Why Don't We Write What We Teach? And Publish It?.

Abstract

We teachers of writing should write literary nonfiction, assuming that that is what we teach, and we should publish what we write. That's the thesis of this article. That not enough of us do this is the subtext. Writing regularly should be as much a part of the teacher's activity as meeting class, and as unremarkable. If that were actually the case, I wouldn't need to write this article. Although what I advocate is appropriate for any teachers of writing, freshman English included, it is particularly important that teachers of advanced composition write and publish literary nonfiction. Teachers of advanced courses are more likely than freshman English instructors to be experienced full-time faculty members, and what we do should provide an exemplary model?really, a variety of models?for novice and junior col leagues. If we don't practice what we preach and teach what we practice, what credibility, what authority can we claim? That creative writing teachers write poetry, plays, fiction, and short stories is a given, as it should be. In most places they're expected to publish, especially if they're teaching advanced students. So why not expect the same of teachers of parallel courses in nonfiction? Aren't the experienced academics who teach advanced composition already publishing? Many are, of course?most likely, academic articles in professional journals. Well and good if, for instance, the professor teaching a course in science writing is publishing in scientific journals. But advanced composition is not necessarily a course in academic writing. Indeed, advanced composition is like love: everybody knows what they mean by the term, few can define it to anyone else's satisfaction, and each practitioner has his or her own way of doing it. Recent surveys by Bernice Dicks and Priscilla Tate, for instance, indicate an extraordinarily wide range of writing in advanced composition courses, from the modes of discourse that populate freshman composition; to belletristic nonfiction; to fiction, poetry, and drama; to business, technical, legal, or medical writing in specialized courses on those subjects. Diverse though they are, these courses nevertheless expect student writers to write and revise a great deal, to be able to write with proficiency in the modes of their discipline, and to become conscious stylists who regard style as integral to the work. In fact, the most commonly used textbooks in advanced composition courses, whose texts range from Homer's Odyssey (in

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