Coley, WB, Ed. Ideas for English 101: Teaching Writing in National Co

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ED 111 023 CS 202 242 AUTHOR Ohmann, Richard, Ed.; Coley, W. B., Ed. TITLE Ideas for English 101: Teaching Writing in College. INSTITUTION National Council of Teachers of English,Urbana, Ill. PUB DATE 75 NOTE 240p. AVAILABLE FROM National Council of Teachers of English, 1111Kenyon Road, Urbana, Illinois 61801 (Stock No. 22450, $3.95 nonmember, $3.75 member)

EDRS PRICE MF-$0.76 HC-$12.05 Plus Postage DESCRIPTORS College Freshmen; *Composition (Literary); Composition Skills (Literary); *Educational Theories; *English Instruction; Higher Education; Instructional Materials; *Teaching Methods; Writing Skills ABSTRACT The articles in this book are concerned withteaching composition in freshman Englishcourses. They were first published in "College English" during the years from 1966 to1975. These selections represent both the theoretical discussionsand the technical plans which were put forth ina period when freshman English was being dropped asa required course in many colleges. The contents are divided into the following two sections: "WhatShould Freshman English Be? Methods and Controversies"and "Tactics." Among the essays included are "Toward Competence and Creativityin the Open Class" by Lou Kelly, "The Teaching of Writingas Writing" by W. E. Coles, Jr., "Hydrants Into Elephants: The Theoryand Practice of College Composition" by George Stade, "BehavioralObjectives for English" by Robert Zoellner, "'Topics' and Levels inthe Composing Process" by W. Ross Winterowd, "Using Painting,Photography and Film to Teach Narration" by Joseph Comprone, "TeachingFreshman Comp to New York Cops" by David Siff, "Cassettes in the Classroom"by Enno Klammer, and "What Students Can Do to Take the BurdenOff You" by Francine Hardaway.(JM)

*********************************************************************** * Documents acquired by ERIC include many informal unpublished * *materials not available from othersources. ERIC makes ev.lry effort* *to obtain the best copy available. nevertheless, itemsof marginal * *reproducibility are of',en encountered and thisaffects the quality * *of the microfiche and hardcopy reproductions ERICmakes available * *via the ERIC Document Reproduction Service (EDRS).EDRS is not * *responsible for the quality of the original document.Reproductions* *supplied by EDRS are the best thatcan be made from the original. * *********************************************************************** l U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, Ideas for English 101 EDUCATION & WELF SEE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRO DUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM Teaching Writing in College THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGIN ATING IT POINTS OF VICW OR OPINIONS STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRE SENT OFFICIAL NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION POSITION OR POLICY

Edited by Richard Ohmann and W. B. Coley

National Council of Teachers of English 1111 Kenyon Road, Urbana, Illinois 61801 'PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS COPY- RIGHTED MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY National Council of Teachers of English TO ERIC AND ORGANIZATIONS OPERATING UNDER AGREEMENTS WITH THE NATIONAL IN. STITUTE OF EDUCATION FURTHER REPRO- DUCTION OUTSIDE THE ERIC SYSTEM RE- QUIRES PERMISSION OF THE COPYRIGHT OWNER"

The articles in this collection appeared originally in various issues, from March 1967 to January 1975, ofCollege English,an official journal of the National Council of Teachers of Englishedited by Richard Ohmann, Wesleyan University.

NCTE Editorial Board: Charles R. Cooper, Evelyn M. Copeland, Bernice E. Cullinan, Richard Lloyd-Jones, Frank Zidonis, Robert F. Hogan,ex officio, Paul O'Dea,ex officio

Cover by Bob Bingenheimer

Graphics selected by Joseph W. Reed, Jr.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 75-21357

NCTE Stock Number 22450 ISBN 0-8141-2245-0 Copyright © 1967, 1968, 1969, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975 by the National Council of Teachers of English. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America.

t3 CONTENTS

Preface

Part I.What Should Freshman English Be? Methods and Controversies

Toward Competence and Creativity in an Open Class Lou Kelly, University of Iowa

A Method for Teaching Writing 19 Peter Elbow, Evergreen State College, Washington

The Teaching of Writing as Writing 30 W. E. Coles, Jr., Temple University

Hydrants into Elephants: The Theory and Practice of College Composition 36 George Stade, Columbia University

Collaborative Learning: Some Practical Models 48 Kenneth A. Bruffee, Brooklyn College, CUNY

The Widow's Walk: An Alternative for English 101Creative Communications 58 Timothy E. McCracken, Union College, Cranford, New Jersey W. Allen Ashby, Union College, Cranford, New Jersey

The Possibilities of Field Work 74 R. C. Townsend, Amherst College

Tricks 93 Dennis Szilak, Northwestern Michigan College

Behavioral Objectives for English 116 Robert Zoe liner, Colorado State University

A Ai Part IL Tactics 131

"Topics" and Levels in the Composing Process 132 W. Ross Winterowd, University of Southern California

Invention, Composition, and the Urban College 141 Michael Paull, Herbert H. Lehman College, CUNY Jack Kligerman, Herbert H. Lehman College, CUNY

Media Compositions: Preludes to Writing 150 Harvey S. Wiener, LaGuardia Community College, CUNY

Using Painting, Photography and Film to Teach Narration 159 Joseph Comprone, University of Cincinnati

Teaching Freshman Comp to New York Cops 164 David Siff, Brooklyn College, CUNY

The Single Narrative Paragraph and College Remediation 172 Harvey S. Wiener, LaGuardia Community College, CUNY

On Teaching Relationships 182 Richard J. Basgall, Dodge City Community College

The Circle of Implication 185 Ken Macrorie, Western Michigan University

Who Can Be Taught? 189 Elaine Chaika, Providence College

Mimesis: Grammar and the Echoing Voice 197 Phyllis Brooks, University of California, Berkeley

The Folklore of Usage 205 Mary Vaiana Taylor, University of Utah

Cassettes in the Classroom 217 Enno Klammer, Eastern Oregon College

What Students Can Do to Take the Burden Off You 220 Francine Hardaway, Scottsdale College

Teaching Without Judging 224 Barrett John Mandel, Douglass College, Rutgers

Drawings by Arthur B. Frost, from Lewis Carroll'sRhyme? and Reason?(New York: Macmillan & Co., 1888)

5 Preface

Not long after freshman English \\as invented, it beganto draw theToth of critics, reformers, and abolitionists in large numbers. It'sa course nobody loves. But it endures. Chronicling "The Tradition of Complaint" v, hich has attached itselfto this course, Leonard Greenbaum concluded, Unfortunately, there is no contest. Freshman English flourishes; its opponents die, retire, languish in exile. 1974 will mark its 100th anniversary. (COLLEGE ENGLISH, Nov. 1969, p. 187) Greenbaum m as more or less right. At about thc time he wrote this, freshman English w as in temporary retreat. Sonic collegesw ere dropping it, others were making it optional or requiring it for only a quarter ora semester. And most freshman English staffs were experimenting in some «a> w ith the form and content of the course. Greenbaum w rote in the middle ofan extraordinarily vigorous period of educational criticism and change. Since freshman English formed the base of thc requirement syctem, naturally enough it mas caught up in the movement for educational freedom. But this movement, w hich began about 1964, hadpretty well run its course by 1974, and it left freshman English to celebrate its centenarya bit shaken but re- cuperating. In economic hard times, college studentsarc less eager to break idols and more concerned to learn the skills w l .,11 may (or ma's not) find them good jobs. Hard - pressed administrations and legislatures enforce this change in mood by demanding "accountability." Political reaction joins in thinningout the heady atmosphere of experiment. And from the pundits there is alway s the charge of a decline in literacy. With the slogan "back to basics" in theircars, teachers of freshman English may well feel now that their only option isto dust off the old handbooks and get cracking on punctuation and usage. It would be easy to forget, in tines like the present, how muchwas usefully thought and said about freshman English during thepast decade. That w ould be pity. We hope instead that the lively and serious debates about thiscourse w ill be kept alive, and even carried forard. We hope that teachers w ill not lose track of the many ingenious ideas for teaching coh.t:1,sitionw hich came out of this period. So, in this book, wc arc preserving a selection of both the keenest theoretical discussions and the most useful technical plans w hich appeared in COLLEGE ENGLISH from 1966 to 1975, the period of our editorship. Vi PREFACE

We intend the book for those ho are teaching composition noN% and fur those about to begin. We N% ant it to be a help, too, for freshman English staffs and com- mittees planning or revising the course. At such times, it is good to look beyond the boundaries of the home campus, and also to avoid the historical foreshortening Nhich often narnms thought about freshman English. In sum, as the venerable (if not venerated) course begins its second hundredears, N% e hope it N% ill continue to learn from its first hundred.

Richard Ohmann, Editor W. B. Coley, Associate Editor COLLEGE ENGLISH Wesleyan University Middletown, Connecticut

7 Part I. W hat Should Freshman English Be? Methods and Controversies Lou KELLY

Totvard Competence and Creativity in an Open Class

THERE'S LOTS OF OPTIMISTIC TALK these casually deciding to try something new days about opening up the college class-you've heard about. You can't walk in room. The disparaging commentaries arethe first dry, announce you're making no also coming in. Not only from teachersassigniments and setting no requirements, committed to classical rhetoric and tra-then sit down and wait for something ditional grammar. Disillusioned innova-exciting and impressive to happen. The tors are publicizing their failures. teachers who try, then denounce, the In The New York Times, July 22,open class as another romantic educa- 1971 (p. 33, col. 3), we hear of a mantional myth may not be assuming their who bestowed upon his class the Rhe-rightful share of responsibility for what toric of Freedom. He read an excerptdoesn't happen. Maybe they invite their from Jerry Farber's "The Student Asstudents not to learn. Maybe it's teachers Nigger" on the first day and deliverednot studentswho fail. Because they a sermon for the damned on the last day.plunge into their little experiments with The enslaved had not written up to theno self-examination, no clear notion of expectations of their liberator. In Collegewhat a teacher must give when he asks English, December, 1971(p. 293), westudents to create something to replace find a gloomy postmortem: "In a student-the old ways he has discarded. directed course itis the blind leading Twenty-one Iowa teachers know the the blind." agonizing it takes, alone and together, to At the end of the second year of aachieve what we believe in. But we all pilot study in an open approach to Rhe-agree with our new Writing Supervisor, toric at the University of Iowa, we stillCleo Martin: in the open class the low face many problems, we still have manydays are lower and the high days are unanswered questions. We know we havehigher. And, we still believe we're into not found the easy way out of the frus-a better way of learning. tration and boredom generations of fresh- My own convictions evolved from an men have known in English 101, Com-experience whereIwas trappedbe- municationSkillsandRhetoric. Wetween departmental "standards" and all know an open class is not achieved bymy despairing, sometimes hostile,students. For them the old ways of teaching Lou Kelly directs the Writing Lab and the Open-ClassProjectandteachesfreshman composition meant failure. The freshmen rhetoric and a course for college teachers at the were getting D's and F's on every theme University of Iowa. The concept of learningthey wrote for Rhetoric. Most of the and teaching presented hereis extended in From Dialogue to Discourse, a text for teachersophomores had already flunked the de- and students who wish to become an open class. partmental theme exam after completing

Reprinted fromCollege English,Vol. 34, No. 5, February 1973. 0 Toward Competence and Creativity in an Open Class 3 one or tyy o semesters of Rhezuric, theedge and skills and opinions with other others were failing their first literaturehuman beings. We want the class to course because they were w riting failingbecome a community of learners. I'Ve paper). The upperclassmen were failingyy ant students to become responsible for a course because they had encounteredtheir ow it learning. We want them to see a professor w ho not only required but riting as human behavior. Like talking. graded papers. And the graduate studentsTalking to say whatever they are con- w ere living w ith the threat of failure ascerned aboutwhatever they thinkis they struggled with their dissertations.worth saying. For all these students, learning to write And w c believe people learn to write meant getting through a teacher's drudg-better by talkingin class and on paper ing assignments so they could turn outusing the linguistic skills and the rhe- a finished product that xy ould pass some-torical strategics they have been learning body's inspection. They rarely, if ever,and using, learning by using, alltheir thought of w riting as human communica-lives. Young children not only learn to tion. For them, it was just a phony game,talk by living in a family of talkers. They played for the chips called grades. learn to use words in meaningful con- Working with these students changedtexts, theylearn to accomplish things my conceptofmyselfasteacher, ith words, by using what they have changed my concept of teaching com-alreadylearned in personal encounters position. To put a little joy and a lot ofwith their families wih the group and reality into my teaching, into their learn- ith the individuals in the group. These inginto our hours together graduallyexperiences prepare them to cope, with became the goals of the Writing Lab atvarying degrees of success, with the low a. And the voices I heard there, yearpeople and the situations they encounter after year, convinced me that the stu-in the world they discover beyond the dent's own language and the experiencesfamily. On playground and street, in the external and internalthat he wisheshomes of playmates, and at planned and to share make the best content for com-unplannedgatheringsoffriendsand position. Or to say it another way. thestrangers, they relate and interact with content of composition is the writerothers in various ways, but in almost as he reveals his self, thoughtfully andevery instance they also use words to feelingly, in his own language, w ith hisconvey what they are thinking and feel- own voice. And while he's doing thating. And each experience helps them de- fur someone Ix ho responds to and ques-velop more competence in using language tions what he says, he'll learn to analyze,to connect with others. limit, organize, and support whatever he That is learning through living. And writes. I think learning to write at all educational Our open-class project began and con-levels should be an extension of that liv- tinues with teachers, experienced and in-ing-learning process. For itis the kind experienced, who are somew hat or highlyof learning that becomes a significant disillusioned Nk ith textbook-oriented, as-addition to the continuum of experience signment-centered, teacher-dominatedthat is a person, that is a life. It is the classes. We want to turnthesterilekind of learning we value most. Because academic classroom into a place whereit changes us, our attitudes and our be- every body will enjoy sharing his know I-haviors, in some significant way. And 4Lou KELLY that change has a lasting effect upon us.not anti-intellectual. Because, they say, The open class at Iowa attempts tostudents have no ideas; students can't help students experience that kind ofthink, class discussions die in trivia and learning. It is not an exercise in emptyboredom when teacher does not feed in idealism, but a natural, practical way forsome structure, when teacher and text people to develop more competence indo not feed in some "college level" sub- sending and receiving messages, oral andject matter for discussion. written. The help the teacher offers and But we believe the knowledge our stu- the feedback students give each other aredents bring with them, though it may always part of someone's effort to con-not be as extensive or as academic as ours, vey what he wants to convey to the classis equally valid. Though they may not that is his audience. understand and cannot analyze all their We are trying to make Rhetoric anexperience, itis just as full of implica- extension of the learner and what hetions as ours is. So we stifle every impulse has already learned, what he has alreadytofillthe hour with our ideas when experienced, instead of an extension oftheir talkin class or on paperseems the teacher and his superior and specialsimplistic or meaningless to us. Instead, knowledge and experience. There are nowe ask ourselves if they trust us and lectures, handbooks, or class discussionseach other enough to share what they "to cover" rhetorical principles or lin-reallythink. And indiscussions and guistic theories; no workbooks or pro-papers that may sound superficial,in grammed texts or learning systems "tochatter that could become boring, we clean up" the grammar, the misspelling,listen for insights into what each person's and the punctuation errors; no requiredparticular experience means to him; we readers "to supply" models for analysissearch for ways to help him see the im- and emulation or to generate ideas forplications he seems to be missing. If we significant papers; no prescribed assign-are intent on learning our students in- ments "to produce" a required numberstead of teaching them, if we want to of specified kinds of papers. know what's going on inside their heads Instead of all or any of that, we askinstead of wanting to fill their heads with each student to share his own knowledgewhat we know, we neN er tune them out. and skills, his own ideas and opinions,Someone's frequent or occasional com- his own feelingswhatever he wants toment and all the nonverbal signals every- share with teacher and classmates. Andone is always sending out become tiny that throws us into the endless debatepieces of a human jigsaw puzzle. And over what the content of the courseday after day, we try to fit it all to- should be. A debate I do not expect together. So we can see and respond to win. Not in my lifetime. Given thethe whole person. So we can hear and elitist humanism of professors of Englishrespond to the ideas he is trying to and Rhetoric, any approach that makesexpress. So we can help him express his the students' ideas more important thanideas more fluently, more clearly, and the teacher's, anyone who claims themore forcefully. So we can help him resources the student brings with him areextend his language, his ideas, and his more important to his learning than the self. superior resources the teacher can pro- Instead of giving assignments to be vide, is bound to be labeled lowbrow. Ifgraded by a teacher, we attempt to en- Toward Competence and Creativity in an Open Class 5 gage each person in a meaningful dia-lems, trying to search out the answers logue by asking him to talk on paperto his own questions, trying to express inhis own everyday language, aboutthe complexities of his own heart. anything he wants to talk about. The It takes a lot of psychic strength to students begin cautiously, of course. Norespond to that kind of writing. The matter what we say, they still hear Theteacher's comments can no longer be Voice of Authority. They still feel Thedominated by corrections, or by sug- Threat of The Superior Intellect, Theygestions for turning an F paper into a still see The Stranger who professes toC paper or a C paper into an A paper. know what The Educated need to know.Instead, we, too, must ask questions. And they hope they can psyche us outQuestions to help each person find his early, so they'll know how hard theyown unique answers. Questions to move must work to ace the course or merelyall our students toward writing that is a get by. special way of defining, discovering, and But if we can convince them thatknowing selfand others. But that don w. re listening for the sound of theirnot mean you must turn your office into voices instead of looking for errors ora confessional booth or try to become a evaluating their ideas as we read whatswivel chair therapist. Hearing and re- they write, if we can give them non-sponding to others is,Ihope, natural threatening feedback instead of norma-human behavior which, I hope, we all tive grades, they will gradually begin toengage in whenever we encounter an- believe that we are receiving and tryingother human being. to understand the messages they are send- But hearing and responding every class ing us. And they will begin to see us as aday to forty or sixtya hundred? person who wants to know what theyindividual human beings is obviously im- think and feel. Then the vast distancepossible. At least for most of us. When between student and teacher, though itwe read of teachers who say they do it, may never be breached, is diminished.when we listen to them tell how they do Dialogues that begin with skepticismit, most of us feel like the young teacher with student testing teacher, wonderingwho spoke quite despairinglyat the if the whole approach is a gimmick, yetevaluation session of a recent national wanting to trust and be trustedmoveconvention. She had come with the hope along with refreshing candor. And theyof hearing, of finding something that are soon talking freely about self andwould make her a better teacher. She others, about the world they live in andwas returning home with the feeling that the people they live with. Then we hearall she had heard about successful teach- their keen awareness or their dull indif-ing depended not upon anything she ference, their egotism and confidence orcould learn and utilize in her classroom, their self-doubt and uncertainty, theirbut upon the personal attributes of one passive acceptance or their constant ques-teacher. Though I admire and congratu- tioning of the values they grew up on.late the great among us, their expertise, We see some of the inner conflict, wetheir genius, need not diminish the rest feel some of the alienation and despairof us. For a teacher's greatness lies not whatever it is that fills the heads andin what he teaches but in what his stu- hearts of our students. Each is trying todents learn. analyze and understand his own prob- They arrive unresponsive. Anticipat- 6LOU KELLY ing our required course with unloving How many persons (or what proportion) words and equally expressive groans. But participate, frequently and extensively, in they are our only indispensable resource. my class discussions? We must let them, and help them, bring How many participate only when I di- the realities of their own lives into the rectly invite them to? classroom. We must let them, and help How many do not participate at all? them, respond to each other. How many really get involved? BecauseIhave spent most of my Do I talk more than anybody else? more teaching life working in one-to-one con- than everybody else? ferences with students, I believe any at- Do I direct the discussion? Do Iask tempt to achieve an open class must the questions and make the responses that begin with a personal dialogue (talking take the class in the direction 1 want it to go? to the conclusion 1 want it to on paper) between the teacher and each reach? person in the class. It is, I think, the best way to let them know that we accept Do my students address most of their them as persons of worth, whose ideas comments to me? and feelings are worth expressing, whose Do they raise their hands because it's imperfections do not diminish them or just a habit or because I intimidate them? their ideas. Our response to each person Can my students talk freely when I am can give the initial sense of freedom the discussion leader? and fulfillment that is so important, perhaps essential, to achieving competence We believe teachers must learn to sit and creativity in writing or speaking. down and shut up. So students can get to But every write; and every speakerknow each other. So they can share what needs an audience beyond the teacher,they know with each other. So they needs many responses to whatever he hascan learn from the feedback they give to say on paper and in class. Everybodyeach other. needs to be seen and heard by the group We keep no pedagogical secrets from he is a member of, needs to feel that heour students because in the open class is an identifiable and worthwhile mem-the pedagogical process is not the ex- ber of that group. And that, I fear, shallclusive responsibility of the teacher. The never happen for all our students unlessdistinctior.: between teaching and learn- we abandon the old ways of class discus-ing that - .;Aar to everyone in the sion. traditional classroom are not so clear, in Going from neat, straight rows-of-fact, they gradually disappear as a class students with the teacher-at-center-frontdevelops its own direction, its own struc- to teacher-sitting-with-students in a circleture and content. For the teacher also of chairs or around a ring of tables is anlearns and each learner also teaches. improvement onlyifallthepeople We never lose our teacher-identity, we sitting in those chairs are really talkingnever become "just another student," and listening to each other. While tryingbut we see ourselves, and our students to face that challenge at Iowa, we areperceive us, as a participating member asking some questions that suggest someof the group, not the voice of authority of the fundamental changes the openthat controls the group. Like all other class hopes to achieve: members of the group, we give of our Toward Competence and Creativity in al, Open Class 7

ideas, our knowledge, our competence. when I don't know who I am? I would We give of self. By responding. To each like to know more why's. If something person and to the group. But we never goes wrong, does that mean I shouldn't have done it or was it because I sinned forget that in the open class the power the day before? lies in listening. What we say and do on a particular I'm really bothered with having to write day develops not from our past teaching things down and letting someone else experience but from whatever is hap- read them or show them to the class. I pening in class on that day. Instead of feel that what I have written isn't good following the sequence of assignments enough. I'm afraidifI say something that worked last year, we respond to the wrong I will be laughed at. I don't want to be laughed at so I try to act like some- experiencesexternal and internalthat one else and not be myself. students talk about, in class and on paper, day by day, this year. We respond by I like to see and hear what other people sharing a bit of our experience that seems have to say before I show myself to them. relevant or by asking questions that will Ilike to know where another person help each person better understand his stands so that I might act in a way that own ideas and the ideas of others, ques- would keep me up and even with that person. This Ifindis sometimes very tions that will help each person express hard to do. his ideas more clearly and more forcefully. But we are always trying not to My first time away from home. Watch- dominate everything that happens. ing my parents turn their backs and walk Very few students are prepared for away. Watching security and guidance that kind of learning. They arrive expect- and love walk away. God an I lonely. ing to learn only from the teacher, sure that everything that is said in a classroom When Bill, Murphy and Melvin were is a performance for the teacher, to be talking about being black, I felt so ig- praised or criticized by the teacher. To norant. I had prepared a little speech but Ijust couldn't say anything. Ifeel so most of them, class discussion means show- insignificant when I hear people talking ing off what they know so they will get about important world issues. a good grade. The ones who have learned to do that talk alot. The ones who Even though no one knows you're on haven't don't. Because they don't want academic probation, you feel as though to be compared with their glib and con- everyone is staring at you and thinking fident classmates. Because they are afraid "boy are you stupid" and this makes me afraid to tz".: because then someone would of sounding stupid. When they try to know for sure that I am dumb and on put what's going on inside them onto probation. paper, we hear the fears of the quiet ones and we get a glimpse behind the masks You can never really know a person. A the easy talkers wear. person can put on all kinds of fronts for you. You can dig a person for a lengthy When I was sitting in class I could not time and still never know him. A person express my feelings clearly. I just wasn't puts forth what he wants to put forth at ease. I felt trapped in a cage, afraid to in any manner he chooses and at any respond to anything around. time.

