop critical thinking, reading and writing skills, our discourse strategies must be related. It is questionable whether critical thinking is best taught by a series of writing assignments that deal with a completely different subject each week. And if these assignments are written in what Mike Rose calls "in-class sprints," how do you separate composing problems from problems created by the composing situation?

    Our definition of assignments needs to be broad enough to include literacy practices where the instructor is not the centering authority, where the instructor does not have an ideal text in mind. Then the do's and don'ts of the composing situation are arranged by the writer as she generates ideas, gathers "readings" of her drafts from peers, and arranges her piece to fulfill her purpose and meet her audience's needs. Notice what happens when a student like Writer A is given an arbitrary ''instant" topic. She just as instantly answers the question, succinctly and to the point, yet we criticize her for her narrowness. However, the topic does ask a direct question, and she does answer with a direct response. The assignment does not set up a composing situation that encourages musing or even thoughtfulness, possible beginnings for elaboration and explanation. Despite the limitations of the composing situation, Writer B does elaborate and vacillate and wanders, but we wonder why he can't "get to the point" and stick to the subject--like Writer A??

    If we're claiming to teach a practice that will be widely used throughout a student's academic life, we should define and understand that practice. That is to say, we should base our courses around the actual practices associated with literacy in the university.