Check out our flier!!!
http://www.bmcc.cuny.edu/writingintensive/
Thursday, April 17
2:00–4:00 PM
Richard Harris Terrace
Choose your favorite short piece of writing: a song, a poem, a piece of literature, a speech, or something you’ve written. Share it with fellow students or just come and listen. Plus learn the lowdown about BMCC’s new Writing Intensive Course Requirement.
Free food, prizes, giveaways… it’s gonna be a party!
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
From Scribbles to Perfection
Before you read this post, please take a quick look at the following short (VERY short - I promise...only 3 pages!) article -
http://wac.colostate.edu/journal/vol3/andrews_modeling1.pdf.
OK - now that we are all on the same page, let's begin...
It is important for all of us - students, professors, and writing fellows alike – to acknowledge that writing is a process. We can sometimes forget, after reading a beautifully written work that flows smoothly through ideas, that it probably began – like Andrews’ writing did – as “scribbles.”
What I particularly appreciate about this article is that Andrews does not blame students for not understanding that writing is a process. He explains that it is not that students procrastinate and only have time to write one draft, but it is that they do not even consider writing more than one draft –“They are being logical when they leave no time for activities they do not know how to do or think they are grown up enough to skip” (p.1).
Take-home points:
Professors: Share your work! Be writing models for your students, illustrating methods to help guide them as they work on their assignments. Let students see what the writing process is like for you, taking them through a paper of yours, step-by-step. Let them know that they should revise and rewrite and that you do this too! Of course, make sure that you make time for this revision throughout the semester! Help make Andrews’ dream college become a reality, where “the students regularly see that all of their professors consider and reconsider, imagine effects and test them out, weigh options and make decisions every time they write” (p. 2). Not only will this help teach your students about the writing process, but it may open them up to taking more risks and challenging themselves.
Students: The writing process is sometimes exciting, sometimes frustrating, sometimes fun, and sometimes painful, but at all times, it is THERE – so embrace it! Don’t have the expectation that on your first try everything will be as you like…allow yourself the flexibility to come back and rework your ideas, molding them into more coherent and eloquent paragraphs. Know that it is not just students who must work and re-work their words…all good writers must do this – and that’s what makes them good writers!
http://wac.colostate.edu/journal/vol3/andrews_modeling1.pdf.
OK - now that we are all on the same page, let's begin...
It is important for all of us - students, professors, and writing fellows alike – to acknowledge that writing is a process. We can sometimes forget, after reading a beautifully written work that flows smoothly through ideas, that it probably began – like Andrews’ writing did – as “scribbles.”
What I particularly appreciate about this article is that Andrews does not blame students for not understanding that writing is a process. He explains that it is not that students procrastinate and only have time to write one draft, but it is that they do not even consider writing more than one draft –“They are being logical when they leave no time for activities they do not know how to do or think they are grown up enough to skip” (p.1).
Take-home points:
Professors: Share your work! Be writing models for your students, illustrating methods to help guide them as they work on their assignments. Let students see what the writing process is like for you, taking them through a paper of yours, step-by-step. Let them know that they should revise and rewrite and that you do this too! Of course, make sure that you make time for this revision throughout the semester! Help make Andrews’ dream college become a reality, where “the students regularly see that all of their professors consider and reconsider, imagine effects and test them out, weigh options and make decisions every time they write” (p. 2). Not only will this help teach your students about the writing process, but it may open them up to taking more risks and challenging themselves.
Students: The writing process is sometimes exciting, sometimes frustrating, sometimes fun, and sometimes painful, but at all times, it is THERE – so embrace it! Don’t have the expectation that on your first try everything will be as you like…allow yourself the flexibility to come back and rework your ideas, molding them into more coherent and eloquent paragraphs. Know that it is not just students who must work and re-work their words…all good writers must do this – and that’s what makes them good writers!
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