How can I write honestly about myself To help students come to know each

i i A 8LOU KELLY other, to help them come to trust eachand closed hearts. other, we begin by learning names and But if we believe our s..udents possess faces. Then for a day or two we visitthe youthful virtue Erik Erikson calls together in groups of three to five per-fidelity, then we can assume with con- sons. The teacher moves from group tofidence that they will respond to our group. Mostly listening but sometimesfaith in them and our concern for them. responding. Perhaps mentioning some-Not every day, of course. Some will not thing someone in the group has said inrespond on many days. Sometimes it may his first writing. During the first fewtake several weeks, perhaps 2 whole days I try to chat a moment with eachterm, to break through the walls that person in the class. To express my delightsome people bring with them. But if we in something he has written. To expressbring with us a full commitment to the my concernaboutsometroublingconcept of an open class, and patience thought he has shared with me. Or tofrom a source that never runs dry; if ask why he hasn't written. we can live with the recurring frustra- Moving the class from social chatter totion that closes in on the days when more academic matters can be quitenothing's happening for nobody, and the natural if, after the first or second day,recurring feeling of impotence that could the groupsforconversation becomebe dispelled in an instant by simply as- "task" groups. For several days the tasksserting our authority; if our egos can -:an be anything to ease the uneasiness,stand the persistent, uncomforting feeling anything to fill the strained silence withthat we have not yet achieved what we people talking to each other. But it's im-hope to achieve, then we can keep on portant, no later than the second week,..z.sponding to the unresponsive ones. And to talk about the concept of an opene.ttually, either teacher or classmate class. They need to understand the kindwi.sk a question or make a suggestion of learning we want them to experience;that v21 evoke a response that will bring we need to understand their attitudesthen, into the community of learners the toward the approach. So we talk aboutclass is or hopes to become. But until their previous learning experiences andand afterthathappens,thetrusting any misconceptions they seem to haveteacher must also be a demanding teach- about the open class we are asking themer. to help us create. And we talk about Usually the hour ends before we can tentative goals and expectations. consider all the questions and suggestions From the beginning each person mustthat grow out of class talk. And just as try to understand the responsibilities thatoften it's obvious that nobody has the come with the freedom that comes withquick and easy answer or an obvious the open class. Though we make noplan of action. Again it's time to form required assignments for the whole class,small task groups. The task. to explore no one is free to do nothing, on one issome aspect of the situation being dis- free not to learn, no one is free not tocussed, to search together for some an- respond to classmates and teacher. If theswers to some of our questions. Next dialogues do not develop, if there is noday, or a week or two later, the group ongoing interchange of ideas, the classcan report their findings to the class and is not open. Instead it is a collection ofthe class can ask mare questions. We closed mouths, closed ears, closed minds,may never decide on the "right" answers,

15 Toward Competence and Creativity in an Open Class9

but shallow conversation becomes seri-could no longer be on each person and ous discussion as we explore the pos-the group talking, in class and on paper, sibilities. about their own ideas and concerns. But we do not push the class into sub- Breaking the class into small groups is jects that require close analysis andex-only a means for releasing more talk, tensive reading until most students canfrom everybody, and for giving each talk freely and easily in small groups andperson maximum feedback on the ideas are no longer afraid of speaking out inhe expresses. Analyzing and evaluating fullclass discussions. For they cannotgroup interaction is only a means of ask- effectively handle questions about con-ing why we are not achieving what we flicting issues and values when they areare trying to achieve. Mastering all the tied up in emotional knots. Most classespopular techniques of group interaction are over that by midsemester, but evenmight make me a better composition then we do not require anyone toper-teacher, it might make my students bet- form for the class if he is obviouslynotter composers. But whether or not we ready to. pursue that interest, we can go on inter- I hope it's clear that our small groupacting with each other. As a relating, work is not an attempt to turn the classcommunicating psychosocial being called into an encounter group, where all orteacher, I spend a lot of time trying to most of the emphasis is on discoveringrelate to and communicate with a lot of and expanding self through intensivepsychosocialbeingscalledstudents. group experience. Fifty minutes a day,Which means,Ihope, that we have three or four times a week forone orlearned to ask each other why when we two semesters gives us extensive time,feel we are not getting through to each not the kind needed for a group broughtother, as persons or as a group; to ask together solely for psychosocialpurposes.each other how we can break through Though I am obviously committedtothe barriers that separate us from each an approach that centers on self andother. others, though I believe our best writing comes from intense awareness of self and Any approach to composition that be- a highly developed sensitivity to others,gins with free writing elicits one sure in the open class for rhetoric that empha-question. how do you get them to turn sis can always be coordinated with thethe corner to writing (or speaking) that writing and talking students do inre-is thematic, analytical, tightly organized, sponse to each other and the teacher. and fully substantiated? Though every class sometimes wants To answer that question I must first be and needs to analyze what's happening,repetitious. Begin by hearing and re- the small groups are not for thepurposesponding to what each person is saying. of studying group performanceor inter-I make no corrections, no comments on action. All the research that has beenhow the ideas are expressed or developed, completed andallthe scholarly andno long response of any kind on the popular books that have been publishedearly writing. Maybe my Lab students' on groupdynamics,communicationsirg,,ative reactions to the teacher com- theory, and interpersonal relationsarements on the papers they bring with certainly relevant. But if that becamethem have made me overanxious. No the content of the course, the emphasismatter bow kind or cogent I sound to 10LOU KELLY me, I wonder how the student will readthat can be classified as narration or time me. Would any of then, ever spend assequences, they describe people or places; much time thinking about my long com-they explain the cause of their joy or ments as I would spend writing them? despair;theycompareandcontrast There's also the problem of my time.what's happening to them now with When students are talking to me onwhat happened to them last year. For paper, I want to read every word every-some, of course, everything comes out one has written before I see them again.hazy and confused. But for almost all of I want to hear how everyone is respond-them, if it's something they are ready ing to the first days of class and to me.to share, what they say is forceful and But I say enough in class and on papercoherent. When they know what they to let them know that I'm connectingwant to say, thereis no hassle about what they write with the persons I seeorganization or content. Each ispart and talk with in class, that I want toof their knowing. know each person better, thatI enjoy To make the students' writing a part their writing because I can visualize aof the dialogues going on in class, we unique human being and hear the soundbegin "publishing" excerpts or whole of a unique human voice as I read thepieces as soon as possible. But I never pages they fill with words. And I askshare a person.'s writing with the class questions. First, the questions that say Iwithout his consent. And I never discuss want to hear more. Then, the ones thata piece of writing as if I am grading it. will, I hope, lead each person to a com-I do not ask What do you think of the petent and creative telling of his ownIntroduction? or Does the writer include thoughts and feelings. a sufficient number of representative ex- In the guidelines we offer young teach-amples to establishhis credibility? or ers the focus moves from the writer'sWhat's wrong with this paper? Those own "Voice" and "Perceptions" and thequestions and many others may be con- "Values" he lives by, to "Questions"sideredin personal conferences or in which help him see that the rhetoricalsmall groups later in the term, but we structures many texts and syllabi pre-never talk in class about published writ- scribe are not unlike his own naturaling unless someone, including the teacher, thought processes. But we do not makewants to respond to something some- assignments on certain days to "teach"body has said. Like, I know what you those concepts. Instead, we introducemean because this is what happened to linguistic and rhetorical principles when-me.. . or No, man, that's not the way it ever somebody's response to a piece ofis because.... writing shared with the class, or some- To ditto the lone A paper to show body's question or dissatisfaction witheverybody else what the teacher wants, his own writing, makes a little lesson byor to distribute inadequate papers so one the teacher or a reference to the textstudent can tell another what he did relevant and therefore meaningful. w rong or how he can improve his paper The traditional patterns of organiza-is asking students to talk to each other as tion are easy "to cover" in the open classteachers have always talked to them. It because much of the talking on paperis asking them to evaluate each other as that students do provides examples. Theythey think we would. It is asking them to relate experiences or describe processescompete with each other as they try to Toward Competence and Creativity in an Open Class 11 meet prescribed academic standards, asevidence. Or we can cite books, periodi- they try to fulfill teacher-imposed re-cals, or people who might be helpful in quirements. They learn far more, I think,the search for answers that will help one by responding to each other's ideas asperson or the whole class extend and de- they would in a nonthreatening situationvelop their ideas in well-supported essays. outside of class. When a student makes a generaliza- Allstudentsthebrilliantandthetion, in class or on paper, that is obvi- slow, the enthusiastic and the indifferent,ously a strong conviction, an attitude the aggressive and the meekneed to befixed in and by his own experience, our assured that they know something thatnatural response is IN'hy? And his natural teacher and class will value. So we askresponse to that question is an attempt them to write and talk first about whatto analyze what he has said. Which they know best, what they enjoy most.means he will either state some support- I have never known a student who coulding reasons for his opinion or he will not choose something thatclass andbegin to question it. Whichever, he will teacher knew very little about. Whichbe going beyond his easy generalization. means each student becomes a teacher.He will be analyzing what he thinks. He Explaininghisspecial knowledge andwill be organizing his thoughts. In the skill. Answering the questions asked asnatural give and take of conversation, he he talks or as he reads something he haswill be setting up a plan for an essay. written. Restating sentences that are not Instead of trying to teach everybody clear. Seeing the need for logical orderhow to make outlines or giving them as- if his audience cannot follow what he issignments that designate the way they saying. And when someone says, "Butmust order their ideas, instead of giving I don't see what you mean," he addsthem external forms tofill, we raise some concrete details or visual imagesquestions that we hope will help our that help us sec what he is trying tostudents analyze and understand their explain. And when someone says, "Butown lives, their own beliefs, their own I just don't get it. What is it really like?"values. Questions that only they can he tries to think of an analogy that willanswer. And with their answers they help us understand. And sometimes,evenbuild coherent verbal structures, out of the ones labeled slow, come up witha the meanings and the relationships they striking metaphor any writer would befind, they learn to analyze, organize, and proud of. When convinced thatsome-substantiate their ideas. body wants to learn whatthey know, And they learnthrough their own they learn what we want to teach them. n ritingthat a person's attitude toward Wha'd'y'meanis the question our stu-self, subject, and audience can control dents ask each other most frequently if(that is, help him, sometimes quite un- their writing is full of vague and ambigu-consciously,organize)whateverhe ous words or if their opinions are alwayswants to say, that he can create the sound statedinmeaninglessgeneralizations.of his own voice on paper by re-creating When thepersonchallengedcannothis experiencesexternal and internal come up with a satisfactory answer, awith facts and details so graphic, with classmate may be able to help. Or theimages so visual, that readers willsee teacher can respond with a quick andw hat he means. He learns through the easy lesson on definition or supportingongoing interaction w ithteacher and 12 Lou KELLY classmates without which an open classdrudging academic requirement; to let cannot be. reading become meaningful and involving, an integral part of what's happening Though we reject the notion that stu-in the community of learners. dents cannot produce "collegelevel" When class talk peters out because no writing unless we feed them "collegeone can answer the questions they are level" ideas from anthologies of nonfic-asking each other, or because no one can tion, fiction, or poetry, the class that doessupport or refute the generalizations and not read may bog down in ignorance oropinions theyaretossingabout,the boredom. The importance of reading inteacher again acts as a resource person, the open class can be clarified and em-citing periodicals and books they can phasized while first discussing class ob-turn to for the information they need. jectives and expectations, or when theThat usually leads to small task groups teacher casually asks about their readingthat assume the responsibility of finding habits, past and present. We can makewhat they or the whole class wants to reading part of our dialogue with eachknow. Again, just as in class talk and student, by asking each person to talk awriting, students move toward the kind while on paper about each piece of read-of reading performance we hope for ing he does for the class. Adding to theirw hen the small group work becomes a unrequired reading lists throughout theself-involving, pervasive experience. For term becomes a natural part of the con-now they are dealing with the realities versations going on in class and on paperof a human situation. They are a group if we share whatever we recall from ourof people brought together to look for reading as we listen to their discussions.answers to human questions, to look for But a forceful comment need not becomesolutions to human problems. So they a lecture. Whenever we come to classread with a purpose. And they try to excited or angry about something weread critically. And they try to synthe- have just read, we can talk about that.size what they read with all their other as we would with a group of friends.experiences. But we must always remember that stu- And the teacher, listening to them dents get bored more quickly than any-talk on paper and in class about their one else. Unless they ask for more, wereading, responds not only to what but should shut up before they shut us off. also to how they are reading. He re- Sometimes we can help someone dis-sponds by setting up individual confer- cover reading as we respond to the bitsences or small task groups for those who of experience he shares with us in writ-can not comprehend the basic meaning ing. Maybe the feeling he expresses re-of a selection and for those who are calls a poem that expresses a similar feel-ready for close analysis or critical ap- ing. Or what has happened tohimpraisal of what they read. parallels the experience of a character from a short story or novel or play. Or If we can break through the student's u e know a book or essay or an anthologyconcept of English teacher as corrector- that deals with the problem he is facing.grader-judge of writing and writer, he The aim to help all our students seecan then see us as teacher-editor, the per- reading as an extension of, or anotherson who can help him learn to say, with kind of, personal experience instead of aclarity and force, whatever he wants to

19 Toward Competence and Creativity in an Open Class 13 say. Then he sees how we can help himand enlarge his resources of self-expres- achieve a smoother flow of words, howsion by exploring and expanding all the we can help him see the implications ofpossibilities that lie within the self he is his own ideas and experiences, how weor is becoming. And in his own unique can help him develop a strong and clearway, within the limits of his own lin- voice that diverse, even hostile, readersguistic competence, he is developing a will hear and understand. personal style. For most people, talking on paper Because I do not separate style and eliminates the phoniness thatsets thecontent as I write, I make no attempt to tone for a lot of published and unpub-do so as I try to help people become bet- lished writing. It also exposes the stuffyter writers. If pressed to define style, I and pompous writing many studentswould say it is the total impact of a piece think teachers want. They can hear theof writing. And I would say playing difference between the dull, dead paperswith stylisticpossibilities includes the that attempt to sound academic and thewhole complex process of putting words sound of their own voices on paper. Buttogether to say what we think and feel. they learn to write graceful instead of But that process doe; not include spell- cumbersome prose, they learn to writeing and punctuation and "correct" usage. with clarity and force, only by workingWe have nor thrown out those social with their own writing. For me thatconventions. We have simply put them means reading their writing aloud. First,where they belongin a totally separate so the class can hear and respond to whatand final stage of the human (or aca- the writer is saying. Then, in student-demic) activity that ends in a paper for teacher conferences or small nonthreaten-somebody to read. We call that final ing groups, we talk about specific waysstage copyreading. Our student writers to make the ideas in specific pieces movelearn "correctness," not from a book of from page to reader's mind. When therules, but by building their own Copy- emphasis is always on hearing what theyreading Guides with examples from their write, they become sensitive to thepat-own writing. But we never ask anyone terns and rhythms of their sentences.to spend a lot of time working on copy- They also learn to spot the repetition thatreading until he canfilla page with bores, the vagueness and ambiguity thatsome ease and with much pride in the confuses, the generalization that weak-sound of his own voice on paper. Which ens, and the simplistic, limited point ofmeans someone may wish to share a view that expresses no awareness of howpaper that is full of glaring errors that readers may disagree. might diminish him or his ideas in the As each person covers a wide range ofeyes of someone in the class. Then the thought and feeling in his dialogues withteacher becomes the copy editor, elimi- teacher and classmates, he discovers, ifnating mistakes without changing the he does not already know, that he hasform or content of what the writer is many voices. He hears them as he readssaying and without changing the sound aloud what he has written. And he seesof his voice. Seeing and hearing the dif- that the voice that "comes naturally" inference in his copy and the "published" a given situation controls what and howone often means he sees a reason to learn he writes about that situation. He learnssomething he has for years rejected, and from his own writing that he can definehe begins his Copyreading Guide with 14LOU KELLY some enthusiasm and determination. In high school ifIliked the subject If reading the papers your students Trig or Biology or ChemistryI would write is a drudge instead of a joy, per- look into the whys and wherefores of problems and see how the masterminds haps you should explore the possibilities developed their hypotheses. But English for creative interaction the open class was always a drag. I just didn't dig all offers. When a student is free to write those dumb-ass poets and all that hidden about what's going on inside his own meaning. It was always the same old shit. head instead of hacking out 500-word My senior year was the worst because themes, when everything he writes is it was all those old English writers trying to write all thatelegantshit. Now that I part of a dialogue with other human think about it, my junior year was worst beings, the teacher's homework is not because the whole year was spent on the boring, endless grind it used to be. poems.Goddo I hate poems. I hate En- glish and everyone keeps making me take it. What would happen if I talked on paper the way I talk on the street? I somehow think of "blackmail" against me. Especial- Writing tofilla required number of ly from English teachers. pagesthis is what I usually end up trying to do. Counting up the number of words When oneisthinking, he shareshis after I write a sentence and adding un- thoughts with no one but himself. When necessary words and straining to get out he has to put these thoughts down on every word I can think of so I can reach paper for someone else to read, he tries the required number of words. Quickly to change them so that the other person I stick a period at the end of that sen- will like him. It's almost impossible to tence and start in on the next one. put down on paper just what I think and not have my thoughts degraded. I've been watching everyone else as we sit here writing and they all have at least I think it is :mpossible for a student to two pages. Do you really mean we can put his own voice on paper and to give stop when we have nothing else to say? his feelings and views. We have been indoctrinated ever since we learned to write that we should try to please the I feel happy, at ease, and at home. Read- teacher. To receive the good grade is ing what Ijust read made me feel as what students want. thoughIwere talking to my friend, shooting the b ill. It also took me back to high school, my senior year, when I was When engaged in a conversation that I writing papers for Mrs. B. She really enjoy, the words just flow into sentences. pissed me off.I would write what I This is so because I know what I want to really thought and she would cut me say and without hardly thinking about down and give me a D or F on the paper. it, it just comes out. But with writing, I It really made me turn against her. sit and think about what I want to say and it always comes out wrong. Because Right now, though, that isn't what.n it's not the real me. It's the me that has feeling. I'm sweating something furiously been conditioned through twelve y ears of writing this. As though I'm working in school to form sentences the right way, art. Letting myself go. Free as a bird. It's to make sure spelling is correct, to make great. I can't believe how wound up I am. sure all punctuation is perfect. When I'm It's like racing against something or some- concentrating on these things my ideas one, going faster than I can get the words just don't come out on paper like they on paper. I feel like I'm being rushed do in conversation. by myself. And I grow impatient trying Toward Competence and Creativity in an Open Class 15

to continue because I want to say so But not for him because he had shorter much. fingers. My friendhelpedme,even though I already had my own way. A I poor way, but it was a place to be helped I'm sitting here trying to think of some- from. When he showed me his way, I thing that I have convictions about. But triedit, founditbetter, adoptedand nothing is coming; I just feel null and adapted it. Then it was my way. empty. Is man capable of ever feeling nothing? Possibly I'm proving in these Can that kind of learning take place in sentences that he cannot. When for a this classroom? I'm skeptical. But hope- second Ifelt thatI was thinkingand ful. I feeling nothing, I suddenly started coming up with thoughts. It would be some ac- complishment to be able to create noth- A patientat the University Hospital. ingness in our minds. Like a vacuum. To This cat is nuts; he's sitting there having flush everything out. To ease the mind a debate with the opposition and there is of trouble, worry, and frustration. To no opposition. I went over and rapped momentarily establish peace and calm. with him. This cat thinks I'm a member of the House of Representatives. Man, we're debating whether or not 18-year- I'm confused. I wonder at what stage in olds should be able to vote in major a person's life he stops asking the ques- elections and I win. tions and starts receiving the answers. I'm trying to etablish the values that are Now he's a pastor and he's preaching to really important and relevant to me. But me about not running away from my about the time I decide what is most master. If he calls me a nigger I don't important, things change.Imeet new know what I'll say. I think I better switch people and experience new situations, subjects before he gets out of hand. What then I change my mind. can I change to? The cat's well educated so anything would probably be okay. Think. You can learn by being helpedshown another way. But you must have the Girls! No, too old. freedom to accept or reject that other I guess I better go; it's almost suppertime way, or to modify it to fit your own anyway. Mom was just cracking her side style. all the time I was talking to him. When I was learning to ride and race a motorcycle, a friend of mine showed me When I was a little girl, I would always a better way to hold the clutch lever dream of going to fara way places.. while starting the cycle. I was holding it exotic countries ... Sometimes I would back with my whole hand, at least the dream of going to a place where the full four fingers. That made starting awk- people were living on clouds. These peo- ward, because as soon as the starting flag ple were dressed in beautiful costumes drops you must accelerate as quickly as and were handing out candy to all the you can and still keep the bike under boys and girls. Whenever I wanted to control. Which means hanging on with be near the water, I would turn on the both hands. And that's hard to do if you television dream set in my head and be have a good grip in only one hand. My on a beach, wading in the water and friend showed me that it is better to grip building sand castles. Sometimes I would with threefingers and use my index feed the birds on the beach and talk finger to encircle the hand grip. I tried with them. After a while though, my that way and it was better. But then I dreams would end because I had to finish trieditusing just two fingers on the my math or do some chores around the clutch lever. That was betterfor me. house. 16LOU KELLY

My dream is to become a doctor. Not know but the other night for the first time berduse it means money and an easy life, in my life, I felt this feeling or close to but because being a doctor means giving this feeling. I felt like an animal trying of yourself to others. I want to work to escape but couldn't because my hands in the ghetto, and instead of making a were tied. For the first time, I felt that lot of money my pay will be the pleasure Blacks do have a right to do the violent of helping others. Many doctors have this things they do. I now know hove they same feeling before med school, but after feel when people that aren't black think they get out into the materialistic world they're better because of the color of they are just like bankers or businessmen. their skin. I now know my family has Money is all that counts. You go to a been treated like shit through the years. big new medical office and you sit in the But my parents never told us that people lounge for an hour, then some nurse think we are not white because we are takes you back to alittle room. For Mexican. Then one day I came home another hour you wait, then the doctor from the Army and I couldn't believe comes in with your file. Without asking what I was seeing. Everything was wrong. if you're in pain or anything, he looks at My brothers had been treated like crim- your file and knows what's wrong. To inals. Then I didn't only see it, but I felt him you are file, not a person. He's there it, too. I was arrested and hit on the head for at least ten minutes, not to help you, more times than I could count. And they but to make money. His profession has call thisjustice.I have to laugh when become a business. I would like to help hear this wordJustice. doctors find their lost identity.

Ijust came back from the Air Force My father said to me, when he was bring- where you don't wonder about something ing me down to school, that I should not but accept it. Because if you don't ac- become involved in anything. He said the cept it, there are 138 articles in the USMJ people who are goingto make the and someone will use one of them to changes in the world will have to sacri- lock you up. Authority exists to perpetu- fice and even suffer. But he said T was not ate the development of humility. to become that kind df person. I should be greedy and secure my education. Then later on in lifeI could contribute my As I browsed through a magazine yester- share. day, a full-page color photo of Sister Corita's striking painting of a Disraeli quote stopped me: "From the people A lot of kids in the class give me the and for the people all springs and all impression that I'm in that little crushable must exist." box they'd like to step on. I don't give a damn 'cause I treat people the way they Since I saw the quote first as a picture, treat me. Step on me and I'll step on you I saw it as "From the people all springs." if I can. And I thoughtall people are necessary for anything to develop. Or, for some- I really dug what Jane said about not thing to develop you need all people. accepting her parents' prejudices toward Then I asked, why do you need all Blacks. She made a friend quick. I hope people? And I knew it was because all she never changes her ideas. I dig every- people see things differently and react body and I wish everybody dug me. But differently to what they see. tomorrow is another day. I'll go out in the world and people will stare at me as Then I started thinking about our class usual, like they wonder what a Black and how each person isdifferent and boy is doing on a Universitycampus. carries around with him a different set of thougths. But all of us, all people, are interdependent on the thoughts that each What is the feeling of hate? I really don't expresses. It's like each person pulling

4,3 Toward Competence and Creativity in an Open Class 17

something out of a box and offering it forshared, we do not have to "teach" them consideration as part of a developing idea. how to organize and support their ideas. So each person, all people, are responsible for everyone else's ideas. And the onlyThey willlearn toexperientiallyin way ideas can develop or change quickly their dialogues with teacher and each is for all people to express their thoughts. other. But changing the way we think and After thinking all that, I realized I amtalk and write is a slow, sometimes pain- afraid of you all. Then I thought maybe someone is afraid of me. I am part offul, process. Some students may need a someone's fear. Which means I am in-third semester of talking and writing in hibiting him and thereforeI am in-an open class. In fact, I believe we should hibiting myself. I am hindering someone'sin wide the opportunities for them to development and therefore I am hinder-continue the dialogues begun in English ing my own development. 101in every course we offer.If we Each person is afraid of something. Todon't, college, like high school, will be deny that is to deny that there is anyonelittle more than a place where they col- in the world who can hurt you. Therelect credits toward graduation, a place is. You know it. But ideas and peoplewhere they will again be denied the ex- develop a whole lot faster when every-periences that are essential to everyone's body is aware not only of his own ideas but also aware of the ideas of others. development as a thinking, feeling literate human being. I like to thinkperhaps only hope Whatever level of competence yourthat the open class offers a new direction students have, whatever "track" the en-a new hopefor all the people who trance exams place them in,I believedread freshman English, especially the they will respond, and learn, in an openones who might otherwise fail the course classif you can engage them in student-or drop out in frustration and despair studentdialogues andstudent-teacherbecause what they are being "taught" dialogues. But they won't learn unlesshas little or no meaning for them. For I we who would teach them start wherebelieve they will never learn what they they arc. They can't understandnewneed to know by sitting through lec- ideas unless they can relate them to theirtures or class discussions dominated by old ideas. They can't develop new atti-the teacher and a few of their class- tudes and skills unless they can fit themmates, they will never learn to put their into the whole set of attitudes and skillsthoughts and feelings onto paper by they bring with them. filling blanks in workbooks and pro- The least competent may need to trygrammed texts, they will never know the to talk on paper two or three times ajoy of writing for others if they spend week for afull semester before theytheir class hours with learning systems can fill a page with ease and confidence.and learning machines that provide "in- But when teacher or classmate asks Whydividualized" instruction in lonely car- or What do you mean, they, too, can rels. give clear and forceful answersif they We must reject all the software and believe we really want to hear their an-hardware that offer us new or old ways swers. And if everybody becomes in-of pouring grammar or rhetoric or great volved in finding the answers to theideas into the student's head. We must questions raised about the experiencespermit, we -Must help all our students 18 Lou KELLY bring the reality of their own lives, their With the human resources our stu- own language, into the classroom. dents bring with them, with the human No book can tell us how to do it. No-situations that develop within the group, body can answer all our questions aboutwe make whatever we can. For teaching the open class. is a creative act.

