I wasn't allowed to use contractions in my dissertation - but of course,
few of our students are writing dissertations, and if they are, they
aren't doing it for our classes. One thing I've found handy in my
grammar class, though, is to have students look at a list of
contractions and try to decide which of them are less formal than others
- "can't" is prohibited in only the most achingly formal registers, but
"I'd" is another story (I also bring up the difference between "cannot"
and "can not").
On the first person pronoun issue, I think students need to be able to
write without it, but shouldn't get the impression that there's anything
inherently wrong with a first-person style in general. The only real
problem with first-person-ing that I've run into in college classes is
that students who are unused to writing arguments will use first person
and present what would otherwise be an assertion of fact as if it's an
opinion statement They're using constructions like "I think" to hedge,
like I did in the first sentence of this paragraph; science writing uses
tons of hedges, but they operate by shifting probability ("potentially
indicates...") rather than tying things to opinion. I'm still trying to
figure out how to politely negotiate the whole issue of opinion and
science with composition students; "your opinions really, honestly don't
matter much, but your arguments and their validity do" seems a bit
abrupt. At the other end of the spectrum, I've had students who so
strongly believed that first person was always bad that they tried to
write personal reaction statements without ever using "I" or "me." It's
possible to manage that, but no one will particularly want to read the
result.
Sincerely,
Bill Spruiell
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Peter Adams
Sent: Monday, June 01, 2009 9:39 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: levels of formality
I've never understood some teachers' constraints on first person, so I
look forward to reading the replies to Paul's post.
I also wonder about contractions. I tell my students that they
shouldn't use them in very formal writing or when writing to an audience
that thinks they shouldn't be used. I also tell them I've never written
anything in my life that was so formal that I avoided contractions.
Where do others stand on this?
Peter Adams
On Jun 1, 2009, at 9:01 AM, Paul E. Doniger wrote:
In requiring students to write some papers in "formal English," I often
come across some gray areas. My tendancy is to be somewhat conservative
about formal language. I wonder where others draw lines regarding
levels of formality. For example, some of my students use words that
seem too informal to me, like "morph" (verb form). Also, I know we have
discussed the use of the first person before, but I think it is
sometimes valuable to challenge students to write persuasive pieces that
avoid using the first person altogether. Where do the rest of you stand
on such issues?
Thanks,
Paul E. Doniger
"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an
improbable fiction" (_Twelfth Night_ 3.4.127-128).
________________________________
From: Scott Woods <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Sunday, May 31, 2009 6:45:07 PM
Subject: Re: Class size ATEG Digest - 28 May 2009 to 29 May 2009 -
Special issue (#2009-127)
Herb,
I wasn't clear. Currently, for seventh grade English, I teach four
groups of students for a total of 112 students. I meet with each group
five times each week. I think that I could get better results by
meeting with all the groups together on some days and with each group
separately on others. This would reduce total student contact hours for
me, but not for them. With 28 total contact hours per week next year (I
teach other classes as well), I would benefit from reducing my contact
load and spending that time planning, developing lessons, and responding
to writing.
Scott
--- On Sun, 5/31/09, STAHLKE, HERBERT F <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
From: STAHLKE, HERBERT F <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Class size ATEG Digest - 28 May 2009 to 29 May 2009
- Special issue (#2009-127)
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Sunday, May 31, 2009, 1:21 PM
Scott,
I'm not join this debate because I don't know the research on
either side, but meeting one group of 112 students twice a week rather
than four groups of 28 students twice a week for each group strikes me
as simply a different way of handling the same student-teacher ratio.
Meeting four groups of 112 students twice a week for each group seems a
more apt contrast. Or you could lower that to four groups of 42 or 56
students. The result would be much less writing and much less response
to writing.
Herb
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Scott Woods
Sent: 2009-05-31 11:11
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Class size ATEG Digest - 28 May 2009 to 29 May 2009
- Special issue (#2009-127)
Paul,
I would be interested in seeing research that shows a strong link
between reducing class size and increasing performance. The research I
have seen strongly suggests that the most important factor in improving
student performance is changing what teachers do. Reducing class size
can reduce the amount of disruption in a class, but there is little
research base (that I have seen) to suggest that if we reduced the size
of every class in the country to 15 students that much would change in
what students know and can do.
As an English teacher, I would prefer having fewer total students, but I
could probably teach as well if, at least twice a week, I had all 112 of
my students in a lecture hall together. That would give me eight hours
of extra time to respond thoughtfully to their writing.
Scott Woods
BASIS Scottsdale
--- On Fri, 5/29/09, Paul E. Doniger <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
From: Paul E. Doniger [log in to unmask]
<[log in to unmask]" target="_blank">http:[log in to unmask]>
Yes! And all research in education that I've ever seen agrees
that class size is a vital component in successful learning. This is
especially important to the writing classroom.
Paul E. Doniger
"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an
improbable fiction" (_Twelfth Night_ 3.4.127-128).
________________________________
From: Scott <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Friday, May 29, 2009 8:30:56 PM
Subject: Re: Class size ATEG Digest - 28 May 2009 to 29 May 2009
- Special issue (#2009-127)
I too am normally reluctant to classify a remark as stupid;
however,
the list member who indicated that class size was irrelevant in
teaching
writing must have been brought up by a school board member. My
alma mater,
MSC, whose regular Freshman English program I have praised
highly, had
a secondary program in basic writing skills for those who had
failed the
English placement exam. I had scored a 100 in the exam but my
advisor had
accidentally put my test in the "Dummy English" pile; therefore,
I had to
take a non-credit English class on the same semester as my first
Freshman
English class. My advisor apologized to me later but I replied
that I had
learned more in Dummy English than in regular English because
the class size
was quite small--around ten students--and we wrote a theme each
day instead
of one a week. The professor in the Dummy Class was also an
excellent
teacher.
Having taught across the academic curriculum, I can aver that,
in my
experience, class size is more important in English composition
than in any
other academic class, including mathematics and foreign
languages.
N. Scott Catledge, PhD/STD
Professor Emeritus
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