So in high school and into college, we learn all of these new writing styles: research papers, argumentative essays, persuasive essays, character analysis, and so on, but when we get into the real world of writing, do we actually apply what it is that we have learned?
I started to think about this issue when I was reviewing some of my old high school essays. Example number one was a character analysis of Tom Buchanan from The Great Gatsby. Example number two was a college admission essay. This was actually an assignment for a class; the teacher told us to pick a college we were going to apply to and write an essay on the prompt they require and she would edit for us (and grade it) so we could use it for our future benefit. Now looking at these two pieces of writing, they were both great (if I do say so myself) and were graded accordingly, but the point that I'm trying to make is where the emphasis was placed. In high school, there is so much emphasis on writing essays like example number one, but real life writing is hardly ever touched on. I mean, honestly, when am I ever going to be required to write a character analysis in my career? Probably never; I can't think of a single example. Yet this was so heavily emphasized in high school. It's interesting to think that this is where importance is placed, whereas pieces of writing like a college admission essay, that have practical value, where just brushed passed. I got my A on this paper (and in the end actually received a scholarship offer from the school I submitted it to based solely on this essay) but it's actual writing approach or style is something we were never taught how to do. I just knew how to construct it. It's a curious thought. Maybe we should add a writing style to the high school requirement list: practical lifestyle writing. I think for the most part, most English classes give at least some assignments that cover this, but I'm not sure if anyone has ever defined it and I can almost guarantee that it's not emphasized more than the former styles. But maybe this is something the school systems should consider changing?
The practice of teaching writing through literature goes back to the early 20th Century, and it's a practice that didn't start to change in American universities until the '70s (and the theory behind it goes back to some of the stuff talked about in that Miller chapter we read).
ReplyDeleteIt's gone mostly out of favor in colleges, but isn't completely gone, and high schools are even slower to make the shift. I could talk about this stuff all night, but I'll just leave it at that for now.