., 't4 -e' PETER ELBOW

A Meth "d for Teaching Writing

The Problem 2) Is the writing good, effective, pleasing "IsEnglish really your nativein the sense of being "good style?" This tongue?" So wrote a Dartmouth Fresh-judgment emphasizes form more than man English teacher on his student's es-content, but not trivially: "He can say say. English teachers try not to thinkwhatever he wants, but only if it comes about how often this comment fits thein clear, strong sentences; unified,co- essays they grade. My hypothesis is thatherent paragraphs, and total essays that students seldom learn to write in thesehang together around a clear progres- courses as well as one could expect themsion of ideas with a beginning, middle, to do as natives. They write essays whichand end." lack the skills and competences that they But there is a third model or criterion seem naturally to possess in their normalforjudgingthequalityofwriting: command :if language. Of course therewhether it produces the desired effect in are important differences between whatthe reader. Teachers tend to use the first students are naturally good at with lan-two criteria, but this third is the one guage and what is required for collegethat people exercise, whether conscious- essays. But these differences are not sc ly or not, from the day they beginto complete as some maintain. There coulduse language at all. Everyone learned to be more transfer of learning than thereuse language almost automatically in his usually is. first years and has learnedunless there Writing as Producing a Specific Effect inis brain damageto be very skilledat the Reader using words to make certain things hap- Two common criteriafor judgingpen, i.e., to make people respond to him writing: in certain ways. He may not consciously 1) Is the writing true? does it embodyattend to the effects he is trying topro- good reasoning (valid inferences and ad-duce nor the techniques he uses for pro- equate documentation) and good ideas?ducing them, and if he is neurotic the effects may even be opposite to those he Peter Elbow teaches Humanities at the Massa- consciously desires. But the skill with chusetts Institute of Technology; he is complet-languageis ing his PhD. at Brandeis. He is the author of invariably there. Writing the 1966 EnglishInstituteprizeessayon courses need to use it and transform it for Chaucer. new endsnot work against it.

Reprinted fromCollege English,Vol. 30, No. 2, November 1968. 20PETER ELBOW

What is called for then is a writingwant to pick some member of the class course which ignores, at least initially, theor some member of the college adminis- first two criteriawhether the writing istration with a given opinion and see what true or good style. (This would not be 2v ords on paper have any effect in chang- course for students who are already ex-ing it. Perhaps an essay or story for a cer- cellent writers.) The point is to try totain magazine. Perhaps words on paper to build from strength and only graduallyhelp in 2 specific situation of grief or to proceed toward areas of weakness. Weanxietywords written either by the per- can try as much as possible, thereby, toson himself (diary or journal) or by avoid the common school situation insomeone else to the troubled person. which the student is trying to satisfyMost classes will come up with far better criteria that he doesn't know, feel, orideas than these. But "better" is mislead- understand, and thus cannot really ac-ing: the right assignments are simply cept, even if he wants to. those that the members of the class can Judging the effect of a piece of writ-take seriously. The teacher must be firm ing, however, is a subtle business. Thein throwing this matter into the lap of the effect tends to be intangible and difficultclass. If the class takes time to handle to specify. But we can simplify the mat-it, that time will not have been wasted. ter. The student writing will be designedIf the class cannot come up with any to produce a specific piece of overt be-cases of words on paper it can take seri- havior in a reader. 'Whether it succeedsously then it has specified its situation or not is therefore readily observable. rather well. If it ,rid not deal explicitly In the first meeting of the course thewith this situation it would be neglecting teacher presents the problem of writing its main business. to the class in exactly these terms. He The teacher gets a new role by this asks the class to reflect on situationspastshift of criteria from truth and good sty le or presentof putting words on paper toto effect. He is no longer the authority - produce a desired behavior. It is impor-on standards of excellence. For though tant at this point that this conception behe may know more than most of his stu- fleshed out from the class's own experi-dents about truth in writing and good ence and speculationnot the teacher's.style, he is not the authority on whether The class must think of assignments. itwriting produces specified behavior. must come up with instancesitcan Indeed, the class must try to be com- take seriously. For when I produce ex-pletely empirical. initsjudgments.It amplese.g., how to get a refund on awill not only send off letters to the news- faulty product, how to get a letter withpaper and see which ones get published, 2 certain thesis into a certain newspaper, but also invite businessmen, officials, etc. how to get a certain service from a gov- to reveal their responses. Many will come ernment official, how to get a raise fromto class when invited. The person whose a specific employermany people findmind was to be changed must be per- them crude, artificial, and corny. I findsuaded to come to class and tell the dif- them clean, solid, and extremely interest- ferent effects of the papers. The role of ing because I feel the need for solid, em-the teacher will be to help students pirical bedrock in this mysterious matterachieve the goal they specified and to of words on papereven at the cost ofhelp students discover why some things some gentility or sophistication. worked and others did not. (Empirical So let the class invent its own assign-does not mean simpleminded, though the ments. If it wants more sophistication,empirical class is not free to conclude fine. So long as it keeps to this empiri- that certain businessmen, teachers, or edi- cal model of writing. Perhaps it willtors behave differently from the way A Method for Teaching Writing21

they in fact do behave, it is of courseents for distinguishing certain kinds of free to conclude 'hat their behavior isgoodness in writing from certain kinds of contradictory, that they should behavebadness. His criteria can be naturally de- differently, or that they are insensitive toveloped and expanded. (And there may certain properties of words on paper.) not be such a large gapin terms of de- But the whole point of empirical feed-velopmentbetween the student's "bad" back is to learn to judge for oneself.taste and the teacher's "good" taste.) T3ut Therefore every member of the class willif the student's ability to judge accord- judge all the papers. First the class musting to his own criteria is stamped out and agree on an assignment: a problem, ahe is asked to start from scratch in learn- piece of desired behavior, and perhaps aning the teacher's criteria, he is apt to be agreed-on set of facts that all writers muststymied and even permanently damaged stick to. Then all papers are .photo-copiedin his ability to write well. so that all students get copies and judge 2) I don't mean to imply all studentsas their effectiveness. (The plan requires ac-fine, intuitive sensibilities and all writing cess to inexpensive photocopying.) Theteachers as rigid ogres. A student will class hour is used to discuss differences of often enough be baffled by the judgment judgment. The teacher's role is primarily of his classmates on his paper as muchas to see that the class performs this func-he might have been baffled by the judg- tion: fighting out disagreements andmu-ment of his teacher. Yet it is better this tually explaining why some think oneway. For students seldom 'really believe paper is better at producing the givenwhat the teacher says about their writing. effect and some anotherand what thingsThey may say "Oh, I see now" to the in the writing had what effect. (Peopleteacher's explanation. More often they without conventional "English teacher"make do with a glum sigh of ostensible training might do an excellent job teach-assent. Of course they have to put up ing this sort of class.) with the teacher's judgment; but really I see four reasons why it is crucial forit is often resistedespecially because the the students all to be readers and judges.teacher is a repository of authority and 1) It means starting with skills that stu-this gets mixed up with his also being the dents do possess. It forces the student torepository of standards for excellence. realize that he does in fact have standards Where the adverse judgment of a class on and criteria for judging writing. And ita paper may occasionally seem high- requires that he develop them. Thepro-handed and dictatorial, yet the beleag- cedure should prevent a common dilem-ured student's plight is better in two ma in which the student becomes com-ways. First, he can resist it better. He pletely disoriented; he feels he's lost allcan say "What do they know! I know as idea of what is good and what is bad; hemuch about writing as they domore in loses all confidence in his powers of responding validly to the quality of writ-fact!" But second, he is coerced to assent ing. Perhaps students do not possess ex-to their judgment more powerfully yet actly the criteria for evaluating writingmore validly than he is apt to assent to the that college teachers feel are the rightteacher's judgment. For there is no right ones: "they prefer bad writing"; "theyand wrong in this business. It's just a have bad taste!" "Good" and "bad" writ-matter of whether something works. If ing, however, are not absolutes. Thehe cannot get his classmates to think it question is "good for what" and "bad forworksand especially if outside valida- what." The student's best hope of learn-tion confirms the classthen he has not ing the teacher's criteria will come fromin fact succeeded at that assignment. But enhancing and building up hi: own tal-the process of outside validation will 22 PETER ELBOW muddy the water and force the class todesire, and techniques for achieving them try to be flexible.it will discover thatand in the process will probably accept different readerse.g., different business-more learning from the Leacher than be- menare affected by different qualitiesfore. They will also attainarealistic of writing. appraisal and understanding of the role 3) It is terrifically helpful for one's writ-of "correctness"spelling, grammar, etc. ing to read a stack of papers of veryThey will learn that for certain kinds of mixed quality all on exactly the samewriting itis not so important, and this subject. This is an experience that allwill better free them to see how itis teachers have. Most realize how muchnecessary in most other situations to pro- they learn from it, even if they wish itduce certain effects and behaviors. The happened less frequently. But itis anstrategy would prevent a situation that experience that students never have. If isnot uncommon. students sometimes you read only competent writing itis feel that criteria for good writing are hard to know or feel what makes it so. imposed from above by the teacher, and 4) It is simply fun and interesting for thetherefore they naively blame and lesent class to read and discuss its own papers.him for what are simply conventions of This strategy consists, in short, of start-correctness. Students will be forced to ing from strengthstarting from the cri-derive trustworthycriteriafor them- teria which the student already instinc-selves. The strategy here, in short, is that tively usesand only moving toward new "producing an effect" is not really a cri- or different criteria as the students dis-terion in itself but rather a neutral rubric cover them and accept them. I am not which contains all criteria. meaningtoimply,condescendingly, Students will not take long to specify that many students are complete noviceswriting problems closer to the classroom, in satisfying the criteria of truth ande.g., how to produce the behavior in a good style, but I sense that the strengthhistory teacher of giving an A on a fresh- and guts of most students' real skill withman history essay. All will write an as- language is tied in with the use of lan-signed essay for the history course and guage that has received their commit-ask a history teacher to grade them and ment for the last sixteen yearslanguagecome to class to explain. When the class designed to produce an effect on an audi-does this a number of times, students will ence. Correspondingly,thedisturbingbegin to attain a sound understanding of characteristicof much studentessay the problem of writing satisfactory col- writing is precisely its lack of force orlege essays. For example, they might well guts. develop real misgivings about the criteria But the important thing is that the cri-used by a teacherand conclude they had teria of truth and good style are notattained much sounder ones intheir wholly different from the third criterioncourse's explorations. They will never- being exercised in this course. The pro-theless see that the teacher is a teacher posed strategy will mobilize natural skillsand that they will probably have to write in language and then develop them soessays for him. But they will understand that they come to include the first twowhat his criteria are and see them as one criteria. Before long, students will them-set among a wide range of possibilities selves invent truth and good style asand be able to decide freely and realis- twobut not the only twospecial sub-tically how to respond to the teacher's sets in the problem of producing a de-demands. sired effect. The class will end up talking Inviting teachers in will be very inter- about all the aspects of good reasoningesting for the teachers as well. It will and good style that any teacher couldsharpen their perception of their own

2.9 A Method for Teaching Writing23

criteria. 1 can well imagine a teacher say- grammar than if the whole term had been ing his criteria are x, y, and z, and thedevoted to it. class replying that really he uses v, w, x. In recent years teachers of writing However the argument ends up, every-have begun to learn how immensely it one will learn a lot. helps a student's writing if he imaginesa It may be objected that this programspecific audience. Better yet if he hasone. spends too much time exploring criteriaThis can be seen as support for my hy- and too little time learning how to satisfy pothesis. the student's best language skills the new and difficult criteria that a col-are brought out and developed when lege student must meet, that the programwriting is considered as words onpaper neglects the brute necessity of learningdesigned to produce a specific effect in skillscorrect syntax, clear paragraphing,a specific reader. Other excellences in good style, coherent reasoning. I do not riling are best produced as develop- wish to imply that these skills are easyments from this model. far from it. Yet I am sure that learning them is far easier than it often seems. But Writing as Revealing the Author's Self these criteria must be clearly seen, andin His Words above all, realistically accepted. I am sure Two experiences have recently given that when a student seems unable to learnme concrete meaning for what was pre- sonic of these skillswhen he goes on forviously a vague conceptthe self revealed months or years without really masteringin words. The first experience was liter- themoften he is covertly refusing toary: trying to understand what made accept them. He may say "I guess I justMoll Flanders a better book than my ex- don't have good study habits," or "I amisting literary criteria seemed to suggest just too lazy," or "I just can't seem toit was ("Mol Flanders and the Problem get writing," or "I guess I'm just not ver-of the Novel as Literary Art," unpub- bal" But covertly he may be saying "I'mlished essay, Honorable Mention, En- damned if I'm going to give in and play glish Institute, 1967). One of the impor- word games according to the rules oftant things about that novel is the way those goddam teachers." Notice that hisyou can actually hear Moll speaking in humble or contrite assessment of why hethe words on the page. Robert Frost doesn't seem to write well blandly lacksmade the specific connection between the natural force he possesses as a person;this phenomenon and a good prose style: his real juice is bound up v. ith the resent- ful refusal that he does not express Everything written is as good as itis probably not even to himself. dramatic.... A dramatic necessity goes Until students have discovered, felt, deep into the nature of the sentence. and acceptedthecriteria,ateacher Sentences are not different enough to hold simply wastes his time crying to teach the attention unless they are dramatic. students to satisfy them. And once a stu- No ingenuity of varying structure will dent has accepted them he gets on rather do. All that can save them is the speak- quickly and forcefully with the business ing tone of voice somehow entangled in of learning how to satisfy them. In the the words and fastened to the page for procedure I am advocating it would be the ear of the imatrination. That is all that quite natural for a class of poorly trained can save poetry from sing-song, all that can save prose from itself. (From the instudents to decide at some point in the troduction to "A Way Out;" quoted in middle of the course to devote the next "The Speaking Voice," Reuben Brower, three weeks to grammar drill. They fi- reprinted in The Study of Literature, nally can see it is worth their time. In Sylvan Barnet, Morton Berman, William those three weeks they will learn more Burto, eds. [Boston, 1960], p. 160.) 24PETER ELBOW

When words carry the sound of a personpoet's kenning are appropriate. Every- whether in fiction, poetry or an essayone does have a "word-hoard". a collec- they are alive. Without it they are dead.tion of words that are connected to his Now this capacity to write wordsstrong and primary experiences in the which contain a voice may not be every-world as opposed to words which (put- thing. We all know students who have itting it inexactly) are only connected to and yet still write poor essays. But it isother words. (Cf. L. S. Vygotsky on a lot. I think it is a root quality of good"spontaneous" and "scientific" concepts writing and that we should try to teachin Thought and Language (Cambridge, it. A student who has it may make spell-Mass., 19621.) ing and syntactical errors, he may orga- How to teach students to write with a nize his papers badly and reason badly,voice is difficult to know. Frost empha- and his sentences may contradict all thesizes what we already guessthat we miss structural canons of what is currentlythe whole point if we concentrate on called good prose. But there isa realtricks of structure. But the following sense in which he already has the mainprocedure would help. The students read characteristic of good prose. his wordsa writer with a particularly strong and hang together into felt syntactical unitsobvious"loud"voice and then try to whose meanings jump immediately andwrite something that produces the same automatically into the reader's head. Andvoice. The object is for the student to from wha he has, the other excellences"get inside" the self of the imitated writer can grow more naturally, organically, by getting the sound of his tone of voice. and usually more quicklythan in theIt is an exercise in producing words that case of the student whose words on papersound like a person and not merely like are totally lacking in life. meanings. The class tries this assignment A student who has a voice in the wordswith various writers. Here again the class he puts on paper can be said to "havewould serve as the official judge: the words" or be able to "find words" in ajudgment of all the readers in the class way that the other 'student cannot. Thisis in fact the best judge of which papers can be quite literally the case. manyget the imitated writer's voice into the students without a voice simply have anwords on the page. The teacheror any agonizing timefindingwords. Theysingle personis in danger of prejudging struggle over each sentence, break don nthequestion because of conventional in the middle, and sometimes cannot evenparameters for defining style. For the as- produce at all. It can be a kind of mute-signment is to get the sound not the style. ness or radical incoherence. Others who IthinkIcan imagine two papers of lack a voice can find words but thosewhich one seemed closer to the style of words are not strong and centered. Suchthe model, and yet the other attained persons are often those who cannot, inmore unmistakably the sound of the fact, stop the words from rushing to themodel. That is to say I don't know where page, but the words are flaccid and with-the sound comes from. In the class judg- out force or point. Of course the studentment there is not likely to be tidy agree- who has a voice must often struggle too.ment about the matter. But that's as it He struggles to decide on the best word,should be with something not fully un- he struggles especially in revising; butderstood. he hasn't the terrible struggle simply to The second experience to give me a emerge from silenceor from the func-sense of what is really meant by a self tional silence of empty wordiness. Therevealed through the words on the page student who has a voice can "unlock hisis not literary but pragmaticthe experi- w ord-hoard." The connotations of theence of being a draft counselor trying to A Method for Teaching Writing25

helpconscientious objectorsintheirophers demonstrate how "is's"cannot preparation of #150 forms for their draftgive birth to "ought's.") boards. The CO who wants to be classi- Perhaps the difficulty is that the regis- fied as such by his draft boardmusttrant wants to show that his belief makes answer questions about his beliefs. Osten-sensethat it holds. But whether the be- sibly his answers tell the draft boardlief holds is irrelevant. Draft boardsare whether or not he has the right belief.not asking to be proven stupid or evil In order to be recognized as a CO, thewhich is what follows froma demon- man must have a belief that is religiousstration that the CO's belief holds. and it must compel him to refrain from The only issue is whether the applicant fighting in all war. But draft boards doholds his belief. And soeven after he not give the classification to everyonesucceeds in really determining what his who describes such beliefs. There are toobelief is, there is the mysteriousmatter many. The Supreme Court's Seeger de-of how to state it in sucha way that the cision in 1965 defined as religious anyreader believes that he believes it. belief which occupies a central place in Literary critics have tended to assent the life of the man (like the belief in Godto the exorcism of "sincerity."' But the of the traditional CO). And nucleardraft counselor has his nose rubbed in it. weapons have increased the number ofHe's faced every day with the difference people who cannot support any war. (Cf.between an answer that makes him re- my article, "Who Is a Conscientious Ob-spond "I'm not at all convinced thisguy jector?" Christian Century, August 7,believes this stuff," and one which makes 1968.) him respond "Yes. It is clear he believes Therefore draft boards now rule morethese things." And it has nothing to do and more frequently on the question ofwith the content of the belief:some- sinceritywhether the person really does believe the things he says he believes. 'It is a corrective simply to spell out what And so questions which look as thoughfollows from the premise that there is an unconscious. (A) Intention becomes messy: in our they are meant to reveal whether themanuse of words, as in other behavior, we must has the right belief are in fact crucially sometimes distinguish between what we thought used to reveal whether he has the beliefwe intended and another intention we were not he says he has. aware of. (B) What this means for the interpretation of literature is that we are cowards Students I have counseled seem to be to decide there is no intention just because we strikingly bad at this test. In the firstcannot be certain what it is. Besides, with cer- place they tend to start by describingtain kinds of evidence, tact, and practice,we something which is not really their be-can sometimes have a pretty good idea. Of course anyone who wishes may decide that the lief at all. (I can speak freely because Iintention is not part of the work. But most did the same dance.) It seemswe comereaderseven if they see the sense in which a out of our educational process thinkingwork of literature is a detached, timeless piece that when we give an account of whatof significant formnevertheless cannot refrain from also responding to literature as theyre- makes senseof what we feel we can askspond to words uttered by whole men living others to assent towe have statedourin real time and space: "Am I sure hemeans belief. The absurdity of this notion is what he seems to say he means?" (The concrete clear when it is stated so badly, but it isadvice of Wimsatt and Beardsleyin effectnot amazing how many persons give this kindto trust the teller but the talewas more right than wrong since it made us see intentionas of answer when asked to tell their beliefs. more complex than what the writer said he had We are slow to realize that belief is what in mind.) (C) What this means for rhetoric is you call on when action is required andthat we are not always right whenwe think knowledge and evidence do not providewe are sincere.'We can make good use of the ears of others in trying to determine what we certainty. (And they never do: philos- really mean. 26PETER ELBOW times the sincerity of the most outlandish is an improvementmay not be objec- belief is beyond question, while the state-tively more graceful, correct, or logical ment of a "tame," almost universal, beliefthan before. But it does have what writ- carries no conviction, sometimes viceing teachers are most eager to produce versa. writing that is alive and reveals a person. The situation forces out into the open Thus even though I don't understand an important criterion for writing. onethe observable ingredients of this aspect mustrefrainfromconsideringtheseof good writing, and therefore haven't pieces of discursive prose in terms ofanytheoreticallyjustifiablerulesfor whether the assertions make sense or areteaching it, I nevertheless end up teach- consistent, and judge them insteadin ing it (or rather helping others to pro- terms of whether they reveal a personduce it) more consistently than anything who holds the assertionswhatever the Iever taught asa Freshman English assertions may be. I realized I was facedteacher. The moral seems to be that ask- with a pragmatic but pure instance of theing for the right thing may be better than problem thatcritics of literature andknowing how to explain what you ask teachers of writing have talked of for sofor. i.e., even if x, y, and z are all valid longwhether writing is "alive." If theways to conceive the capacity that you teacher of Freshman English does notare trying to teach, and even if you teach his studer.t to write "lively" prose,understand x and y much better than z, the student is likely to get lower gradesnevertheless you may teach it better by- for the rest of his college career. If theasking for z. draft counselor does not succeed in help- Therefore I propose reproducing this ing the registrant write prose which issituation for our writing course. Students "alive"inthisprimarysense prosewill be asked to write pieces for which which contains not just propositions but thetestis not w hether the assertions a person the man is likely to have to gomake sense or are consistent but whether to jail. the reader feels the writer in the words Teaching Freshman English may bewhether the reader believesthatthe trying, but this situationis downrightwriter believes it.(For irony, a more frightening. After more than a year of itcomplex formulation is required.) Again I still haven't a clue as to the objectivethe best yardstick in this imprecise matter ingredients of this "aliveness." The onlywill be the judgment of all the members thing I have learned is to say to the manof the class. This is really a subset of the who lacks it, "Look, I don't believe you! category of wrking designed to produce I can't feel any person in these words!a certain effect inthe reader. But it You've made all these interesting state-would be akd at a particular root ca- ments but really I haven't the slightestpacity in wt_ ,ngthe ability to have a idea who you arc. I can't hear you." Butvoice, to find ',cords, not to be inco- this helpless response turns out powerful. herent, tongue-tied, or emptily verbose. It forces the man to look at what he hasIn short, to write from within the self. written from a point of view he is un- What would these writing exercises accustomed to. He struggles and floun- be? Wouldn't they be invasions of pri- ders and is baffled. But he is finally forced ucy inappropriate to school? Some ex- to realize that he has left out the mainercises might seem personal. For example, thingc%cn if he doesn't know what thatthe questions relating to conscientious main thingis. The situationisgrave objection seem very- rich and useful writ- enough that he knows he has to go homeing problems. But if some stude is felt and try to put himself into his words.lack of privacy as a problem, papc, s need The new productto the extent that it not be signed. As long as the student gets A Method for Teaching Writing27

