Writing Partnerships: Service-Learning in Composition

Abstract

Writing Partnerships: Service-Learning in Composition Thomas Deans Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English In response to the rise of cultural studies in rhetoric and composition over the past few decades, many English composition instructors, myself included, have widened the scope of their courses tremendously; specifically, we have broadened our course goals beyond simply preparing students to compose essays that effectively utilize academic discourse. Instead, we invite our students to hone their writing skills by engaging the larger, more complex beyond the college campus, thereby 1) showing them the effect their own writing voices can have in the non-academic world, and 2) helping them sharpen the critical skills they will need to be responsible citizens. For this reason, in addition to addressing the more traditional writing concerns of organization, focus, style, grammar, etc., many of us work to heighten student awareness of multiple discourses, discourse communities, and literacies. We also encourage students to think critically about current social issues and concepts of social justice. Generally speaking, we hope to empower our students with the knowledge that linguistic communication is a force that extends beyond the academy, and that they can and should use this knowledge in an effective and positive way as they move out into the real world. This move on the part of composition studies and we as composition instructors beyond a strict focus on academic discourse in writing courses--intellectually energizing as it often is for both ourselves and our students--begs the question, Can we really teach students to appreciate the importance of the non-academic writing skills and of the real world issues we ask them to write about, or to comprehend that the power of their own linguistic/critical skills extends beyond the college campus, from within the composition classroom exclusively? Unfortunately, in spite of our best efforts to push students' thinking beyond the college environment, they still, for the most part, achieve an awareness of social issues from texts we assign, basing their choice of rhetorical strategies on writing assignments we design. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that they (contrary to our constant pleas to do otherwise) write to a very specific audience: us. We, in other words, and the texts we put on our syllabi, are all too often the sole authorities on the issues we ask them to write about, and, typically, our courses (along with the grades and credits they contribute to their transcripts) are the one motivation for students to write. My own composition sections are made up largely of first-year students from homogeneous suburban or rural communities; moreover, these students are, for the most part, fresh out of high school English classes where strict adherence to academic discourse is valued far more than their personal opinions or insights. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that these students, who have rarely, if ever, been asked to express their own ideas about such topics as racism, poverty, feminism, or gay rights, should look to me (personally, and as a provider of reading materials) as both the only source of information regarding these issues, and the only reader they need to take into consideration. There is nothing inherently wrong with teaching cultural-studies-based composition courses in a traditional classroom setting; in fact, I have been quite pleased with the level of critical discussions and papers most of my students have produced over the years, and I have faith that a significant number of my students can and will use the critical skills they acquired in my courses to think, act, and communicate more responsibly in the non-academic beyond college. I, however, like many of my colleagues, have noticed time and again the tendency by many such students to spit back in their class discussions and papers the politically correct views they think we want them to hold. …

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