Blog Post Week 2 ENGL 431 by Jossalyn Nelson

In response to Bartholomae’s perceptions on authority established in writing I have to agree with a few of his main points. He states that students establish a form of authority by the use of vocabulary and language when writing about topics that they are unfamiliar with. It is difficult for students to take the role of authority in writing topics of scholarship, analysis, and research settling for authority in writing that is more comfortable such as stating information in their paper instead of giving original thought on the subject (6). It is essential that the students step outside their comfort zones to begin developing and improving their writing skills. This can be done by observing other writers and examining their writings along with working with a multitude of writing styles. Improvement can also be achieved through group discussions by analyzing student’s work and having the students ask themselves what make this an effective well written paper or what can be improved to achieve this? Bartholomae believed that it was important for students to familiarize themselves with writing techniques that help in determining the “what might be said” in this paper when writing and to develop knowledge in the different sections of the academic writing in our educational system. By doing this students can begin to write a variety of papers being confident in their writing skills and develop their own style of writing that suites the teacher’s requirements.

I am not sure what to expect when working with ESL students and what obstacles they will encounter over the semester. I am sure they will have to face writing papers that fulfill the teacher’s requirements or that field of study. I have to find a way to explain this to students so that they are able to better understand how English writing works and how to “manipulate” the writing system while still receiving a high grade. My mother always tells me, “choose battles you know you can win”. She was actually referring to choosing not to fight between wife and husband, but I felt like this actually applied to writing as well. I have done this by writing what the teacher expects me to write, but if there is a topic that I am passionate about I may forgo the majority of their rules in order to write freely. Even though I receive the lower grade I feel more confident in my writing and proud of the results of my thoughts. I am not sure if this is a good display of behavior when teaching ESL students, so I will not tell them about this rebellious side of writing…until they are ready. I believe it is better for them to focus on the basics of understanding grammar and sentence structures which will later help them formulate their own ideas and words to stand up for what they believe in. In order to develop my own teaching techniques I can use my skills as an observer. An observer is someone who observes what they like or don’t like in their teaching methods and note to themselves to either use the teacher’s techniques or discard them in their own curriculum. By having this power of observation I ask students what they thought about the papers they write in class and what they think about it. A few questions I might ask are “what did you not like about the paper? Did the teacher seem biased when assigning the topic? What made this assignment complicated or unclear?” By asking these questions I can begin to form my own methods to developing curriculum that is clear and fair to the students and will help improve their writing and analysis techniques.