feedback on his paperwhich he wouldhis words." It might see thepaper as do from class assessment and discussionpretty fakeas in fact lacking conviction there is no nerd for the teacher or theand selfand be right. When itgot the class member to know the author. student to burn through theprose he had But I am not talking about intimate,been using in his words, Isuspect he autobiographical "self-exposure" when Iwould reason better and make decent talk of "revealing a self in words." Writ-sentences. ing in words which "reveal the self" has nothing necessarily to do with exposingSumming up intimaciesundressing. For I am talking It will be objected that I am abandon- about the sound or feel of a believableing the teaching of what is observable person simply in the fabric of the words.and explainabletruth and good style The most intimate revelations can be putfor what is mysterious and unexplainable in words that are not alive and havenowhether it affects the reader in the de- self, and conversely, the most impersonalsired way and whether a self is revealed reasoningin lean, laconic, "unrevealing"in the words. Though the terms of the prosecan nevertheless be alive and in-objection may be true, I don't think the fused with the presence of a person or aobjection holds up. Perhaps we have self. It would be important, therefore, tobetter rules for manipulating propositions have some exercises about matters which to achieve the truth than for manipulat- are relatively impersonal but to judgeing words to produce specific effects in them solely in terms of whether convic-the reader, perhaps we have better rules tion is displayedwhether the writer isfor building words into a 'clear and ef- in the words. This would teach thestu-fective prose style than for putting down dents that this quality is not to becon-live words to reveal a self. But these in- fused with undressing.(Actually thedeterminate and unexplainable qualities person in the words need not be themay still be more worth concentrating "real" self of the author, it is the gift ofon. It may be that the most characteristic truly creative writers to reveal differentuse of languagethe use of language that "selves" in written words.) will permit people to liberate and develop The notion of judging an essay solelythe greatest skillis language for the pro- on whether it contains conviction and aduction of certain effects in readers and self will set some teachers' teeth on edge; the presentation of the self. It may be "This kid has plenty of conviction andthat teachers put students into a trap by self in his wordstoo much! What hetelling them to do x and y and notz, needs is to reason carefully and writea when the best way to do x and y is to do decent sentence." This response is dif-z. It is a common idea that freshmen have ficult to avoid. But maybe it's necessarytoo much sincerity and too little sophis- to go through conviction and self rathertication and tough-mindedness. ButI than away from them or around them.wonder. Ostensible sincerity may mask Maybe the quickest path to good reason-a fearful avoidance of the real thing. ing and decent sentence writingand we Some readers will notice that I am dis- must admit that we haven't yet foundguising as iconoclasm the wisdom of tra- quick onesis through learning betterdition and common sense. But the essay how to write words that reveal convic-would never sell under the title "Getting tion and a person. And it is important toAristotle Back into Freshman English.' remember that the class's judgment hereYet it will be recalled that Aristotle de- may be more accurate than the teacher's. votes far more space in his Rhetoric to it might not agree, for example, that "thisthe speaker and the audienceand begins kid has plenty of conviction and self inwith these topicsthan he do 1 the

o i 28 PETER ELBOW speech. He understands rhetoric as next morning, and sometimes in personal transaction between theself a the communications like important personal audiencethe two prior realities in theletters. Sufficient pressure has built up to human activity of verbal composition and force the student finally to put himself communication. He recognizes that thisinto his words, and there is usually a activity is not the same as that of de-strong sense of desired audience response termining the truth. C. S. Baldwin de-which focuses the words and thoughts. scribes Aristotle's approach: Is he not, on such occasions, finally doing precisely what we aretalking about Aristotle's division and its order are the here? Working foi- a specific effect and division and the order not merely of anal- revealing himself in his words? ysis,butof much the same synthesis as underlies the actual processes of com- From here, in fact, we may even won- position. I begin with myself; for the sub-der about those rules for truth and good ject-matter elseisdead, remaining ab-style. Are they really so trustworthy? stract. It begins to live, to become per-Those rules only approximate the out- suasive, when it becomes my message. ward characteristicsof the proseof Then only have Ireally a subject forwriters who excel at using language to presentation. A subject, for purposes ofproduce desired effects and reveal the address as distinct from purposes of in-self. For such writers can depart wildly vestigation, must include the speaker. Itfrom these approximations and still pro- is mine if it arouses me. I consider nextduce good writing. These rules ignore the audience, not for concession or com- the generative principles which produced promise, but for adaptation. What is mine must become theirs. Therefore I mustthe truth and the good prose. know them, their n 0 tic and their r a 0 os. In short, this is a proposal to teach My address becomes concrete throughwriting from the hypothesis that true my effort to bring it home. The truthwriting and good prose are only end mustprevailthroughwhat?Against products and arcfrom the standpoint what? Not onlythroughoragainst of developmentalmost epiphenomenal. reasoning, but through or against com-Producing an effect in a reader and re- plexes of general moral habit and the vealingtheselfinwords areprior emotions of the occasion. I must establish achievements in the process of learning sympathy, win openness of mind, instructto write well. The rise of all the members in such wise as to please and awaken,of the class as judges is not merely a rouse to action. My speech is for these people now. Only thus am I ready to con-strategic nod towards participatory de- sider composition; for only thus can I mocracy but rather the most valid way to know what arguments are available, orexercise these essential prior criteria. what order will be effective, or what style Final Considerations willtell. (Ancient Rhetoric and Poetic [New York, 1924], pp. 12, 13.) In thinking about this approach I have had college freshmen in mind simply be- Cicero and Quintilian carry on this tra-cause my experience in teaching writing dition. has been with college students. But I If we leave tradition and look to com-don't see why it wouldn't be at least as mon sense we notice how students whoappropriate to high school. don't write well can miraculously achieve It would be easiest to point this pro- a high degree of truth and a strong, clearposal at very poorly prepared, "disad- prose on certain occasions when theyvantaged" students. With them, the in- somehow involve their selves and getability to transfer 01)% :Jus linguistic skill turned on. sometimes on an exam, some-to the production of good written essays times very late at night on a paper dueis most glaring. But I suspect that the loss A Method for Teaching Writing29

is just as great in competent, well trained try prematurely to induce the outward students. manifestations of good writingcontrol I don't wish to diminish the validity ofand self-conscious clarity. But real writ- other models for the use of words. Forers have constantly stressed how long it example, words can usefully be thoughttakes to learn to write; and most have of in a way that has little to do with arecognized that good writers may have self, an audience, or an effect. That is,to write very badly for a long time we can think of words as approachingusually purple. If a whole term does not the blessed condition of numberas afill most essays with excellent reasoning truthseeking mach:ne, a prosthesis for theand a good prose style, it will be too soon brain: writing thus can usefully be con-to call it the wrong path. It may still be ceived as the manipulation of proposi-the shortest one. After all, under present tions according to the rules of grammartechniques, few are satisfied with the and logicand according to the (half) writing even of seniors and graduate stu- rules of association and metaphorto seedents. what new propcsitions can be made to If a college didn't want to commit emerge. This is a model which empha-more than a term's worth of money and sizes the use of words as thinking. effort, it could adopt the following plan: But thinking is not the same as writing.The course would run all year but meet It is true that they vastly overlap. Wordsonly once a week for one and a half or in the human head tend to beaccom-two hours. Students would turn in papers paniedbyconcurrentthought;butto an office three days before the meeting thought tends to come in the medium ofand pick up the complete stack of photo- words. Or more concretely, nothingcopied essays two days before the meet- helps in writing an essay like having aning. The classes wouldn't require a great idea; but students think amazingly betterdeal of teacher preparation beyond read- when they finally mobilize their naturaling the stack of papers and tryingto skill with language and learn to writethink about responses. Indeed this would from inside a self. But in spite of thisbe a good place to begin experiments overlap, being able to think well is notwith teacherless classes. the same as being able to write welland Mat about grading? What I propose certainly not the same as being able toin this article suggests experimentation: have a voice, find words, and produce asince the class's job is to figure out dif- desired response in a reader. ferent ways in which writing succeeds Of course thinking ought to be taughtin being good, the class might playan to freshmen. Perhaps there should be oneimportant part in grading. But even if it term which stresses writing and anotheris not possible or desirable to depart from which stresses thinking. Since the formerorthodox grading, it would make sense to is too important to be left to Englishtreat the weekly assignment not as grade- teachers and the latter too important todetermining tests but rather as exercises be left to philosophers, why not have allin getting feedback and therefore learn- departments staff these courses and keeping how to write betteri.e.,as prepara- class sizes down to ten or fifteen? tion for grade-determining tests. Why But it may be a mistake to reduce tonot grade the student on, say, five essays one term the amount of time devoted tohe chooses to revise on the basis of class writing. For if there is any validity infeedback and hands in at the end of the this essay it points to the conclusion ratcourse? This would make the grade more we are hasty in our teaching of writing.nearly a mean _re of what the student has Freshman English courses have tended toattained over the period of the course.

,..5 J W. E. COLES, IR.

The Teaching of Writing as Writing

"Give me a sentence which no in-leagues and students, most notably those telligence can understand," says Thoreau.of Amherst College where the course "There must be a kind of life and pal-I am teaching had its inception under pitation toit, and under its words aTheudore Baird,Ihave developed an kind of blood must circulate forever."approach to composition which I believe Perhaps these strange words open upapproaches the teaching of writing as the possibilities for a writer in a waywriting. The evidence of my students' that Unity, Coherence, and Emphasis canpapers, the only evidence, finally, which never do. Perhaps writing may be seenmatters, is the vindication of that belief. as somehow the expression of the imag-And what it is possible for me to have ination, and imagination itself may be achieved as a single teacher, it is possible mysterious and wild. for others to achieve. Theodore Baird, Amherst College The composition course I teach is a departure from the traditional college THE TEACHING OF WRITING as writingfreshman English course, if for no other is the teaching of writing as art. When reason because it is a course the students writing is not taught as art, as more thanand I take together. It is not a repetition a craft or a skill, itis not writing thatof what we have already done in high is being taught, but something else. Toschool. It does not consist of a smorgas- teach writing as something else, to teachbord of assigned readings in required art as non-art,isto make impossibletexts. Its nucleus is not the Theme. It the conception of art as art. On thedoes not depend upon a handbook or other hand, art because it is art, cannotan anthology, a formula or a gimmick. be taught. What is wanted then, for It does not, in the ordinary sense, depend the teaching of writing as writing, is aupon a syllabus at all.It is neither a way of teaching what cannot be taught, acourse in methodology, although itis course to make possible what no courseconcerned with the development of cer- can do. tain basic skills, nor a course that serves With the help of innumerable col-as an introduction to other courses given by an English department, however it William E. Coles, Jr., is Assistant Professor of English and director of a special writing pro-intensifies a student's awareness of the gram at Case Institute of Technology of Case relationship between language and expe- Western Reserve Universit rience.Its subjectiswriting, writing

Reprinted fromCollege English,Vol. 29, No. 2, November 1967. 37 The Teaching of Writing as Writing31 conceived of not as a way of sayingassignments to whichitisaddressed. something but as something being said, asWe use no books of any sort. At no an action, an extension of being a time do we invoke a text outside the one moment in time. we are in the act of creating. I mark The course is based on several as-the student papers not with standard sumptions that the only way one learnscorrection symbols but with metaphors to write is by writing, and that a courseevolved from our class discussions. After inFreshmanComposition,therefore,four or five examples, no student is in ought to be a course in writing, notany doubt as to what is meant by such in something else; that writingis anterms as "bulletproof," "cocoa-marsh," art and deserves to be treated as an art,"sky writing," or "mayonnaise." by teacher and student alike; that it Each student writes thirty-five papers: isa writer's responsibility to improvean autobiographical introduction of him- his writing because no one else can doself, thirty-two regular assignments, a it for him; that a writer can be led tolong paper at the end of the term, and a understand he cannot live anywhere but finalexamination. These can be any in the languages he knows, and that iflength the student cares to Inake them, a student cannot make himself into aand he is free to rewrite any paper as writer, he can at least have some in-many times as he wishes. Although I telligent awareness of what a writer is,keep a record of each student's progress imagine what he could do if he werethrough the term, I place no ,grades on a writer. Above all, the course aims atindividual papers, and I ban grades as shattering the illusion that learning abouta possible source of conversation along writingisEasy, or Menial, or Dull.with two other subjects: the sequence Although these ideals, I realize, are large of assignments and the matter of how and loud, the work of my students hasa student can improve his writing. Since demonstrated that they are neither fac-these last two subjects are the course, titious nor extravagant. there is no point in conferences about I can describe the organization andthema policy which produces almost administration of my course more easilyno students for conferences atall.I than I can its content, its purposes, itsallow no unexcused absences and no results. It is a one semester course run- late papers. ning for twelve weeks in which I meet The student supplies the material for my studentsfora regular period ofhis own discourse, while the assignments fifty minutes three times each week. Iare contrived both to define a way of work with two classes of about 25 stu-thinking and writing about something dents each who areselected only inand to direct our general movement from the sense that as a group they are aday to day throughout the term. Every microcosm of the Case freshman profileyear I make a new sequence of assign- as a whole. Each period, the studentsments dealing with a new and different turn in a paper for a writing assignmentproblem, so that for all concerned, this given them the previous meeting, receiveis always a new course, a fresh progression another writing assignment for which inthought and expression, a gradual they write a paper due the followingbuilding up of a common vocabulary, period, and get back the papers theya more precise definition of terms. The have turned in the period before. Theassignment usually puts the student in a class meeting is devoted to a discussionposition to isolate a bit of his experience, of mimeographed samples of unidentified and then asks something about what student writing and is confined solelyhe has done in this act of separating one to a discussion of that writing and thething from another, of arranging what J 32 W. E. COLES, JR. he knows in some sort of pattern. Sub-no need for the questions in the first sequent assignments question this pattern,place, andIcertainly could not use ask the student to reexamine it from thisthem to run a class. My object is to perspective and that. As the year ad-keep things open, to pursue an idea in vances, he makes increasingly compli-such a way as to allow a student to cated statements about his own activitieshave ideas of his own, to find himself as a composer, problem solver, knower,intheact of expression,to become writer. Whatever continuity he con-consciousofhimself as becoming structs from one paper to another, fromthrough the use of language or lan- one class discussion to the next, is hisguages. No set of assignments which continuity and his alone.' There is nofails to pursue an idea can allow for verbal formula to memorize, nothingthese possibilities. No set of assignments to catch ontoexcept the fact that withwhich closes an idea, which has a "point" writing there is nothing to catch onto.to get, or moves to a predetermined Whatever the student learns, he learns, conclusion, can allow for them either. and by himself, even if he does not Iask the questions I do then not do it alone. because I know the answers to them, Perhaps I can best explain what I trynot even because I do not know the to do with a subject by recalling setsansu ers to them, but because though of assignments I have worked with inI know that they do not have answers the past. I have asked what it means toin the conventional sense of the word wear a mask. What correctness is. How (what kinds of questions do?), it is only you solvea math problem. What itthe dead who cannot be brought to means to lie or to be logical. How the seeas alive a subject through which present can contain the past, or the pastthere is the possibility of self-definition. the future. How you operate a machine.For this reason, though I have never Whether there is such a thing as non-repeated an assignment, every assignment linguistic experience. I have never hadI have ever worked with, every question more than a tentative answer to any of Ihave ever asked, involves the same these questions. But I take comfort inissues. where and how with this prob- the knowledge that no one else seemslem do you locate yourself? To what to have answers to them either, evenextent and in what ways is that self though these same questions in different definable in language? What is this self forms have occupied the acutest mindson the basis of the languages shaping I know. it? What has it got to do with you? I devise each new set of assignments, I wish to make clear that the self ask each new set of questions as anotherI am speaking of here, and the one attempt to make some communicationwith which I am concerned in the class- work betweenteacherandstudent.room, is a literary self, a persona, the Though I am inpursuit of an ideaself constructible from the way words when I make one out, I do not knowfall on a page. The other self, the identity whether that idea is communicable out-of a student, is something with which side the form that my questions havea teacher can have nothing to do. That as questions. If it were, there would bethere is a relation between writing and thisother self,between writing and I`.3everal of the sentences of this paragraph thinking, a confusing, complicated, and appear in a slightly different form in a mimeo- involving relation indeedthis is unde- graphed description of English I written and distributed by the Department of English ofniable, but itisa relation that only Amherst College to the students taking thethe individual writer knows about, and course. it can hardly become the province of The Teaching of Writing as 1Vriting33

any public intellectual discourse without lists as examples, explain what you see a teacher's ceasing to become a teacher, as the chief ads.antages and disadvantages a student's ceasing to become a student. of being a professional and of being an Ideally, hopefully, primarily, our con- amateur. cern is with words: not with thinking, but with alanguage about thinking;Assignment Three asked whether and not with people or selves, but with lan- in what ways amateurism was preferable guages about people and selves.IfI to professionalism; Four had the students refuse to be moved by tears idle tears,create a situation defining an amateur; to talk about or sympathize with theFive a situation defining a professional; self apart from the words it has chosenand so on. The notion of definition as to have being, itis because I believea way of seeing, as a description of the that my students are students, and thatdefiner rather than the defined, takes I am neither equipped for nor ready totime to understand the implications of, assume the responsibility of posing ashas implications only if a student dis- apriest,a psychoanalyst, afriend.I covers them on his own. I then moved am a teacher of writing. No more. And,to the seemingly unrelated subject of I hope, no less. what it means to give or take advice The sequence of assignments I usedand asked questions intended to com- Fall Semester, 1965, was on the subjectplicate the student's notion of the role of Amateurism and Professionalism.Iof a definer depending on whether he began the assignments with the problemis the subject or object of an action, or of definition (assignments One throughboth. Six) by asking the students to find, as Wittgenstein would put it, "a substance Assignment 9 for a substantive." I came at this slowly "Come, there's no use in crying like andwithdeliberaterepetitivenessin that!"saidAlicetoherselfrather order to allow for the necessary street- sharply. "I advise you to leave off this cleaning that has to be done before minute!" Shegenerallygaveherself anyone even begins to think about writ- very good advice (though she very seldom followed it),...for this curious ing anything. Assignment One reads as child was very fond of pre,:..:nding to be follows: two people. Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventure Here is a statement: in Wonderland A professional, whether paid or un- Describe a situation in which you gave paid,isthe man thatcounts. An yourself what you consider to be very amateur is a clumsy bastard. good advice that you did not follow. Stanley Woodward, The Paper Who was there? What was said and Tiger, 1964. done? Did you pretendtobe two Where do you stand on thisissue? people? Explain your answer. Begin your paper by explaining what you mean by the terms professional and amateur. Do you respect one more thanAssignments Thirteen through Seventeen the other? asked the students to compare the advice of some professional writers on how Here is Assignment Two: to write about science (J. D. Thomas, Sir Clifford Allbutt). We then explored Make a list of some of those people yousome of the resources of language avail- consider to be professionals and of someable to a definer in terms of the concepts of those you consider to be amateurs.of amateurism and professionalism.In Using one or two people from your twoAssignment Nineteen the students were 34W. E. COLES, JR. presented with a paragraph from TheThe real subject of the course, of course, Catcher in the Rye and the directive: no one has any trouble naming as language, but every student writes out his Describe the voice you hear speaking in relation to that subject differently and the passage above and its ideal audience.with a differentlyheightenedself- What isit you call professional here? consciousness of his identity as a reflex What do you call amateur? of the languages he commandswhether By Assignment Twenty-Two we werethey are of mathematical or chemical in the midst of the subject of nonsense: symbols, gestures, words. This awareness is also differently come by, and in this Ideally, this story (Edward Gorey's Thesense the chronology of the course as Willowdale Handcar) ought to be pre-I have presented it is misleading. I have sented to you in its original form. Eachnot detailed the several logics of the paragraph is accompanied by an illustra-assignments nor the way in which class- tion drawn by the author and the wholeroom conversations can be manipulated arranged in a format reminiscent of ato exploit them. I have given no evidence child's picture book. But your concernfor the possibility of connections other on this assignmentis with the wordsthan my own. Above zll,I must here alone. rest the claim of the success of the Begin by making clear to a readeryour understanding of this story. What is thecourse I am teaching, and of its superi- relationship between the various char-ority to the traditional approach of the acters? What "happens," exactly? standard collegefreshman English You may express your understanding in course, on naked assertion. With world any way you wish. by means of equa-enough and time, I would make the case tions, through the construction of a dia- differently. gram (using color if you findit con- venient), with a chart or graph, byre- That the course does work is, I think, telling the story in your own words. particularly important to have substantiated because of what may be argued The lastseries of assignments in thefrom its having worked. Indistinguish- sequence, seven of them, had to do withable from my imagining the place of the place of the humanities at an in-such a course in the evolution of a stitute lAC technology and with the re-student's awareness of what it meansto lationship between the humanities andwrite a sentence in English, and the exten- science. The students then were askedsions of that awareness beyond the issues to 111?1..c an order of their experienceof an assignment, a course, a curriculum, with the course: is my belief in the power of that knowledge collectively shared to establishan Assignment 32 institution as a school; to create that Look back over the assignments givenimpalpable, indefinable, and yet unmis- you this term, the papers you have writ-takable presence of tone without which ten addressing yourself to them, and thethe curriculum is no more than an ag- papers mimeographed for discussion ingregation of courses, the campus a group class. Recall any conversation youmay have had about the course, either in classof buildings, intellectual communityan or out of it. Where did you start thisempty phrase. A tone emerges from the term? Where do you seem tocome out? collectiveness of any institution simply Do not simply arrange thecourse inas the result of its being an institution, chronological order, put things togetherbut the extent to which this tone is in a way that will enableyou to say whatworth standing by as well as for isa the real subject of the course has been. matter of what that collectiveness in- The Teaching of Writing as Writing35 corporates and how it incorporates what isreflectedi:ithe opportunity given it does. A community is made; it is notthe students to relate the various areas just there. of their experience at a college of, by, I know that the course I am teachingand for which they are the incorporation. would work as successfully at a businessI imagine the individual's search for self- school or a university asit has at aassociation by connecting the I boratory liberal arts college and an institute ofwith the dormitory, by relating the writ- technology. What Iimagine isthating of a sonnet with the writing of an course taught wherever it is taught asequation, by harmonizing the require.. a required course for all freshmen, v, hat-ments of a course with what has to be ever their aptitudes, whatever their fu-required of the self, giving birth toa tureareasof specialization, and thespirit of inquiry developed as a tradition coursesubsidized,respected,asoneand enriching all disciplines of a school. which is a field of its own. I imagineI imagine the creative act, even in a such a course taught by teachers, andFreshman English course, even on the not necessarily members of an individual part of first year college students, seen department or of a single discipline, byas an act of self-identification inviting colleagues who with the same set ofself-identification, and as such both noble assignments, devised cooperatively, areand ennobling. In imagining that this teaching different classes, making dif-course could provide the syntax for the ferent connections, developing a dif-vocabulary of the college experience and ferent metaphoric relation to their sub-thereby create the tone of a college ject. I imagine a communal effort whichcommunity, I imagine another way of is more than a cheap or shallow con-evolving that end in which all of us as cession to Togetherness in that the nec-teachers and students have our essary collaboration of a faculty to teachbeginnings.

