Peter,

Training wheels--pretty good.

The analogy that I like to use is that they have a learner's permit.
Once they've learned the rules, they can start using their poetic
license.

Don Stewart
Keeper of the memory and method of Dr. Francis Christensen
www.writeforcollege.com
www.epsbooks.com

On Jun 15, 2006, at 10:02 AM, Peter Adams wrote:

One of the most common mythical rules I've heard from my students is,
"Never use the pronoun 'you' in formal writing."

I think a lot of these rules originate from teachers well-intentioned
attempts to help students avoid error.  Since point-of-view shift is
a common error that some student writers seem to have trouble
avoiding, some teachers just limit their options for point-of-view by
saying, "never use the pronoun you."

I call these strategies on the part of teachers "training wheels."
When teaching someone to ride a bicycle, which involves doing many
different activities at one, parents often buy a bike with training
wheels, which limit the number of things the young bike rider has to
think about at the same time.  The training wheels take care of
balance, so the rider can focus on pedaling, steering, etc.

I think telling students not to use the pronoun "you" or not to start
a sentence with "because" or to always make the thesis the last
sentence in the first paragraph is an attempt to limit the student
writer's options, so he or she doesn't have to think about too many
things at once.  Training wheels, for the writer, if you will.

The problem is that teachers, too often, fail to take off the
training wheels and never even tell students that the "rule" isn't
really a rule, just something to help them when they are learning to
write.  Students then leave the classroom thinking that what there
teacher taught them is, in fact, a rule . . . and another mythical
rule is born.



Peter Adams
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