...... j.calaaa GEORGE STADE

Hydrants into Elephants: The Theory and Practice of College Composition

I Colleges, students, their teachers, the No DOUBT college composition is in a badnational environment are not what they way. Everyone says so, even people whoused to benot what they used to be six- are responsible for its being as it is. Thety years ago, say, when only those with course for years justified its existence bymoney to spare could afford to attend disenchanting more students, harryingcolleges and only those with even more more administrators, breaking in(orspare money (or a taste for genteel pov- down) more apprentice teachers, and en-erty) could afford to teach in them. No riching more publishers, than any other;doubt students and professors spoke a but it has suddenly become as embarras-common language in those days. But I sing and superfluous as it is difficult todoubt very much thatthestudents part with: our feelings towards it, thatlearned to speak it in coile.ge. Possession is, are like a bridegroom's towards hisof the lingo went along with whatever it pornography collection. was got them admitted in the first place. Freshmen do not write very well and (Immigrants'sons with new money the composition course does not get themeither never learned the language or to write much better. this mismatch be-sopped it up from the ambience.) It fol- tween ill and remedy is what high-mind-lows, presumably, that teaching compo- ed hysteria calls "The Crisis in Freshmansition then amounted to giving directions English"a subject that has been drawnfor the pouring of a kind of class cement into the polemics of the cold war and theinto two thousand-year-old rhetorical conservative revival, as it's called, or was molds. called. The New Left, asit'scalled, But we no longer much care whether answers, "Let them write poetry in-or not our students speak that language; stead," as though poetry were a kind ofand the molds have finally been shat- radical prose. McLuhanites would havetered. The traditional rhetorical cate- them tune in on the air waves of thegories no longer seem capable of describ- future. But right,left,or imploded,ing what happens when people write, let everyone agrees on the ultimate cause.alone capable of prescribing what should the times they are 2-changing. happen. All of which leaves us with a course built on a double paradox: the Mr. Stade, who has published a study of Robert Graves and who edited, with F. W. Dupee, content of the course is form, but all the Selected Letters of E. E. Cummings,is head of old forms have lost their content. What the College English Department at Columbiawe talk about in class, that is, is how to University. This paper was first presented at a meeting of the Conference on College Composi- talk; we are, at least theoretically, con- tion and Communication. cerned with hew students write, not

Reprinted fromCollege English,Vol. 31, No. 2, November 1969. 4 ti The Theory and Practice of College Composition 37 with what they write about; and if we Well, that's claiming a good deal, nor give them something to write about it isis there any reason why we should not only because we know that outside ofclaim as much, or more, so long as we God and French symbolist poetry thereadmit, at least to ourselves, how short the is no such thing as form without con-achievement is of the intention. If the tent. They learn, we hope, a mannerteacher of Freshman Composition really which is applicable to all the matters offeels that the course can accomplish any discourse under the sun. But no one hasof what we claim are its goals, the teach- yet been able to describe any one man-ing of it should provide him with oc- ner, or any system of manners, that satis-casions for self-justification and grounds fied anybody but himself, if indeed it didfor hope, if not for faith. But we all satisfy himwhich is the sort of thingknow that, in fact, teachers of Freshman that always happens to manners of allComposition feel less justified and less kinds when a ruling class loses both itshopeful in direct proportion to the num- self-confidence and theemulation ofber of years they have taught it, and that inferior life-stylists. their ruling attitude toward the course So we do what we can: we do patch-is usually some mixture of cynicism and work; we make the students learna despair. For all that, the goals are the grammar also two thousand years old andright ones, and even if they were totally also believed in by nobody, least of all byout of reach we should have to work the students; we put before them tech-toward them as the determinist acts upon niques,tricks,turns, models, rules ofhis choiceswith instinctive, but absurd, thumb, conventions, anything we candetermination. think ofall of which we somehow ex- The question is not for what? but pect on the one hand to instill in themhow? especially when we recalland this that sense of their audience's needs weis what we learn from freshman composi- might just as well call decorum and ontionthat thereis no teaching, only the other to provide them with the meanslearning, and that people only learn for of escape from the Spanish Cloister ofprofit or through play. Any honest ap- their own inaniculateness. And in ourpraisal of the results of Freshman Com- moments of greater academic self-ab-position (as we see them in students who sorption, we further expect that we arein their sophomore slumps return to us in at once helping students to help them-other courses) must convince us that, selves to the good things of our cultureoutside of the truly secondary motive of and placing before them the means anda good grade, the course must seem to desire to add to these good things. Thestudents singularly devoid of either the least guarded among us might claim thatprofitable or the playful. we and our colleagues in other depart- How about the readings? you may be ments are acculturating our students, ourthinking at this point. How about those job, we might claim, is to cultivate acollections of essays collected from other style of writing that will reflect and en-collections of essays? They,. one sup- courage a style of thought and a style ofposes, do from time to time provide the life; and all these are either to embodysubjects about which students very much and further the best that has been thoughtwant to say something. And they are and done in the West, or, depending onprofitable, not only because of their con- the instructor's politics, to be directedtent, but becrak students can learn from toward undoing what has been thoughtthem by imitation. In the best of them, or done in the West. we might add, the authors' concern with 4.i 38GEORGE STAVE

style, structure, and embellishmentpro-vide Freshman Composition with what vides object lessons in the forms ofevery course needs: a subject that re- literary play. veals itself in stages.The course does not But the essays are not in fact modelsdevelop or progress, but like Eliot's silent we want our students to use as such ifvertebrate in brown, it contracts and they are pursy translations of sturdyconcentrates, withdraws. There is not originals, or shards broken offsome wellthe sense from class to class ofnew wrought design, or examples of theaccomplishments, intellectual or practi- botched prose the studentsare perfectlycal, that confirm the validity of the old capable of writing without referencetoones, impart morale to student and teach- a model. And most of the exhibits in moster, establish rapport between them. It anthologies are just such specimens. Fur-boils down to this: the coursewe think ther, my earlier remarks about teaching,of as having form for its content hasno learning, and motivation applyto learn-content at all. Freshman English as we ing by imitation as muchas they do toteach it is not a subject. learning through exhortation. This absence of a subjectencourages The unhappy truth is that the bestcertain distempers of teaching. Each col- imaginable collection of essays wouldlege has a prevailing intellectual climate impede our aims more than it could fur-that determines what kind of instructors ther them. First, because theyare notare likely to seek and find jobs there and examples of form without content. A stu-which rounds off any squarepegs, except dent who has been stimulated(I mayfor the most seasoned knotheads,so that exaggerate here) by Bacon on dissimula-in each college, Freshman English will tion, or by Milton on censorship,or byprecipitate a certain range ofcompen- De Quincey on murder,or by Marysatory teaching styles, as Icall them. McCarthy on Vassar, wants to talk about(In Columbia, for example, I haveseen no dissimulation,censorship,murder,orinstance of the droning bore who fastens Vassar, not about Bacon's false antitheses,onto the minutiae of grammar as a sink- Milton's inspired use of the non sequitor,ing skipper lashes himself to themast or De Quincey's polytropics,or McCar-oftheindomitable anachronism who thy's epitropes. And the instructor whoteaches Freshman English asa substitute cuts off the student's legitimate desire tofor finishing school, a course in literary misconstrue and argue aside from the manners.) point usually winds up displaying his But from staff meetings, from the con- authors' beauties of style beforea class offessions of colleagues who havemore doodlers and windowgazers. The splithonesty than discretion, from students between the content of the essays and thewho by sly confidences about other content of the course (that is, composi-members of the English Department wish tion) is the main source of the schizo-either to puff me up or put me down, phrenia that is everywhere the badge and and, most of all, from reflectionson my stigma of Freshman English. own behavior in the classroom, I have And because the essays themselvesaredecided that three compensatory styles about a variety of subjects and bya of teaching composition prevail at Co- variety of writers, the half of thecourselumbia (for example). they comprise is further fragmented, un- The first presents us with the instruc- til by the fourth week thecourse hastor as shaman of the modern variety, settled into a hebephrenia beyond ther-like Cipollo in Thomas Mann's story. 1 apy. The readings, in short, do not pro-This type fills in the vacuum left by the ,4 .) The Theory and Practice of College Composition39 absence of the subject with a concitation All three styles provide the teacher of the group mind. He conducts his classwith opportunities for self-expression through an extraordinarily sensitive at-and the students with out-of-the-way tunement to every nuance of emotionexcitements. And clearlytheyresult and attitude on the part of the studentmore from an excess than a deficiency of general will, which he comes to embody,good intentions. But as the teacher mea- so that no matter what he says, the stu-sures his exhaustion and the students esti- dents hear their deeper selves talking, andmate how much each hour's entertain- areconvinced. The classroom atmo-ment at approximately fivedollars a sphere becomes quickly charged with thethrow has subtracted from their patri- crackle of over-loaded psyches, whichmonies, teacher and students might sep- the slightest ebb of nervous energyonarately wonder whether giving and tak- his part willshort-circuit. An hour'sing the course hasn't been like taxi-danc- teaching leaves him exhausted and hising with a transvestite: amusingly weird students dazed, let down, as though theyat first but finally stale,flat, and un- had just come out of a trance, whichprofitable. And the conscientious teacher indeed they have. will realize what his students may not, The second compensatory style is thatthat he has committed the one unforgiv- of the teacher who reveals himselfas hisable sin of teaching: he has deprived own subject. The elements of style be-them of an opportunity for the develop- come stages in his autobiography andment of intellectual autonomythe magi- testimonials of character. Students quick-cian by a Negative Capability that rely understand that a B paper is a loyaltymoves from the classroom landscape any test safely passed and a D paper a guiltysteep or unfamiliar ground, they might confession of unrequited love. To thepit themselves against, the autobiogra- sophisticated but modest student, attend-pher by an Egotistical Sublime that con- ing such a teacher's class is like reading fusespersonalities and issues, and the D. H. Lawrence on togetherness or F. R.ironist by a technique of equivocation Leavis on Lawrencethe student beginsthat makes a figure of fun out of any to fear that the degree of earnestnessstudent who asks for or gives a straight being demanded of him is forever outsideanswer. his range. The only way out of all this, it seems The third compensatory style is thatto me, is to make Freshman Composition of the teacher as ironist. Every non-re-into a subject, or to give it one, or to mark he makes on his non-subject istake one more look from another angle, undercut by a hollow intonation or ajust in case it does, after all, already have risus sardonicus. It's one joke, he implies,one, one that need only be unearthed and that a man like him should be non-teach-nurtured. ing Freshman English. It's another that students like them should have to not- II hear him do it. It's a bigger joke that he knows that they know that he knows In the spring of 1966,atthe en- that they are in on the joke. But thecouragement of my English Department, biggest joke is that although he knowsI went to Denver in search of a subject that they know he knows it is all a joke,to Denver, because that was where the he also knows that they know he knowsConference on College Composition and he takes it very seriously, and has graveCommunications was holding its meet- doubts as to whether he can carry it off.ing. There I joined hundreds of men and

4U 40 GEORGE STADE

women from all over the country inthe special interests had anywhere been search of a revelation that did not seemthe salvation of Freshman Composition, to be anywhere near at hand. The lackany more than the doubloon had saved ofconfidence,agreedpurpose,andthe sinking ship to which its ambitious economy of effort that were tc char- master had nailed his hopes. acterize the two and one-half days of Literature, for example, is the worst speeches, panels, demonstrations, semi-subject for the composition course, be- nars, and conferences made themselvescause it is (to English teachers anyhow) felt immediately, from the very openingthe very best otherwise. It is the English address, which was given by three speak-teacher's own special interest. What stu- ers, none of whom agreed about any-dent or teacher will want to concentrate thingexcept that Freshman Composi-on student prose when they can attend to tion was in a bad way. the lessons of the masters? Nor does The schedule of activities, however,dedicated study of the greatest instances reflectedthe history of attempts byof English prose guarantee the student members of the CCCC to find a subjecteven a modest grace in exposition, or for the course that had brought themPLMA style would not be what it is. together in one body of many minds.And there are great novelists, like Joyce, The five panels on "Issues in defining thewhose expository prose is utterly with- aims of Freshman Composition Courses,"out distinction. The fictional and ex- for example, were as follows: pository uses of words are not the same. Lastly, although no teacher of good will 1. With Emphasis on Rhetoric can want to turn all college students into 2. With Emphasis on Literature literary criticshe does not want the stu- 3. With Emphasis on Language dent, that is, to approach all problems as 4. With Emphasis on Communicationthe critic approaches histhat is exactly 5. With Emphasis on Ideas and Issueswhat making literature the subject of of Human Society. Composition encourages. "Communication Skills," a much-ad- In other meetings advocates of stylistics,vertised but mysterious discipline, which semantics,linguistics,logic,andtheseems to be concerned with the philoso- study of mass media had their say. Andphy and techniques of reading, writing, there were dark rumors of somethingtalking, and listening, was the coming called the "Voice Project," inspired, Ithing during the fifties, but for some was told, by madmen who wanted stu-reason it never arrived. Though it still dents to write like they talk,like. Ithas a large number of champions, its began to seem as though College Com-best known theorists are now working position, to the members of the CCCC,either for the CIA or with porpoises. was like the gold doubloon in Moby Rhetoricis,once againthis year's Dicksomething by violence yoked tocoming thing, if I read the signs aright, an unnatural vehicle, in the process trans-and anyone who knows what it once formed from an object of uncertain butaccomplished must feel the force, largely assured value into a goad and a lure, itssentimental, I am afraid, of its appeal. aspect to be determined by the specialThere was much passionate talk of it at interests of its fellow travellers. So farthe last three meetings of the CCCC, but as I could tell from the number of longno one could explain to me what it might arguments and short tempers during, andnow mean. From the kinds of texts that quick drinks between, meetings, none ofhave the word in their titles I gather that 4 7 The Theory and Practice of College Composition41

a rhetoric isa book, written by twoBence. It is audible enough, but one can authors, that comes out in a new editionattend to it only with a kind of numb every second year, and that, after a one-and mindless passivity. Every good writ- hundred-pageexordiumonoutlines,er, then, has a voice in the sense of a moves to a cautionary narration on therecognizable style that reflects his per- evils of mislaying modifiers or falsifyingsonal and characteristic way of thinking antitheses, to a confirmation of a sub-in words. But one's speaking voice is not limely naive paragraph-mystique,on to aone's prose voice. Prose and talk, that refutationof such wordsas"com- is,obey different rules. M. Jourdain plected," to, finally, a peroration on thespeaks prose only because he is a charac- research paper. Traditional rhetoric, alas,ter in a play. is tied to a world-view, a model of the We can learn something else from M. mind, a theory of language, a pedagogi-Jourdain. The sound of one's voice is cal method that not even Jesuitscanlargely a resonance fed back froman really make themselves believe in. imagined or real audience. A writer, like Linguistics is a valuable discipline fora speaker, becomes aware of his own the composition student to knowsome-voice by listening to the way it sounds thing about, because it might lead him toto an audience, not from introspection. ponder the awful fact that experts on I would say that a writer develops language are seldom expert writers. Thehis own voice in the first place by work- scientific study of language nomoreing as hard as he can at saying exactly guaranteesgood writingthanmusi- what he means. He will only discover cology will refine your cadenzas orexactly what he means in the process; economics will put money in your purseand since he will never quite mean what or ornithology will teach you to layanyone else has meant, he will never find eggs. Writing, like making money andanyoneelse'sconstructions,rhythms, playing the piano, is an art, not a science.range of diction quite what he needs. There were men who wrote well beforeHe develops a voice, secondly, by saying there was linguistics; to this day, therewhat he means in a way that reflects are few good writers who can tell anhis awareness of an at least hypothetical allomorph from a murmur-vowel; andaudience. Prose is at once expressive and linguists who write well do not writecommunicative, a private and a public well because they are linguists. possession, something that allows for self- The Voice Project, I believe, is con-revelation, but on a stage already set. cerned with making students learn to Logic of a certain sort is part of write from how they talk, with develop-what the composition course requires. ing in each student a prose voice modeledThe logic required, however, is not of on his speaking voice, as he himself hearseither the formal or symbolic sort, but it. There clearly is something in thisthe kind that is logically, historically, project. Prose cannot be heard unless itexperientially, and methodologically speaks in a tone definite enoughto riseprior to it, even in the work of logicians above the static of a reader's interiorthe logic of ordinary language. The monologue. Officialese, and the kind oflogic of ordinary language is formally prose in, say, textbooks for educationillogical; it catches up what formal logic coursesor wherever the absence of mat-must leave out to remain logical. That ter had to be disguised by a pseudo-is what the major work of Russell and scientific mannermight best be calledWittgenstein was all about. noise, or sound not directed by intelli- There are similar arguments against 4 -3 42 GEORGE STADE

pumping the life of other subjects, suchthe composition teacher wants to pro- as semantics or pop sociology, into Com-vide his students with something prior to, position, as there are similar argumentsless specialized than, more nearly in- against fastening it as a sort of remora todispensable than, the analytic and de- a general education course, such as Hu-scriptive tools of the various academic mznities, Contemporary Civilization, ordisciplineshe wants, say, to train the the survey of English literature. But thefingers that bring the speculative instru- argument prior to all others, and to mements of other disciplines into focus; he the conclusive one, is that Compositionalso wants to provide the materials out has a subject of its own; it is a necessaryof which those instruments are made. part of any general education program in We want, then, to help the students its own right. towards exploring, defining, and so in The subject I have in mind, the onepart mastering themselves and the world that suddenly came over me in Denver,around them, which is largely a world of is so simple, so natural, so obvious, sowords. We want them to be a larger part fruitful in its implications, that it mustof the world and we want the world be the right one. Itis,infact, whatto be a larger part of them. We want to everybody knows is the proper subjectenlarge their boundariesnot just the of college composition. The subject ofboundaries in which they think, but also the course is the students' writing. It isthose within which they act. A person secondarily their thinking, to the extentis, at least to others, what he does, how that their thinking expresses itself inhe acts, and a large part of what any- words. The aim of the course is to makeone does is to use words. What one does the students write better, or to put itwith words is to a large extent what he another way, to improve their verbalis, to himself as well as to others. thinking, to extend their ability to cap- We should like to lead students to- ture and create experience with words.ward the means through which they A number of subsidiary aims, whichmight escape their inarticulateness, no many teachers consider important formatter how fluent it is, because inarticu- political or ethical reasons or because oflateness, as we all know, has political, as their understanding of what aliberalwell as psychological consequences. All education entails, naturally follow. people, including those who, like many We want to help our students tans-of our former students, look daggers form experience into knowledge, ver-from out of their silent, suburban rage, balize whatever they have done orwant a "voice." They want to be heard, undergone, so that they will know whatbut first they must learn to speak, and these are. The one unambiguous sign andhere the teacher of composition can be probably the sine qua non of someone'sof use. knowing that something is the case is He can also be of use in extending the his ability to say it in his own words,student's social, as well as political and just as the proof of someone's knowingintellectual, boundaries. He can intro- how to do something is his ability to doduce students to verbal communities it. We want to give our students thecommunities of ideas, of manners, of cul- know how for saying whatever theyturalstyle,of ideologiesother than know that. No doubt teachers of otherthese into which they were born. He can subjects want the same, for the trans-help to free them from provincial bias, formation of experience into knowledgewhich takes rumor for truth and takes is the goal of education in general; buttribal prejudice for the limits of choice; At) The Theory and Practice of College Composition43 he can help to free them from the histori-say before it appears what good writing cal fix, which takes the reflexes of theon any subject would be like. One can present as the first and last word on howpoint to pieces of good writing andsay to say and do. The composition teacher,that they are good and point to bad ones in short, would like to introduce hisand say that they are bad, andone may students to the infinite universe of words,even be able to say a little about just which, because ittranscends and in-what is good and what bad, but no one corporatesthesocialandhistoricalhas been able to deduce rules of eithera worlds,providesaperspective frompredictive or prescriptive sort thateven which to judge them. commonly, let alone universally, apply. W' should likethecomposition But the teacher of Freshman Compo- course, finally, to provide the studentsition does not need to know in the with verbal and intellectual tools forabstract or in advance what good writing criticism and self-defense. We shouldwould be like. He need only, to begin like to provide him with means tocom-with, recognize bad writing. He need bat or evade propaganda, whether fromonly be like the jazz musician whocan Washington, Madison Avenue, Peking,play, but not read, music. The musician quadrangle orators, Hugh Hefner,orknows perfectly well when he hits a professors. We should like him to beclam, as Dizzy Gillespie puts it,.-en abletodistinguish among argumentsthough he may not be able to ex, ,ain based on evidence or experience or ob-what is fishy about the note. The teach- servation or logic from those basedon er, likewise, need only recognize verbal conventional usage, on authority, andclams when he sees them, need only feel on appeals to semi-conscious fears ortheir wrongness, as he need only, feel the desires. We should like our students toadequateness of other expressions or their feel the force of a remark of Sartre's: felicity. "We are no better than our life, and it And the teacher does recognize these is by our life that we must be judged;things, if English is his native language, our thought is no better than our lan-and what is more, the student does too, guage, and it ought to be judged by theonce they have been pointed out to him. way it uses it." Eighteen out of twenty students, even The most difficult questions of all re-if they habitually make the mistake in main to be answered. How is Freshmanquestion themselves, will recognize that Composition to achieve its aims? Whatsomething is wrong and know more or should happen in the classroom? Whatless how to put it right the minute the should students read, if anything, andteacher says, "Look here, there's somewhat should they write about? Accord-thing wrong." The average teacher of ing to what standards should the teachercomposition has been speaking English evaluate their writing? On the basis offor twenty -five years, the average stu- what assumptions should he constructdent for fifteen. During these times each his schedule of assignments and of topicshas developed a language sense, a sense for discussion in class? of idiom, a feel for the logic of ordinary I said before that the main aim of theexpressionsthe expressions from which course was to improve the student's writ-all extraordinary ones are derived. This ing, and his thinking so far as it is verbal.sense, or faculty or "dispositional prop- Everyone tacitly admits as much, but noerty" is at once generative :lad critical: one can say what the principles of goodit enables us to combine words as fast as writing, in the abstract, are. No one canthought, but without a thought for the 44GEORGE smuc

rules according to which we combinehe practices and has his practice cor- them; it enables even an illiterate to spotrected by a more experienced practition- incongruencies among the words in anyer, his teacher, and has it tested by mea- expression, and enables him to do it assuringitagainst the practices of his fast as the musician who plays it bypeers, his fellow students. After the stu- ear can spot a flatted fifth in a diatonicdent's sense of the logic of ordinary progression; it is more subtle, complex, language has emerged into his conscious- inclusive, and useful than any grammar.ness he can transform it from the de- You cannot speak without it; you cannotterminant of his verbal behavior into write well without developing it. Thisthe ground of verbal action; he can play sense, to begin with, is composed ofwith it, trim it, build on it, decide how knowledge that istacit onlyyou canmuch of it to put under the tension only tell it is there by its effects; and itof his personal idiosyncrasies, so as to is accumulated by what some psycholo-establish what relationship he will be- gists call subceptionwe take it in whileteen linguistic tradition and his inour attention is focused on somethingdividual talent. else. It is on this tacit knowledge, this To get the course under way, then, sense, that the teacher both relies andthe teacher does not need any ideal of goes to work; it is, in fact, the ultimategood writing toward which he will di- subject of the course, as life is the ulti-rect his students.All he needsisa mate subject of a course on animalsample sentence that does not quite feel biology and history is the ultimate sub-right. He need not know what is wrong ject of a course on the French Revolu-with the sentence: in fact, he will never tion. in any final sense know what is wrong. The teacher of composition, then, isThe ultimate source of his feeling will one who can recognize clams and pearlsbe some relationship between the per- when he sees them, the student one whoceptual and nervous apparatus he began can recognize uLem once they have beenwith and all that has happened to him, pointed out. Ideally speaking, the teach-and with some relationship of all this in er's language sense is more finely siftedturn to the history of the English lan- and more shaped, is based OA a greaterguage down to the first barbaric yawp number and a larger variety of linguisticfrom which it evolved. experiences, and above all, is more con- The teacher begins by putting his scious than the student's; and his job issample on the board: "Shakespeare cer- to make the latter's sense of Englishtainly had the knack for writing": or idiom as alert as his own. His job is also"Man, in the modern America of today, to make his students conscious of theis alienated; they don't like their jobs." relations between speaking informed byHe nods toward a student: "Mr. So-and- this sense, these habits, and idiomaticso, what do you think of that sentence"? writing. Once students become just a(He does not say, "what's wrong with little conscious of the logic of ordinarythat sentence"?) language, they are quick to see how Mr.So-and-sowillprobablysay grammar, punctuation, and syntax cansomething like, "It looks all right to me," do for writers what tone, pitch, pause,but by then two hands will already be facial expressions, and gestures can do forup and w aving. one from a student who speakers. will try to find something wrong with The studentdevelopshiswrittenthe sentence because he thinks his so idiom as he developed his spoken onedoing will please +Ile teacher; another 51 The Theory and Practice of College Composition45 hand from a student who will insist thatenjoy such discussions and through them the sentence is perfect because he thinksquickly develop a sense of themselves as his so doing will displease the teacher.a group. As critics of each other's work No matteronce the teacher has gottenthe students tend to be more generous in a student to make a definite assertion fortheir praise, more severe in their adverse or against, he will have no trouble find-judgments, more patient, and more cour- ing other students ready to argue. Dis-teous, than their teacher is likely to be. putatiousness is the glory of the currentThey become feelingly, and unprofes- generation of students and the salvationsorially, distressed by old mistakes new- of their teachers. ly made, and become communally proud During the, discussions of students'over individual displays of verbal dex- writings, which should occupy at leastterity. On each first meeting the students one class-hour each week, the teacherwill bring in new pieces of writing, not should get the students themselves tonecessarily full length themes, for next work towards establishing nothing soweek's discussion. grand as canons of right and wrong, but During the last meeting of each week, rough standards of effectiveness, of thethe instructor prcbably ought to open satisfying, of, above all, appropriateness,up the topic on which students will so long as he remembers that there iswrite their next papers. His proper meth- inappropriate as well as appropriate ap-od is some form of dialectical analysis. propriateness. (Even the logical is finallyHis materials are the academic and other a category of the appropriate.) Goodexperiences stored in his and his students' prose, my students, for example, haveminds. His working assumptions are as told me, ischaracterized by density: follows: more things happen per word than in 1) "Our common stock of words em- unsatisfying prose; by clarity: the thingsbodiesallthe distinctions men have that happen do not suspend, short-cir-found worth drawing, and the connec- cuit, or muddy each otherthe associa-tions they have found worth making, tions, the overtones of the words, so toin the lifetimes of many generations: speak, have a harmonic relationship, arethese surely are likely to be more numer- not in a class conflict, unless conflict andous, more sound, since they have stood dissonance are the appropriate effects; byup to the long test of the survival of the shapeliness: the words and ideas are ar-fittest, and more subtle, at least in all ranged in intelligible units andmemo-ordinary and reasonably practical mat- rable rhythms; by felicity: the expecta-ters, than any that you or I are likely to tions aroused are satisfiedin an un-think up in our armchairs of an after- expected but apt way. And, of course,noonthe most favored alternative meth- there are other qualities, such as interestod." (J. L. Austin) and drama, as there are other ways of 2) "When we examinewhat we formulating these; but these are the kindshould say when, what words we should that naturally arise out of discussionsuse in what situations, we are looking with students of their own writing, soagain not merely at words (or 'mean- long as the teacher restrains his under-ings,' whatever they might be) but also standable impulses to exhort or coerce.at the realities we use the words to talk On the first meeting of each week,about: we are using, a sharpened aware- then, the instructor should discuss withness of words to sharpen our perceptions his class representative samples of studentof, though not as the final arbiter of, the prose. In my experience the studentsphenomena." (J. L. Austin)

:a' 46 GEORGE STAI)E

3) "The meaning of an expression, orbecause he has been trying to find him- the coacept it expresses, is the role it isself, you can put it before the class: ask employed to perform, not any thing orthem, who, is such a situation, is trying person or e ent for which it might beto find whom? He can ask students to supposed to stand.... To know what antalk about the subjective-objective hoax, expression means is to know how it mayand devise exercises to expose it. He can and may not be employed.... [Further,ask his students to explain why it is that as] we could not learn to play the knightthe languages of description and of eval- correctly without having learned to playuation are so often identical, why we can the other pieces, we cannot learn to playsay that a sum in arithmetic is wrong and a word by itself, but only in combina-also say that it is wrong to torture chil- don with other words and phrases."dren. (Gilbert Ryle) The language of description seems to 4) People know things they do notme the natural starting point of the know they know. Students can intelli-second-meeting discussions. The instruc- gently discuss justice, piety, imagination,tor might begin by asking the students to conscience,proof,civildisobedience,describe something as neutrally as pos- Eros, comedy and tragedy without insible and then by question-and-answer advance reading essays on these sub-lead them t..) the discovery that no mat- jects. They can work towards definitionster how hard they have tried to be "ob- of the proper functions of these words,jective" every word in their description the logical boundaries of these concep-will express an attitude or evaluation. He tions,theirinterrelationswithothermight for the next assignment ask them words and conceptions, through the dia-to list every thing discernable about their lectical examination of things they al-left knee caps, or, say, a banana peel, ready in some sense know but are notanything they are all likely to have near- fully conscious of. I. A. Richards usedbywith the proviso that they must list to say that a genius is unlike other menat least one hundred items. Once they in that his experiences are always avail-have gotten beyond the obvious they able for instant application. There is awill find that they have to make finer and method through which people can de-subtler distinctions, draw on more origi- velop the latent genius in them. Dialecticnal and complex figures of speech to is it. express what they perceive, be ever more The instructor, then, will begin a classclear about the point of view from which by asking a student to consider, say, thethey are examining the thing, and, best distinction between sincerity and hones-of all, they till find that a perception is ty. After some preliminary distinctionsnot really fixed until it is expressed, that have been made, he might ask the stu-the attempt to find verbal equivalents of dents to write a "character"(in thea perception changes the perception and Theophrastian sense) of the Sincere Manleads to new ones, that clear writing is or the Honest Man. Or the instructornot only the product of clear seeing, but might ask his class to distingui,,h amonga cause of it. After the students have been actions performed willingly, on purpose,trained a bit by exercises of this sort, the deliberately, and intentionally and askinstructor might tell them to go out and what the distinctions imply about com-stare long and hard at a fire hydrant un- mon sense notions of volition, action,til it begins to have the aspect of a hallu- and responsibility. When a student ex-cination. Let them imagine it transform- plains that he hasn't been doing his workingj itself into an elephant. Have them The Theory and Practice of College Composition47

describe what they imagine. The resultsweek the first meeting of the course will are invariably a revelation. Some studentsbe devoted to a discussion of things the spread out the transformation in mentalstudents wrote during the previous week; space as an architect spreads his bluethe second meeting will be devoted to print on a drawing board. Other studentssomething about which the students are see the metamorphosis in the jerks, pants,to write for the following week. The and dramatic rhythms of some animal orclassroom procedure will be the dialecti- plant or insect breaking out of its oldcal analysis of terms and concepts. Dur- carcass into some gorgeous and sunlit ing the class on clichés, for example, the affirmation of its rightful identity. Otherinstructor will get students to work tostudents see the transformation in slowward a definition of verbal and intel- motion, with portentious and technicolorlectual cliches. He will ask how one shapes gliding effortlessly into position.recognizes them, what is wrong or right In the discussions of these descriptionswith them, how one goes about finding the instructo" might have his studentssubstitutes for them. On another oc- pin down exactly which uses of wordscasion he will ask them to work toward created the various effects. a definition of the rhythmical. He will Everything (almost) depends upon theask what is rhythm in prose, how does assignments; if they are interesting theone recognize it, how does one go about students can be relied upon to respondwriting rhythmical prose. He will ask to interestingly. And a loose schedule ofwhat kinds of things we properly apply concatenated assignments is somethingthe "logical." He will ask what we mean any composition staff ought to work upby the word "structure," and work to- together, preferably with student par -ward methods of putting together words ticipation. Such a schedule should in-so that they seem the constituents of a clude assignments leading to definitionsstructure rather than a heap. He might, ofinvention,amplification,pointofif he is ambitious enough, have the stu- view, proof, evidence, narration, figura-dents develop a theory of the paragraph, tivelanguage,theaphorism,logic,a matter more full of intellectual traps rhythm, and so forth. But (1) more thanthan the question of the "out there." half of the second meetings of the week The virtues I claim for this way of should be devoted to the kind of dia-conducting the course are that it will lectical analysis outlined above, (2) theimprove the morale of students and in- schedule should be thought of as merelystructors; release and form the huge a guide for instructors who have not onhoard of experiences lying like the nag- their own worked out a sequence of as-ging ghosts of unfulfilled promises at the signments that exactly reflects their in-back of the students' and instructor's dividual interests and predispositions; andminds, develop methods of analysis and (3) the schedule should be suspendedexploration that will profit both students whenever some kind of improvisationand the instructors who will work with seems likely to accomplish more. them in other departments; improve the In sum, if my scheme is adopted, eachstudents' writing.

t.)-3: KENNETH A. BRUFFEE

Collaborative Learning: Some Practical Models

IN THE WORLD which surrounds OUT and tribes had the right and the authority classrooms, people today are challenging "to take part in the planning and the and revising many social and political operation of activities that touch their traditions which have heretofore gone everyday Ii7es." (12/3/70)' unquestioned. They are makingthis All traffic was halted for nearly four challenge not as individuals alone, but hours tonight on a 25-mile stretch of the as individuals working together in col- New Jersey Turnpike by abount 1,000 laborative ways. The social organiza- antiwar demonstrators returning home tion they are substituting for traditional from Washington. (4/26/71) forms is likewise in many respects collaborative.Indeed, Mutual funds will apparently be re- classroomsremain quired, in the future, to let their share- today one of the few places where holders vote on whether fund managers people do not organize themselves for should consider thesocialpolicies of collaborativeactivity.Oncampuses corporations before investingintheir everywhere, right outside the classroom stock. (5/11/71) door, students form their own academic clubs for collaborative study, organiza- Dr. Harvey B. Scribner, the Chancel- lor of the New York City school system, tions for self-government, "free univer- proposed t:,day that students along with sity" classes, social groups, film societies, parents,teachers, and supervisorspar- political discussion groups, and activist ticipate as advisors in the selection of organizations.Elsewhere,everywhere, high school principals. (2/15/71) collaborativeactionincreasinglyper- vades our society. City planners have begun to use the term "charette" to describe "a new technique of'total community planning.' The Commissioner of Indian Affairs, This technique calls for the bringing to- Louis R. Bruce, has begun a fundamental gether of an area's residents for discus- reform of the Bureau of Indian Affairs sions on designing a facility, such as a that is intended to put the future of the school, to serve as a multi-pur,ose center nation's Indians into their own hands. of activity for their community...... The Commissioner ... said it was `There was never anything like this be- acknowledged that Indian communities fore,'said one participant.'Everyone was involved, from white gun clubs to Kenneth BruffeeisAssociateProfessorof Black Panthers.'... The ideas that the English and Director of the Freshman Writing Program at Brooklyn College. He is author of 'The quotations are from The New York "The Way Out" ICE, January, 1972) anda Th,tes. The irony of the first one is, since the textbook, A Short Course in Writing, published Indian action in Washington last fall, all too by Winthrop. apparent.

Reprinted from College English, Vol. 34, No. 5, February 1973. Collaborative Learning: Some Practical Models 49

charettedeveloped proved so innova-ways as these, people have created, out- tive that they have astounded and ex-sideclassrooms,structuresinwhich cited a number of city planning officials." learningis (1/6/71) integral both with human interdependence and with private inner To reduce the dehumanizing effectsexperience and feeling. of modern factory life,.. . two Swedish automobile makers, Volvo and Saab, have Here and there even teachers have begun to eliminate that pillar of massstruck on the principle of collaborative production, the assembly line. learning. As part of a growing emphasis on team production methods, the parts will As part of "a growing number of be brought to the cats and installed by health education programs around New semi-autonomous groups of workers in- York state, designed to teach preventive steadofthecarsbeingtransported medicine concepts to school children... through a gantlet of men, each of whom new programs are trying to involve pupils

performs a single, monotonous job.... directly and to channel peer influence, A spokesman "noted that management on the theory that if youths can teach was often cool to such programs because, each other bad habits, they can also teat% even though productivity may increase, each other good habits. `humanizing work gives more initiative "The schools ... put about30high and autonomy to the worker' " so that school pupils to work last semester as "'he or she becomes less controlled by volunteers in the localhospital, doing the manager.'"(12/28/71) clerical work, talking to patients, even collecting bedpans.... They trained Some activities similar to these have another group of youngsters to counsel particular relevance for education. In their fellow students about drug infor- the women's liberation movement, for mation, and a third group will be trained example, people have begun to work as general health counselors. "There isarealresponsibility here. collaboratively in support groupssome- The kids had better learn their lessons times called "rap groups" or "conscious- well," a spokesman said...."I don't ness raising groups"which subordinate know of a better way to make education figures of authority during the process of relevant.... Idon't know of any better self-development. Likewise, peer-group way to turn kids on than to make them helpful to other people."(6/72) counseling is helping many young people burdened by such problems as drugs, "Officials of the (New York) State homosexuality, and parental neglect. In Department of Education said today they some were studying a new method for teach- instances,collaborativelearning ing reading which in the last two years has also occurred on a massive scale. The has raised the reading scores of students. Cambodia-Kent State student strike three ... The system relies heavily on family years ago became one gigantic, nation- and community involvement, with stu- wide, impromptu seminar in collabora- dents teaching their younger brothers and sisters and slow youngsters in the learn- tive action. The quality of learning in ing group being assisted by the faster that seminar is evident in the disciplined pupils." (3/9/72) and thorough book which emerged from it,The Organizer's Manual.2 In such In this second instance, officials would have been neither surprisedat student 2"By the 0. M. Collective," a Bantam Bookprogress in collaborative learning, nor (Q6516), 1971.Another useful and influentialstartled at the "newness" of a "method" book, indirectly related to the strike, is Saul Alinski's Rules for Radicals (Vintage paper-by which children teach other children, back). had they read the followingpassage in 50KENNETH A. BRUFFEE

Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward Angel.Juniors, Seniorscan alsolearn with He :earned to read almost at once,one another and from one another. printing the shapes of words immediately Yet students do not as a rule learn with his strong visual memory; but it wascollaboratively in our classrooms. We weeks later before he learned to write,do not ordinarily recognize collabora- or even to copy, words. The raggedtion as a valid kind of learning. Tradi- spume and wrack of fantasy and the lost tionally, indeed, collaborationiscon- worldstillfloated from time to time throughhisclearschoolday morningsidered irresponsible; in the extreme, col- brain, and although he folio ved accur-laboration is the worst possible academic atelyallthe otherinstructionof hissin, plagiarism. We ordinarily expect a teacher, he was walled in his ancient un-student to talk mainly to the teacher, knowing world when they made letters.write to the teacher, and, surely, deter- The children made their sprawling al- phabets below a line of models, but allmine his fate in relation to the teacher, he accomplished was a line of jaggedindividually. Among students we recog- wavering spearpoints on his sheet, whichnize few relationships in the learning he repeated endlessly and rapturously,process itself. More accurately, we tend unable to see or understand the difference.to preserve a negative relationship among "I have learned to write," he thought. Then, one day, Max Isaacs looked sud-students. Officially, students are anony- denly, from his exercise, on Eugene'smous to one another, and isolated. We sheet, and saw the jagged line. turn our back on collaboration which "That ain't writin'," said he. does occur in learning, or we penalize And clubbing his pencil in his warredit, or we simply refuse to see it. The grimy hand he scrawled a copy of theodds are very good that Eugene's teacher exercise across the page. The line of life, that beautiful develop-never knew who taught Eugene to write. ing structure of language that he sawHad he known he might well have pun- flowing from his corr....ade's pencil, cutished the two boys for disturbing class, the knot in him that all instruction failedor for "cheating." For the children, col- to do, and instantly he seized the pencil,laborative learning could be nothing but and wrote the words in letters fairer and finer than his friend's. And he turned,a clandestine "miracle." with a cry in his throat, to the next page, But the examples I have given suggest and copied it without hesitation, and thethat in reality collaborative learning is next, the next. They looked at each otherno miracle. No productive, satisfying a moment with that clear wonder bycollaborative activity is miraculous. As which children accept miracles, and they never spoke of it again.3 Durkheim puts it, collaborationis un- questionably "a very rich activity ... periods of creation or renewal occur Learning Collaboratively when men for various reasons are led It seems reasonable to suppose thatinto a closer relationship with each other, what young children are capable of inwhen...relationships are better main- this regard, adults and near adults musttained and the exchange of ideas most be capable of as well. It would seem thatactive."4 And collaborative activity hap- college studentsFreshmen, Sophomores, 4Essays on Sociology. Quoted by Edwin Mason in Collaborative Learning (New York: 3Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward AngelAgathon Press, 1972), p. 26. A very practical (New York. Bantam, 1970), p. 79. I am in- book on collaborative learning is Charity James, debted to Anthca Hemery for pointing outYoung Lives at Stake (New York. Agathon this passage to me. Press, 1972), especially Chapter 3. Collaborative Learning: Some Practical Models51 pens willy-nilly, even in an educationalre-invented collaborative learning her- tradition which militates against it.Itself. In despair, faced with an introduc- will certainly happen at an acceleratingtory literature class of over 130 students pace whenever a teacher conceives ofmeeting in a gym, she divided the class teaching as a process of creating condi-into groups of five to seven people each, tionsin which collaborative learningscattered the groups around the gym, can occur. and told students to discuss the assigned To createtheseconditionsisnotstory among themselves. simply a matter of deciding "how much" She gave them a question or two to freedom or discipline a teacher shouldstart with each class hour, and through- "give"students. The teacher must recon-out the term she visited each group in ceive his role. He must become an orga-turn for an hour or part of an hour each, nizer of people into communities for agiving each group a small but intensive specific purposelearning. He must re-and valuable portion of her undivided apportion freedom and discipline withinattention. She lectured to the class as a the class, thereby establishing a "poly-whole three or four times during the centralized" collaborative learning com-term to give people additional back- munity in which the teacher moves toground or ways of approaching the the perimeter of the action, once thework. In this way, everyone in this gar- scene is set. The central action then isgantuan class had a,tiance to discuss people learning. It is important to seeliterature in a fairly intimate and yet that the teacher does not simply take aguided way three times a week for three laissez-faire attitude, abrogating his re-months. Under such adverse conditions, sponsibility to educate. He reinterprets"literary study" could hardly be more this responsibility. The teacher under-immediate or intense. stands that his primary job is to orga- (H) Last year I had a class of fifty- nize the learning community, because, asfive people in an elective course in Ro- Dewey points out, "community life doesmantic poetry, which by trial and error not organize itself in an enduring wayI turned into a collaborative class in a purely spontaneously. It requires thoughtsimilar way. I lectured occasionally, us- and planning ahead."5 ually for the first and last class hour to Generally speaking, the kind of com-be spent on each poet. The other classes munity such a teacher organizes is com-were devoted to discussion in collabora- posed (depending on class size) of antive groups. I tried at first to change the indeterminate number of self-govern-makeup of the groups from class to class. ing, self-teaching, mutually responsibleIn failing this I discovered how funda- groups of four to six students each, Heremental and important the coherence of areseveral examples of how teacherseach small group is, especially in a setting have applied this general principle underof large impersonal classes. Although I widely varying conditions. had composed the groups arbitrarily at (I) Recently a young community col-first, after a week or so during which a lege teacher° told me she had in effectfew people migrated from one group to another, the groups became settled and loyal. $John Dewey, Experience and Education (New York: Collier, 1963), p. 56. During the collaborative classes, I vis- 6Ms. Fraya Katz Stoker. ited the groups in rotation, working with oj 52 KENNETH A. BRUFFEE

each small group intensivelysometimes A curious thing happened in the final in a strongly directive way, especiallyexam. Some students felt, because of the when I found that people were failingway the course had been taught, that to read carefully. During the first weeksthey should be allowed to discuss the of collaborative work, also,Iofferedexam questions in groups before writing each group a set of questions at the be- the exam. As an experiment, I concurred, ginning of each class hour to get themgiving them the first half-hour of a two- started. This gave students agreaterhour exam period for discussion. Two- sense of security and direction. In addi-thirds of the class refused the option. tion, before the end of the term, oneThe remaining third formed into two group began meeting voluntarily outsidegroups. One group was made up of well- classtime. They prepared a difficult poemprepared students who had been active (Shelley's Prometheus Unbound) and,in group discussion all term. They talked splitting up, became leaders of the otherfor fifteen minutes and dispersedto groups when the time came for the classwrite. The other group was made up of to discuss that work. students who had been inactive or fre- Every person wrote two papers dur-quently absent. They spent the better ing the term, and each one read andpart of the allotted time picking each wrote an evalua ive critique of at leastother's poorly furnished brains, before four papers written by fellow studentssetting reluctantly to work. The net re- (two evaluations each assignment)? Thesult of the experiment was to dissipate students thereby became familiar withexam-panic for almost everyone. The each other's work, and not incidentally,one bad effect I half expected did not familiar with additional works of thehappen. Unprepared students did not Romantic poets. They also developedbecome the parasites of better prepared through practice their critical eye. Andstudents, who had neither the timenor the final evaluation of each paper wasthe inclination to indulge them. not based, then, on the views of a single (III) The year befor:-.., I conducted a judge, the teacher, but was comprisedmore advanced and smaller class, a senior of the views of a small jury of studentsseminar in the novel. Less certain of my- as well. Also, two pairs of students wroteself at that time, I organized the class their papers incollaboration,in eachmore formally, according to the follow- case, the pair accepted equal responsi-ing written "convention." bility for the result. A Collaborative-Learning Convention 7To help students learn the evaluative process, I offered them the following optional set 1. The purpose of this convention is of four questions as a guide: to organize class members to teach one 1. What is the "point" of the paper? 'What another and support one anotherin does it say? What position does it take? 2. How does it make its point? What doeslearning. Mutual interest and responsi- it do to defend or explain its position? bilityaffinity,rather thanautocratic 2,Is the paper related to any issue raisedcontrolis to create coherence among so far in this course? If so, which? If not, what context of issues is the paper related to? the members of the class. 4. What are the strong and weak points 2. The first week or two of the term in the paper? What do you like about it? If what you read was a draft, what suggestions may be a period of orientation. The V6 ould you make to the writer for revising it? teacher may direct the meetings, intro- Collaborative Learning: Some Practical Models53 duce the subject matter, and providevidual member of the class. He will hold basic concepts which class members areindividual conferences with members of likely to find useful in exploring the ma-the class at least once during the term. terial, and in developing their own lineAny class member at any time may of thought regarding it. Students willchoose to learn independently with the then declare their interest in units of theteacher's guidance. subject matter. The teacher will divide the class into collaborative groups of 6.Class members will be responsible four to six students each, according toto each other and to the teacher for the interest declared by each member. evaluation. Each student paper will be read and evaluated, in writing, by a jury 3. Each collaborative group will beof at least two class members; hence, responsible to the rest of the class for itseach student will read two papers as a own unit of material. Members of thejuror for every one paper he writes him- group will decide how to teach the ma-self. After the student jury has con- terial to the rest of the class, and thesidered each paper, the teacher will read emphasis to be made. The group willand evaluate it, weighing student critical then direct and govern the class for oneopinion with his own, providing his own to two weeks of the term. Groups maywritten comment, and assigning a grade aid discussion by providing supplemen-if necessary. tary information in written form. 7. Twice during the term (mid-term 4. Each class member will be respon-and end of term)class members will sible individually to the group which isevaluate their own work, the work of in charge of the class. Each member willtheir group, the class as a whole, and also be responsible for his own prepara-the teacher's contribution. Also at these tion and for contributing to class discus-times the class as a whole will recapit- sion. And each member will be respon-ulate the subject matter covered. Dis- sible for the work his group undertakescussion of the nature and process of the in preparing material and directing thecourse will be channelled to these limited class. periods in order to insure coherent, unin- 5. The teacher's responsibility will beterrupted consideration of the subject to determine before the term begins thematter during the balance of the term. subject matter and written requirements of the course. Both may be revised in The last sentence in paragraph 5 of negotiation with the class. The teacherthis convention is important because it will also provide orientation, and act asleaves the door open for students to mediator, as judge inthe process ofchoose alternative ways of learningin evaluation, and as theclass'sresidentparticular, more individual waysif they resource. The teacher will provide re-find collaborative learning emotionally sources and advice on request, to theintolerable, too academically demanding, limit of his ability, and may also provideor not demanding enough. unrequested resources he thinks may be The conventionisadmittedlyun- useful to the class in their work. Thewieldy, or is likely to seem so at first, teacher will be available for consulta-because it necessarily specifies many of tion on request to the class as a whole,the social and learning processes which to each learning group, and to each indi-c e take for granted in a traditional class- 54 KENNETH A. BRUFFEE

room! It is designed, furthermore, foras we learn tennis, carpentry, or the the rigor of advanced study, in ordertoviolin. Yet unlike learning these activities, satisfy the following criteria: in learning to write we do not start a.Subject matter. A primary con-from scratch.(I am speaking at the siderationincollegestudy.Studentsmoment of native speakers of standard should gain an understanding of subjectEnglish.) We use a language whichwe matter which is at least as thorough ashave been fluent in since we were about the understanding they may be supposedfive years old.9 Furthermore, because this to gain through traditional teaching. language, our principle resource in writ- b. Direction. Students should gain in-ing, develops during our earliest years, creasing confidence in their ability toit is associated deeply in us with feelings learn on their own. They should learnand experiences we can hardly ever be how to develop worthwhile purposes infully conscious of. learning, and learn to develop andpur- A good deal of learning to write, then, sue questions and problems of their ownrequires us to become actively aware of devising. what as native speakers we already know. c. Evaluation. Students should gainIt also requires us to overcome there- increasing confidence and ability in criti-sistances which seem inherent in writing cally evaluating their own work and thatbecause we are working consciously of their peers, as well as the subjectmat-with something we would ordinarily ter studied. prefer to be as little aware of as possible. Therefore for adults or near-adults--that is, for college studentslearning to write Learning to Write Colialioratively is in great measure a process of gaining The principle of collaborative learningnew awareness. Gaining new awareness is applied somewhat differently ina com-of any kind is likely to bea painful position course than in a literature course,process. People need some kind of sup- althoughtheassumption remains theport while undergoing it. And the evi- same, that students can learn with anddence provided by collaborative activity from other students. In a compositionin the society at large suggests that peo- class,the possibility that collaborativeple can gain both awareness and support learning is a case of the blind leadingas adequately in a small group of their the blind is more apparent. But studentspeers, as from the ministrations of a can be of immense help to each otherteacher. in learning to write, for severalreasons. Another reason students can help each One reason is that learning to write isother learn to write is that a person is, not much like learning anything else.or can learn to be, an astute and demand- There are few important facts we musting audience before he becomes a clear, learn in order to learn to write. In learn-effective writer, just as a small child ing to write, we learn to do something,becomes an astute and discriminating listener before he can speak. Thus read- For an analysis of the traditional teaching conventions,see "The Way Out," College 9For the amount and types of language learn- English(January,1972),pp. 458-461. Some ing which occur after five, see Carol Chomsky, introductory and articulatory material in the "Stages in Language Development and Reading present essay appeared in different form in thisExposure," Harvard Educational Review (Feb- earlier one. ruary, 1972), pp. 1-33. Collaborative Learning: Some Practical Models55 ing their own work aloud to each otherclass." To prepare for this class hour, regularly helps students learn to write.the students had been asked to write The listeners become increasingly capablefive questions, drawing on their reading of detecting lack of clarity, organization,of a set of assigned essays. About half the logic,andsubstance,adevelopmentstudents attending (19 that day) had done which leads eventually to the ability toatleast part of the assignment. The write clearly, coherently, and logicallyteacher divided the class according to themselves. When one student tells an-that criterion, and then divided the stu- other he can't understand what he'sdents who had done the assignment, heard, that criticism sticks. On the otheragain into two groups of five. She asked hand, in practicing listening, as well as inthe students in these groups to pool their practicing reading aloud, the weak writermaterial and agree how they would con- begins to develop his own ear for theduct a discussion of the essays if they language, becomes more aware of thewere to lead the class. These groups criteria of judgment he already maintains,then went to work on their own. Once and begins to learn and apply new cri-during the hour the teacher asked each teria. In this way, both reader and lis-group how they were doing, encouraged tener become more demanding of onethem, and answered questions. Through- another's work, as well as of their own."'out the hour she was available to them This spiraling effect is typical of col-for information and help. laborative learning. It is the third reason She formed the other half of the class students can help each other learn tothose who had not done the assign- write. People themselves learn, whenmentinto a single group of nine. She they teachothers. Chances are Maxassumed, implicitly,that these people learnedas much teaching Eugene tohad not completed the assignment be- write as Eugene learnedmaybe he evencause for some reason they were unable learned more. What we have all experi-to. She sat with the group and led a enced as new teachers, students may alsoshort discussion of the essays, trying to experience when they teach each other.find out how much each student had They gain an active knowledge of whatunderstood in reading them. Six of the they had before known only passively,nine responded readily to her direction, and they become aware of their ignor-and before the hour was half over, they ance in a practical way, which is thewere completing the assignment on their necessary first step to learning more. own. This left the teacher twenty minutes The following, and final, example ofor so to work individually with the three collaborative learning shows how onestudents who had the most difficulty teacher applied the principle in a classdoing the assignment. Thus her students of freshman composition.. had the option of working collaborative- (IV) Recently I visited a colleague'sly with other students, or of working alone with the teacher, to get special, "Reading aloud as an aspect of collaborative individual attention. In the collaborative learning is discussed further in A Short Course in Writing (Cambridge, Mass.: Winthrop Pub- groups, students could work without lishers, 1972), pp. 71-73, 282, and 287-9, see alsoinstruction from the teacher, at their pp. 294-301. A related discussion of the "psy-own pace and drawing on their own re- chological"(thatis,emotional)difficulties people have in learning to write may be found on pp. 7-8 and 66-70. "Ms. Pamela Farley. 56 KENNETH A. BRUFFEE

sources, or they could reach out to thethe teacher could face learninggroups teacher forhelp, depending on theirwith the problem of reaching otherpeo- need. ple with both the questions and the answers they have come up withthat The Stress of Change is, offer groups the problem of creating conditions in which others could learn The examples of collaborative learn-what they have learned. ing I have presented here have all been This gradual process is one waya successfultoamarkeddegree.Butteacher may go about progressively "de- teachersvaryconsiderablyintheirmythologizing" himself as The Teacher ability to organize classes successfully inin the traditional sense. Students mustsee this way. The ability can be developed,their teacher differently if theyare to but it may take time. It tookme per-learn well collaboratively. But it is im- sonally several years of wrestling withportant to keep in mind that the teacher my own compulsion to Teach as I wasmust see himself differently too. Like Taught. On the other hand, some ofmystudents, teachers also carry with them colleagues seem to have taken to it with"the influence of failed institutions... little or no inner struggle.Similarly,when [they] set out to create anything many students welcome collaborativenew." '8 The teacher will have to be learning enthusiastically. It is a fact, how-wary of his own tendency (and that of ever, that some feel "forced" if askedsome of his students) to lapse back into to learn collaboratively. Many feel be-the traditional patterns of dominance and wildered at first. Few students will knowpassivity. He will find it temptingto immediateiy how to go about it. Some"declare [his students] children, rather willdistrustit,or rejectitentirely.than adults." This relationship, "which Teachers should realize that students areemphasizes and accentuates the [teach- uncertain and distrustful for good reason.er's] strength and the student's weakness In being asked to learn collaboratively, ...the same relationship that exists be- they are being asked to do somethingtween an adult and a child,"'4 is at the their whole education has not only leftbottom of the human relations which are them unequipped to do, but has actuallynormal in a traditional class.Itis an militated against.'2 attitude which is disastrous to collabora- Teachers should be prepared, there-tive learning. fore,tohelp students learntolearn A. the same time, teachers who are collaboratively. Having set up a col-willing to encounter thesedifficulties laborative class structure, the teachermay find help in The Anatomy of Judg- might begin by posing problems of in-ment, by M. L. Johnson Abercrombie.'5 creasing generalityfor each learningThis book discusses a course established group to solve. Beginning with specificto improve significantly the diagnostic questions on the material at hand, the teacher could then pose broader ques- "Adrienne Rich, New York Review, June tions, and eventually propose that groups 15, 1972, p. 35. "These phrases are adapted from an eye- begin discovering the important prob-opening short essay on college admissions pro- lems and questions on their own. Finally,cedures by arecent high school graduate, Ethan Gorenstein, on the Op-Ed page of The lasee "Comment and Rebuttal," CE,Decem-New York Times, July 10, 1971. ber, 1972. 's (New York: Basic Books, 1960).

u Collaborative Learning: Some Practical Models57 judgment of medical students. This im-the principles of collaborative learning provement could be accomplished, Dr.must play an increasingly important part. Abercrombie discovered, only throughRegarding the importance of these prin- collaborative learning. Similarly useful isciples, Abercrombie clearly implies what The School without Walls, by JohnBremer makes explicit: "no changes [in Bremer and Michael von Moschzisker,education] will be of any significance which describes an urban high schoolunless the social organization of educa- based in part on principles of collabora-tion is totally changed." tive learning. These two books also sug- le(New York: Holt, 1971), p. 7. I am in- gest the range of educationsecondarydebted to Ronald Gross for directing me to school to professional trainingin whichthese two important books. TIMOTHY E. MCCRACKEN W. ALLEN ASHBY

The Widow's Walk: An Alternative for English 101Creative Communications

I The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket

This is the end of running on the waves We are poured out like water, Who will dance. Here in Nantucket, and cast up the time.

Robert Lowell

WHO SHOULD DETERMINE what a student needs to know? Four of us have carried this question and its correlates, a stack of books, a box of groceries, and two bottles of bourbon and brandy to rest here on this island. We are looking for an answer.

The fall was an experiment that IA e fell into. Nancy got an abortion. Joanne tried to kill herself. Rose and Mary got engaged, and Cindy got a divorce. By the end, Steve had flunked out (it was his third school in two years), Bill had had his first affair, and Alan had wrecked his car. In addition, Marcy suffered her second nervous breakdown while Maryann's father had a heart attack, so did Claire's. Every other day Dawn would go home and put her father on the kidney machine. We had expected it to be a bit of fun for both of usfive sections of English. 101, team taught. We were just preparing ourselves for some team teaching in the springa sophonre course called Literature and the Arts. This accident was a dry run, warm ups, nothing exceptional. At least we expected that. We nearly died. Today on our break between semesters we are resting, secluded here on Melville's island off the coast of Cape Cod, reviewing. It is our widow's walk, and from this vantage point now v. e Ix ant to look out over the long sea run of last semester. In September we began with just another course in English Composition. By the middle of the semester we had been forced from composition into a series of experiments dealing with communicatioa. By the end we were just listening to our students, v. ondering if their value-free language really belonged to them.

Timothy McCracken and W. Allen Ashby are both Assistant Professors of English at Um= College, Cranford, New Jersey.

Reprinted from College English, Vol. 36, No. 5, January 1975. t) The Widow's Walk: An Alternative for English 10159

What we found surprising when we listened was that many of them (of those we got to know, nearly all) were going through experiences which we would have found difficult to handle, and yet they, for all their anxiety, didnot appear to be suffering. Now, looking back, we are more surprised to find that during thecourse of the semester those personal adventures from their lives rarely ifever appeared in their writings, even in a disguised form, although frequently in their formal writing there was a structure that encouraged their discussion. Ofcourse we recognized that Nancy's abortion, for example, was out of the purview of English composition and except that it was volunteered, none ofour business. This was our presupposition. Now we are not so sure. We still don't want to enter their personal lives without knocking, but we're not sure that weare adequately fulfilling our tasks if the problems of their lives don't at leastappear coded in their speaking or writing. So we have retreated here to our island to see if we could find the bones of a course which could serve as an alternative to English Composition. Ideally, what we want is a course which would still be a "required" freshman course taught by English department personnel and ) et nevertheless be a valuable offeringto the students. Looking through our questions and doubts, it is this problem thatwe are trying to solve.

II Voyages

The waves fold thunder on the sand; And could they hear me I would tell them:

Permit me voyage, love, into your hands...

Hart Crane

We have been walking on the beach. It is winter and so the island isempty. In a myriad of forms one question keeps recurring in our conversations. "Who are these kids we have left behind?" I'Ve w ant to know, for they are not in college for the reasons we were, and though both of us feel closer to them thanto the universe of our colleagues, neither of us feels close enough to understand why they lack motivation and seem unable to participate in lives of joy and suffering. To be sure, they can follow directions. Tell them what an image is and they can reproduce it by the thousands. Show them a descriptive paper and they can write one. But ask them three weeks later to do the same and they withdraw into silence. Why doesn't anything seem to carryover in their lives? This is what frightens us. Their Weltanschauung is not ours, and this is notsour grapes. If they have a better \V orld we m ant to join it. If their lives are more rich,more varied, more creative, then w e are prepared to set sail w ith them. But are they? Walking along the beach we recall Sylvia Ashton-Warner's new book that we have brought w ith us, Spearpoint: Teacher in America. In it she observes that

0 60 TIMOTHY E. MCCRACKEN/W. ALLEN ASHBY the American first graders she w orked w ith for a year have a vocabulary unlike children in any other part of the worlda vocabulary that is at the outset emotionally and personall rootless. Her children live in an external worldan object among objects. They also, she notes, live solo, do not ask questions; have fleeting attention spans compared to other children, do not like to w rite, and have perhaps lost their potential for imagery. For her itis the latter that is distinctive and critical because her prescription for teaching is. "Release the native imagery of our child and use it for \t, orking material," or "Touch the true voice of feeling and it will create its ow n style and vocabular ." Andy et w ithout this functioning native imagery, teaching as w e have know itis not possible. For our job, we remember, is language and imagery, and if Ashton-Warner is right about her children and if w e already have them in our classesthis s ear firmly and clearly for the first timethen w e've gut fifteen'S cars of kids coming whose lives are divorced from their feelings and their bodies separated from their minds. We have students w ho are not in touch Nk ith themselves or their world because they are not in touch with the language and images w hich compose their own personal world. Like Ashton-Warner's children our kids don't carryover. For them each new experience, new fact of know ledge, new feeling is an island unrelated to the next, to the one before, the one to come. They seem determined to repeat themselves; endlessly wafted on the wind like Francesca and her lover. But is this really true? We are stretching out footprints along the shore, the ocean always on our right. We w anted to know and then we recalled an experiment we had tried midis as through the semester in w hich we had asked the students to focus in on themselves by finding the five words which they thought best described themselves. And w hen they came to class that next time we asked them zo put their w ords on the board w ith their initials under them. So they filled the board and evert student looked like evert other. All of them alike: "sensitive," "lazy," "optimistic," "emotional," "moody." It was terrifying. They were carbon copies of each other. Xeroxed humans. But now on this beach in our w inter \kalk w e are not as surprised as w e w ere then. Then we felt panicked and we pushed them. We w ould say. "Talk to each other. Interrogate each other. Joan ask Mike \l, hat he means EA sensitive. See if it is the same as Susan's." Joan w ould ask Alike. Mike would say. "'Well va know, I get hurt easily." Joan says, "Yell, I know." We would ask Joan if she knows what Mike means. She says yes. Susan says N es. Alike asks Susan w hat she means. Susan says: "I like to help others." Ever body nods. Ever buds understands. We ask. "Are they different? Did ever buds understand before? If not, w hs not?" We read Hayakawa. Hayakawa sass there is an abstraction ladder. We tell them they are nearly cumulous in their abstractions. So begins our litany. "Come down. COME DOWN the abstraction ladder." NVe quote Henry James. "Show me. Don't tell me!" Don't tell me red is a color. Tell me it's a fire truck or a stop light. Don't tell me y ou are emotional. Tell we about the time s ou hit your brother and broke your mother's favorite vase over her knee. They told us red was a spectrum of lighta NN ave lengthand that thecried a lot. We knew we were in trouble. We had found our elephant and ever time we tried to shove him out of the

r V The Widow's Walk: An Alternative for English 101 61 way (and get back to composition) he would roll over on us. That was the beginning of a series of lessons in humility, testing our capacity for continuance. Yes, composition is not our main problem. We wish itwere. But here along our sea walk we now believe that it will. t be enough simply to change English Composition to another course unless we o grapple with the altered way the students feel and perceive, for they can't c. Ly over, can't play, and have lost the vertical dimension of life. They live almost entirelyon the horizontalthe flat opaqueness of the T.V., the movie screen. This life that liveson two dimensions, but with the illusion of three.

And under the oppression of the silent fog The Tolling bell Measures time not our time, rung by the unhurried Ground swell.

They live in this fog: Chief Bromden's fog, Eliot's fog. Itseems to be a world where feeling comes in vague oversized blocks. "I'm moody." "I'm sensitive." "I'm quiet." But our colleagues tellus this is nothing new. They tell us that students have not changed, that they have alw ay s been lazy, bored, numbed. They tell us you have to keep after them, that's all. But since when,we wonder, did you have to keep after anyone who is in love? Since when, they ask us, was the student in love with education? Yes, we reply, since when, and why not? But we will not mask this issue. It is loving that is the problem. Hereon the beach at this distance, alone, looking back, we see it clearly. Our studentsare not in love with anything, not even w ith themselves, because they have lostcontact with the ground swell, the force that tolls the bell. They are unableto work naturally in images, are suspicious, weary, distrustful of authority yet easily in- timidated and quickly obedient to any orders or directions. They dislike reading and hate writing. They seem to have no driving passions, no desire tocreate worlds either with their hands or in writing. Their lives area movie, trailing without stops, without depth, without a time for reflection. Besides this theyare losing the capacity for wonder, for extended periods of wonder andawe, even in the act of touching another person. Their language reflects this lost dimension of exaltation, of personal creation. They "ball" rather than make love, they "rap" rather than talk; their lives are "heavy" but never tragic. The point during the semester at which most of our male studentsgrew enthusiastic was when the Grateful Dead gave a concertover in Jersey City. One fellow even went four out of the five nights. It is this group sensation-oriented experience that moves them. Feeling in blocks. Nothing private. Nothing personal. Nothing individual that makes them individual. Nothing that cuts deeply into the fabric of their own lives a living pattern of feeling to which they can return and clarify their world and aid their friends. Tentatively, we are almost ready to assert that their sensory systems have changed, that our students have altered the very codingprocess that records their experience. An experience comes into their lives in a concretemanner and then is coded in the memory as a general impressiona block, nothingmore. It falls

u 3 62TIMOTHY E. AICCRACKEN/W. ALLEN ASHBY into a zone of sensation rather than a private area, into a field of feeling rather than a concrete or particular place. It is this, we believe, that allows them to live without being haunted by their personal tragedies. Nancy got an abortion. Joanne tried to kill herself. Bill had an affair. All turned into nothing. Nothing to build on. Nothing to remember. And in English Composition what is the world we confront them with but this same world devoid of feeling, unhaunted by the tragic? No, we are farther down the beach, animating to each other our joint feeling; if we want to be faithful to the roots of our own discipline, to the sea of our own ground swell, then we must sound deeper than we have. 'We can no longer expect them to love Sophocles, or Dickens, or Stevens simply because we love them, because Sophocles and Dickens and Stevens present an alien world to them. And it is not a matter of simply learning the language anymore, for they are losing contact with the very process upon which the language is based. They are losing the entry into the imagination itself, and into the capacity for self-directed imaginative re- enactment. And so our task must be to reach deeper and restore the lost connections between the sources of all love and the objects of love, for it is these that have been severed and the gai grows wider each year as the waves wash behind the boat. Originally, when we began, we thought that if we just quit telling them what to feel they would begin to tell us what they feel. Now at this far pointthe island's western extremity w-e are not so sure that if we left them alone they would even know how to feel, or to play, or to love. And how can we transmit our heritage to someone who onnot fees the ground swell that underlies the realities we are trying to transmit through our language? They're so different from other children with whom I have worked around the world. Usually it takes no time for children to find in themselves something important, but with these it is a long time and a long way inward... where are the fear and sex words or, put it this way, where is the evidence of their instincts? "What are you frightened of, Peter?" "I'm not frightened." "Whom do you love, Rocky?" "Nobody." "Whom do you love, Peter?" Blushing, "Not love... like." Why won't they acknowledge the reality of loving and hating? What is the cause of this terrible silence that lies at the center of their lives? Here on our island we are a bit frightened by w hat we see, nothing coming of nothing. The sun is setting over Madaket. The w ind has changed to the north. The sea has begun its night roar. We turn on the sand and retrace our footprints back to the cabin, to the fire, and to help our friends fixing dinner.

III The Waking

This cove the sailors knew. Here they drew in, The Widow's Walk: An Alternative for English 10163

and the ship ran half her keel's length up the shore .... They bore this treasure off the beach, and piled it close around... That done, they pulled away on the homeward track.

Homer The meal is over. It is late at night. Regina and Katieare in the other room, reading. We throw another log on the fire. Nowwe are ready to talk. We know that we must enlarge that diminishing space where the ground swell stilllives if we are to authentically transmit our heritage, and in order to enlarge thatspace we must first let each student find his own vocabulary that will unlock hisown feelings for himselfbreak his own block patterns of feeling and coding. We know too that as teachers of our languagewe have long been too nar- rowly concerned with making our students intocompetent writers. But competent writers don't necessarily make good writers or sensitive readersor happy human beings. For generations we have prepared the studentto write competently, but for what purpose? He must live before hecan write and writing is only a small part of the communicative process. Tonight we believe th. t English departments have sold themselves too short when they have settled for au: then assertedas a made-in-heaven objective, the making of competent writers. Yet we do not want to disparage writing but onlyto put it into a larger context. For us it should come out of a self and clarify a world, but they apparently have nothing to clarify. And besides, when we bring it all home, they don't like to write. Whys We see two major reasons. First of all, it might be because writing is unpleasant; it is a confrontation with a very confusing world. And it takesa discipline and creativity that T.V. hasn't and wouldn't giveour students to adapt and change to our ever present flux. To know whoyou are is to give up who you are not. And thisI..)frightening in the conformity of personalitymost education encourages. We are enforcing standards which in fact don't exist andare molding our students to sound and look alike in their writing and thinking. This brings us to the second reason. grades. Anytime student writing is given a grade, it evaluates the performance of the student. Yet student writers are not performers but learners, and we insist that there is not and shouldnot be any way to evaluate writing! How would you evaluate a life? And we also insist they be allowed to fail and succeed without a letter being attachedto their state of awareness. Thus, in terms of student writing the teacher should be primarily a reader and not a grader or marker. And we C need to remember thatevery time we make a notation, respond to a line, or correct a sentencewe are saying in effect; "This is important." So as readers our responses should be individual and personal. In addition, it is apparent to us that most discussions about writing should be d-r.: outside of class and should be largely tutorial. If we really see our studentsas individuals, writing individually, their problems w ill probably also be individual. Soan entire class directed to any composition problem will be largely a waste of time. Now, in front of the fire, things are beginning to clear. It is apparent that if we follow our own line of reasoning then writing is now no longer the center 64TINIOTHY E. MCCRACKEN/W. ALLEN ASHBY of the Freshman English classroom. What then is the center? This, w c now realize, is the question NI, c have been w orking toards. We sit in the silence around it until one of us rises to go out into the dark for wood, w hilt the other continues by the fire and reflects. We begin to talk again and it is clear to us that we must start with our differences. It is time, w c feel, to adopt an existential approach to student communication, an approach w hich asserts that the experience of learning is more important than w hat is learned. We puke the fire and continue the conversation looking now for the wood to la% this keel w ith. Gradually our thinking revolves around five elementary aims: 1. To reunite the senses and feeling; 2. To emphasize self-definition and self-actualization; 3. To create an atmosphere where failure can be seen as a natural part of the learning process; 4. To develop a problem solving methodology through a question-centered rather than an answer-oriented environment; and finally, 5. To encourage creative rather than standard or linear responses as necessary for survival in a complex world. What we need, we now know, is a new course, a course devoted to Creative Communication. With this title and these aims w c look back over the semester trying to distill more of what we have learned. Being uncertain of most things w e begin to feel confident about at least three things. 1) That nobody learns anything unless he feels the need to learn it; 2) That there are some necessary steps before abstraction, and 3) That the discovery process should begin by using w hat the students know rather than what they don't know. In front of the fire with our feet propped up on the coffee table we begin to go over our five elementar% aims, one at a time, seeking to understand them and to make them clear for ourselves. Our first II% pothesis is that when students are able to plug themselves into their uw n experiences the more articulate will be their questions, the more specific w ill be their responses and the broader will be their alternatives. So, w here w e need to begin is with perception and the senses since that's w, here all learning begins. For example, w e postulate that the making of analogies is an important step in the thinking process for it shows a person's ability to unite sensory perception, feeling, and idea in one linguistic construct. An analogy is the sx.nthesis of w hat the bod% experiences with what the mind thinks. And without this abilit'to draw analogies it is probably impossible for higher thought to occur. During thy, semester w, e saw this in one startling situation. Borrowing an idea from William Schutz (Joy), we asked each member of the class to bring a piece of fruit w hich reminded them of their favorite person. One girl brought in a banana and said. "This reminds me of my boyfriend because he is tall and skinny and pale." When we asked "Does he bruise easily?" she looked perp'exed and got veil silent. She was lost. She didn't understand. It N% as at this point that we learned that our students are losing the capacity- to make analogies. They are becoming ametaphorical and see no connections between things and their life. Tonight we think that this is probably due to the fact that The Widow's Walk: An Alternative for English 10165 they are basically hostile, suspicious, afraid,or simply unaware of the messages from their bodies. In short, we believe that students don't know thatwhen their ass hurts they are probably bored. So the plug must be pulled out at the sensory end of the analogy cord. What needs to be relearned is that the body is the initial starting point in the learning process, that it is inconcrete, specific, sensual experiences that ideas begin and that thesenses are the key to creative behavior. So, if we want to put together a course with thisnew emphasis in mind one the first things we would want to dispensew ith is the instructor-generated assignments. In their place the first part of the semester should consist of student- teacher conferences in which each student evolves hisown concepts as to what he wants and needs to know. Thus, through this conference the student will determine his own grade by setting his learning objectives for himself. Does he want an A7. Alright, what's an A? Yes, one should learn how to write a research paper, but does he feel the need yet? Practically, we see this as a process of decision making and concrete thinking which should manifest itself ina contract in which the student states the numbers and kinds of things he hopesto accomplish during the semester. This exercise in self-definition is,we believe, a crucial key in Creative Communications. Next, failing must be brought into realistic focus. We recall that Jerome Kagan has noted that "Educators have been guilty of minimizing the cultural rolewhich a child's expectancy of failure plays in shaping his behavior in a school situation." Kagan links the expectancy of failure with "decreased involvement inthe task and subsequent withdrawal" Often the only timewe received any involvement was at grading time, and then the anxiety of failing drove them into a frenzy of short term interest. However, the failing we are concerned about is not that of the evaluative grade. The failing we are talking about is that failing prevalent in the learningprocess. The doing of something w rong, the misunderstanding ofa concept, the failure to comprehend, the inability to do something successful isat the heart of our approach. Because it is only through failing thatsuccess takes on definition; it is only in the little deaths of life that life itself becomes meaningful and joyous. Often in learning what you can't do,you can discover what you can. So we speculate, we ought to provide an atmosphere in which failing isseen as a natural part of the learning process, an atmosphere in w hich the student is encouraged "to live, to err, to fall, to triumph, to re-create lifeout of life." For us, honesty is more important than positive reinforcement. We remember thatwe are working with individual human beings in search of their individual destinies. Undersuch a banner what does failure mean? And if for whatever reason we are not honest with them one person to anotherin this search, then whatare we there for? In the light of this impulse it is obvious tous that our new course should be question- rather than answer-oriented. Thismeans that the teacher in Creative Communications must be first and foremost a listener andnot a talker. Our function in the classroom is to supply the learning situations,not the conclusions about what there is to learn. %V should ask the evocative questions,not supply correct answers. Here on our island what is evident to us is thatwe must stress creativity and 66 TIMOTHY E. MCCRACKEN/if. ALLEN ASHBY freedom in the classroom if we are to help create vital human beings. We have gone too far down the path of mediocrity, conformity, and standardization. We have produced children who fear failure of any kind, who resent the arts, who "ball" people they don't love, and fight in wars they don't believe in. We must encourage creative responses to a complex world. From this island window the stakes are very clear to us. we must learn to respond creatively or perish. We put the last log on the, fire and remember Chomsky's paraphrase of Rousseau that "the essence of human nature is man's freedom and his consciousness of his freedom." We feel that we should no longer profess a belief in freedom with our values facing in the opposite direction. We feel that the present way of teaching English w ith its concentration on writing skills, f_orrectness, and logic is a dead-end street, an anachronism with no future and a dismal past. Nowwe would want for ourselves and all English teachers to embrace the art of our endeavor, and to admit to ourselves and our students that we too are deeply troubled, deeply confused, but equally deeply hopeful. Now is not the time nor is the English classroom the place to retrench in tradition, to claim a duty beyond the student sitting before us, a duty beyond the face, that stares back in the mirror. The teaching of English now badly needs to take on the open- endedness, the ambiguities, the emotionalism, in a word, the spirit of art. Thus we envision our new course, Creative Communications, a course where every utterance, gesture, action, every sound and piece of writing, everything we call communication becomes a potential learning situation. In short, Creative Communications is a model of the learning process. organic, open-ended, and as experimentally free as anything can be that admits that learning, like life, is an adventure that begins in wonder and ends in freedom.

IV Terminus

And every wave is charmed. Ralph Waldo Emerson It is morning although off and unou can still hear a hiss or a crackle from an ember in the fireplace. Outside a fine snow has fallen, half concealing the winter grass. We come (low n to breakfast, still talking. We think we know something: we think we understand our students better than we ever have before, and that from within this understanding we have evolveLla set of philosophical objectives which ought to guide us in restructuringour course. We believe that these objectives have bequeathed us an approach, although itisperhaps more a methodology than an approach. Concreteh w e feel that the key to this method probably resides in the initial student-teacher conferences in which the student sets his goals and grade objectives for the semester. At least as an image it is certainly the clearest representation of how we have relocated thecenter of our course, as well as the clearest gesture AN e know that will communicate to the student that, in Creative Communications at least, he is expected to make the The Widow's Walk: An Alternative for English 10167 major decisions abouthis own life and hisown needs. What we have done, we realize, is to shift the grade pressure froman external judgement to an internal motivating force belonging to the student. But where dowe go beyond that? Setting the table we decide that wenow have two major problems: 1) If, as we believe, instruction ought to be individual then does the classroom makeany sense any longer; and 2) Even if we keep it, what practicallyare we going to do with it? So we start at the beginning and probe. "Whynot eliminate the classroom and the class hour altogether= Why not setup special office hours and let the students come to us with their problems and their papers?" At this open speculation Katie and Regina both begin to laugh from the otherroom. Both of them are still students, having taken off a year or two in the middle of theircollege careers because they felt a certain dissatisfaction with their educationallives. We ask them why they are laughing, and they tellus it is because we are so funny. They tell us that we call ourselves teachers but thatwe are prepared to do away with the heart of teaching. We try to remind them thatwe think that education is a personal affair, and ideally ought to bea one-to-one situation, and they laugh again. Katie says that we've been out so long thatwe don't know which way is in. She says that what we don't understand is that the classroomis the source of energy which must set off the chain reaction of interest and enthusiasm, and that without this source of energy nothing canget accomplished. She says that she does her best work for the classes she finds themost enjoyable. Regina agrees and adds that not only is it the source of the enthusiasm,but it is also the place which frequently gives her the first shape ofan idea and the first forin to a feeling. It is a threshold of thought,not its terminus. Mostly, she says, she uses it to collect ideas that she wants to workon later by herselfbooks to read, thoughts to follow up, opinions to examine. Then Katie reminds us how impersonal much of educationis becoming. "It's why we left," she states, "and the English classroomis one of the last free playgrounds where a real discussion and dialoguecan occur." The classroom, she asserts, is the real place of community within the university.If we take it away then the students will have no reason to come to seeus, and we will have no place to see them inno way to maintain contact with them. While theyare talking we remember how empty our hallsare becoming, and now we begin to get a feeling for why that is. "If you don't teach what you love," Reginawarns, "then they won't learn to love whatyou teach." "O.K., O.K." we say. "We'll keep the classroom," butthat leaves us with our second problem what are we going to do with it? Wehave our five philosophical objectives, but how can we get them to directly manifestthemselves in the classroom? So we sit down to breakfast andwe begin to talk. Before we are finished it is early afternoon, butwe have some feeling for what might be done. We are the first to admit how tentative this exploration is (especiallysince we haven't tried it yet'), but we also believe that this restructuring ofthe classroom experience is the major challenge confrontingus. We attack the problem theoretically at first, strugglingto understand ways in 68 TIMOTHY E. MCCRACKEN/W. ALLEN ASHBY

which we might concretely realize our p.inciples in the classroom. We recall that our first objective was to reunite the senses and feeling, to restore this severed connection. Reflecting on this N% e remember a heated discussion the class had had endeavoring to make a decision as to how to use an upcoming class hour. They had suggested mane alternatives and there seemed to be fiveor six major possibilities which w ere being vociferously argued among approximately half the class. However, after a while the discussion reached a point where they started to repeat themselves, and the decibel and pitch levels w ere rising. So we stopped them and asked what the quiet half of the class felt. At this point Kevin, a talker, reminded us(vv:th gentle humor) that the quiet students were protected by the Constitution (no less) to remain silent. He was right, but this fact didn't get us any closer to a decision either, and so we asked them `,ow someone might tell w hat a person felt without using words. Peter said; "Just look at em." "But where," Bobbie teased, "at their faces, their hands, their eyes, their posture?" Someone else noted that as the discussion had degen- erated into an argument, Jack (a quiet student) had gotten progressively closer to the door. "What did that mean?" Mary Jane wondered. Interpretations ranged from a lover's anxiousness, through Jack's possible inabilityto handle arguments, to a lack of interest on Jack's part. Bonnie asked Jack for the right answer and he merely shrugged his shoulders. We suggested that since we were sitting in a circle and Jack'sgestures were visible to every memo,. of the class, that he was, in fact, communicating his feelings to the class. Suddenly everyone was looki:ig ateveryone else to gage where they stood on the decision. They began asking questions and probing, taking anything and everything as a message. Quickly they becameaware that there were no silences, that they all felt something and it could beseen or heard. Interestingly, after this Jack became (against his will) a barometer of class feeling. Whenever he inched toward the door someone wouldnote that apparently the subject was getting nowhere. Recalling this experience we realize now that whatwe need to do in the future is to make their feelings break through this threshold of insentience intoaware- nessto continually help them to see how their visible gestures are communicable vehicles. We need to help them see that while Jack'sgesture reveals something about the way he feels, that it can also reveal to each of us something about the way we feel, just as the fact that Mary Jane starts swinging her leg whenever the discussion picks up, reveals chat N% e are on the right track again. And thenwe need to attune ourselves to the possibilities inherent in our own gestures and to connect these attenuations to language so that Jack can say (as he feels himself moving toward the door). "Hey follows, I'm bored!" Or that Mary Jane (legs swinging) can say: "Now we're getting somewhere!" Our second elementary objective was that of self-definition and self-actualization. Here we believe decision maxing is the key. Eva)," choice between alternatives, where the choice matters, further refines who we are. Thus our responsibility as teachers v, ill be to create simaions where choice isnecessary and the object of choice a valuable addition to one's life. This is, perhaps, the role of art and literature in the classroom, for it is in these as Louise Rosenblatt says in

I ) The Widow's Walk: An Alternative for English 10169

Literature as Exploration, that the student can be freed from "anachronistic emotional attitudes" by "imaginative participation in the wide variety of alternative philosophies and patterns of behavior...." (275). But here Katie and Regina were quick to warn us that we must be careful not to let literature become room with set pieces of furniture. A great deal, they stressed, depends upon the way in which we explore the ambiguities in art, aad they both urged us to use art and literature to explore the creative possibilities of living (our objective # 5) as well as to expose the students to alternative philosophies. A more natural view of failure was our third aim. The quest here is for proper atmosphere, and once again decisions and choice play a prominent part. We realized this concretely when we played volleyball with them, for we saw thea that the game was less exciting w hen no one kept scorethat there ought to be a winner and a loser, and that failing was an integral aspect of participation. In the classroom failure most commonly manifests itself when a student makes a foolish statement. And here it is not a matter of learning how to treat the student, but how to utilize the aspect of failure in his response. This was brought pointedly home to us once when we asked Brenda to name everyone in the class and she did except that she omitted us and no one bothered to correct her. We realized then our own failure (and the greater failure of twelve years of educational conditioning) and we saw immediately how at least this one failure could lead us on to further productive insights. We believe that this attitude toward failure is closely linked to our fourth objective of question making and problem solving. Regina reminded us of line from e. e. cummings that she had always liked. "Always the beautiful answer who asks a more beautiful question." Now we think that maybe our function in the classroom is (1) to ask questions to which we don't have an answer, and (2) to insure that those questions are honest questionsthat is, that we are really intererted in the answers. We wonder privately if it wouldn't be advantageous for a while to use only literature that we have never read before (or only read once). We speculate that this might provide an atmosphere in which we could discover along with the students w hat genuinely and spontaneously confuses and interests us in a given work. Finally, there was our last aim of creative behavior. Immediately we can think of a number of devices which could be used to encourage the student to think off his normal pattern. Cne would be to have a student defend a position or view that he doesn't believe in. Carol says that Dickens' Hard Times is a bad novel, and so rather than wGrk out w hat she doesn't like about it, we could have her defend the proposition that it is a good novel. What is important here is the element of playing and the student's willingness to be able to playto speculate and come up with things that are absurd, funny, or challenging, and to be willing to fail and understand the nature of his failure. Well, these are the objectives and a few general ideas, but concretely what are we going to do with the days of the week? The classes meet Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for fifty minutes each and Katie suggests that we let each day develop a purpose of its own. So we explore that ion, like it, and decide that we will experiment with our three days. 70TIMOTHY E. MCCRACKEN/W. ALLEN ASHBY

Monday will be our art day. in itwe will stress creativity and non-linear responses. Rather than let a poem mean one thing we will encourage itto mean 6V2 things. Rather than ask what this abstract paintingmeans, we'll ask: how should it be hung? We are ow are however thatwe must always keep in mind that the art must connect personally and concretelyto the students' lives. Thus, we would ask Joan: What do you feel about this piece of music? And then: Who feels something different? And, howmany different feelings are there? That's Monday. Wednesday will be our Board day. We think thatwe need one day a week generated almost entirely by the students' interests. Andso on Wednesday before the class begins each person present (teachers andguests included) must write something on the board and put his initials under it. Itcan be anything. But it must be something (and it should be something of immediate and genuine interest to the writer). A word, a comment, an opinion, a piece of a poem, a drawing,an album cover. Anything. Then the class cango where it wants. It is a free day of discovery. For us it will be a day of listening, wherewe see our responsibility as that of sharpening their questions and interests and sharing with themour honest opinions. Friday will be Court day. What we need isa book which gives us issues that require decisions. Perhaps actual courtcases on important questions. What is essential is that the two distinct sides oe represented, and thata vote be taken in the class at the beginning and at the end of the hour, and that during the hour the discussion consistently strive to sharpen theareas of disagreement. Ideally perhaps the students should select the problems themselves. Beyond that it is clear that at some time during the hour every one should voice his opinion and have to make a stand. Three days. Three aims. On Monday our desire is to spiral outward increasing possibilities, encouraging creative behavior, and strivingto establish a pattern in which a number of responses are created fora problem before the choice of one response is taken. On Wednesday our endeavor is to assist them and ourselves in discovering w hat our real interests areboth ona short and long term basis. And on Friday w e Nant to constantly engage them in a problem, moving inward, refining and clarify ing it, all the w bileencouraging decision making and choice. This then is our projected week, and with its elaborationour circle of conversation comes to an end. Besides, we are hungry again. In the afternoon all that will be left to do is to put together a tentatives% llabus and then wait for the fall and the crucible in which all theories are finally tested. For thepresent we w'.1.1t, a bit of fresh air and a break in the run of our lives, some laughter and perhapsa walk by the sea.

Take Two A Syllabus for Creative Communications

Well, to begin with, this is an experimentalcourse (we couldn't hide that from The Widow's Walk: An Alternative for English 10171

you even if we wanted to). And although it's our second time aroundteam teaching this course, it is still experimental. What makes itso is rather simple: namely that we arc going to takea journey whose destination we do not yet know. In fact, the course itself has been designedas a dual journey. With us and the class you are to take an outward journey, while with yourselvesyou may make a personal exploration. For your own explorations the methods of travel and the points of interest will be largely individual. Thispart of the course belongs to you, although we will want a copy ofyour Itinerary before you bead out on your own. Within the classroom the journey will be a collective venture and we will all be on the same boat together. But that's for later and the funwe hope will follow.

In order to participate then in both of these journeys therearc only four requirements: 1st. Communications: Since we call the course. Creative Communication,we want each of you to communicate with at least one of us, Timor Allen, at least once every week in whatever manner you want. If you are creative,you won't dse the same method twice, but in any case we want to feelyour presence, once a week, on fifteen occasions.

2nd. We are to read four books: We will give you a list of the books anda reading schedule on a separate sheet.

3rd. We want a copy of your Itinerary: We want this no later than Monday, September 30th. Concretely, your Itinerary is: Your indication (1) Of what you think would constituteproper and valid work for you for each of the following grades: A, B, C, D, & F. (2) Plus a circling of which of these grades it isyour intention to work for. You are, in essence, to select yourown grade. You will hand in your Itinerary and we will either approve it or we willsuggest improvements in your plans. We will never dictate to you whatyou are to do, but we will expect mature, college level work from you. In any caseas soon as we can agree on your Itinerary the grade is in your hands and you are (as muchas you want) on your own. Now, what can be included in your Itinerary? A fair question. Our answer: Anything can be included. Anything? Anything! However, a good Itinerary should perhapscover these five areas: (1) Doing something you didn't wantto do, like talking to your parents for fifteen minutes every day for two weeks. (2) Doing something you haven't ever done before that you'd liketo try and at which you might fail, like learning how to sky dive. (3) Improving something you can already do, like watching TV. (4) Learning something you need to learn, like whatyou want to be or how to write a research paper. (5) Doing something wacky, like.. . well, you know, wacky! Since, as you will discover, this is a course in problem solving,your first major problem is to get the items you w ant to puton your Itinerary linked somehow 72 TIMOTHY E. NICCRACKEN/W. ALLEN ASII$Y

into a grade game plan that justifies your efforts for each of the grades from A to F, remembering that an F is not a zero but is accomplishing 50-60% of your goals.

4th. You are not allowed to cheat.

And this covers the requirements for the trip. There is one other thing however. Attached to this syllabus is a sixteen page Survival Manual. It is basically concerned w ith reading, writing, and tests. In- stead of devoting class time to these things Nk e have attempted to put these over- emphasized items in their proper perspective by giving y ou their basic elements on paper. If, after reading the manual, y ou still feel that you are weak in reading, insecure in tests, or if you are unsure about w riting something. a poem, a play, formal paper, lab report, book review,, research paper, business letter, or whatever, then that ought to be a part of Y our Itinerary for this semesterto learn or make sure you know you know. Our theory is that unless Nke hear from y ou otherwise, we assume you know and if you don't and let this semester slip by w ithout learning then you'll only shipwreck yourself later. We are not try ing to be mercenary in this, just adult and practical. We Lan and \kill teach Y ou (in terms of writing) what you want and; or need to learn, but we are not going to tell you what you need to learn. That's up to you, although Nke \kill be glad to help you discover what your blind spots are if you want us to. And one last note. We V., ill not read any thing you Nk rite for spelling, punctuation, or grammatical errors or mistakes unless Y ou specifically request us to play "English Teacher." IN'e basically could care less about those unless they stand in the way of a real understanding of w hat itis you are trying to communicate. So, write freely and write only what you want. It makes the best reading. And finally', our second last note. Although it may seem contradictory after all of the above reminders,e w ant y ou to enjoy this course and your Itinerary. The reason we foggy intellectuals give you independent Nkork to do is because we have an undying hope that y ou w ill teach yourself something. Despite your overwhelming feeling to the contrary, college is a personal love affair with ideas and feelings. As with any love affair, sometimes you yell a lot, sometimes you are lethargic, sometime: y ou are joy ous. Believe it or not, any experiences you have this semester should articulate that feeling. And that feeling, happy or not, should be rewarding.

Coda I have set sail from a leaking ship in a gale off Cape Horn.

Herman Melville

We stare out over the sea. The Nkeek is over. The ferry turns on the waves towards Woods Hole, and Nke stand on the stern, the four of us watching our

1 J The Widow's Walk: An Alternative for English 101 73 island vanish into the fog. It has been a good w eek. The empty bottles we leave are a testament to that as is the feeling w e have that for the first time in a long whileN% eare approaching ..n understanding of our students, and that nearing that coast we now have an active plan for closing the distance between our worlds. At least w e are ready to begin again. On the boat a soft rain falls. A wind bellows. From the island the fug horn pulls once, lung and deep throated across the sound. And for the first time, from this deck un the passage back home, we are reminded of Melville and of his ship that also set sail from here, and ina fit of humor we wonder, one to another, about our fate and what the future, like the fog, might hide. And just to be safe we each tap our legs just once to makesure.

,..4111Pb R. C. TOWNSEND

The Possibilities of Field Work

WHEREAS ENGLISH TEACHERS could besees meaning in the idea of doing field doing a great deal of important teachingwork in English. It is also a report on the and learning in the field, so far as I can kind of course one might giveor at least tell we are doing practically none. In ouron the kinds of specific activities one effortsto bolster the Humanities, tomight engage in in a course involving reach new student constituencies, or tofield work. The course is one I gave last retrieve those we used to be able to count term on small town literature, one in on, at an NCTE conference, say, therewhich we read five or six books relating will be discussion of experiments with new to small towns and wrote one of our own. books, new issues, new materials, new dialects, but the assumption seems to be that all the while we remain in the class- 1 room. There we talk, we write, maybe The aims of a course involving field we view or role play, on our own, wework are those that Whitehead spoke of try to keep up with the literature. That isin The Aims of Education: how we work "in our field"and we never take the metaphor seriously. It is The insistence in the Platonic culture for others, primarily social scientists, to on disinterested intellectual appreciation is a psychological error. Action and our im- bring the metaphor alive, to test out and plication in the transition of events amid give expression to ideas and feelings as the inevitable bond of cause to effect are they exist in the actual world. fundamental. An education which strives The present essay is a reflection on the to divorce intellectual or aesthetic life possibilities of field work in Englishon from these fundamental facts carries with itthe decadence of civilization. Essen- what doing field work in English might tially culture should be for action, and its mean and on what works can provide effect should be to divest labour from the guidance or inspiration to anyone who associations of aimless toil. Art exists that

Reprinted fromCollege English,Vol. 34, No. 4, January 197).( I The Possibilities of Field Work 75

we may know the deliverances of our That has usually seemed either impos- senses are good. It heightens the sense-sible or undesirable: world. Disinterested scientificcuriosityisa passion for an ordered intellectual vision Literature as a whole is independent of of the connection of events. But the goal real experience (Northrop Frye writes; of such curiosity is the marriage of action and something distinct from the passing to thought. This essentialintervention of belief into action. Literature is a body of action even in abstract science is often of hypothetical thought and action:It overlooked. No man of science wants makes, as literature, no statements or as- merely to know. He acquires knowl- sertions. It neither reflects nor escapes edge to appease his passion for discovery. from the world of belief and action, but He does not discover in order to know, contains it in its own distinctive form. It isthis independence from real experi- he knows in order to discover.... First-hand knowledge isthe ultimate ence which the term "imagination'ex- basis of intellectual life. To a large extent presses, a term which includes both in- book-learning conveys second-hand intellect and emotion, and yet is different formation, and as such can never rise to from actual truth or real feelings. When the importance of immediate practice. we meet an unfamiliar experience in litera- Our Foal is to see the immediate events of ture, the relevant question is not, is this our lives as instances of our general ideas. true? but, is it imaginatively conceivable? What the learned world tends to offer is If not, there is still a chance that our na- one second-hand scrap of information tion of what is imaginatively conceivable illustrating ideas derived from another needs expanding. Literaturethus pro- second-hand scrap of information. The vides a kind of reservoir of possibilities second-handedness of the learned world is of action. It gives us wider sympathies the secret of its mediocrity. It is tame be- and greater tolerance, and new perspec- cause it has never been scared by facts.' tives on action; it i icreases the power of articulating convictions, whether our own or those of others? No educator is willing to admit to striving for decadence; all of us can so define In English courses we literally move from our practices in the classroom and in ourbook to book to book; that is the way as- research as to make it clear that we, atsignments and discussions usually evolve, least, are striving to marry action andand insofar as we set up courses based on theory. And of course in general most ofgeneric or historical or formal considera- us are. Scientists and socialscientists,tions, we tend to conceive of literature as either in the lab or on trips into field, are self-contained, self-reflective--"as a trying to ground learning in first-handwhole," "as a body." But there is nothing knowledge. The humanists' passion, likemediocre about our subject or our task, theirs, may be a passion for discoverywe say, because our perceptions of the and no mere grubbing after knowledge. Iworld are heightened through books and do not cite Whitehead in order to sur-somehow (itis never clear how) our round myself with straw men. We allpowers of expressionare increased share his aims. I lay special claim for histhough here we have to be tentative, support only in that I have taken himspeak haltingly, as Frye does: "Literature literally: I have tried to set up a situation thus provides a kind of reservoir of pos- in which a student of English may, like asibilities of action." student of chemistry or social relations, benefit from first-hand knowledge. 2The IVell-Tempered Critic (Bloomington: '(New York. Macmillan, 1929), pp. 73-74, 79. Indiana Uni% .Press, 1963), pp. 149-50. 76 K. C. TOWNSEND

But imagine moving to and not fromproblem is unnervingly, embarrassingly, the texts we assign in an English class.simple. On the elementary level they "Literature," Dewey wrote, "is the reflexbring in "real experience" in show and expression and interpretation of social ex-tell cy.ercises, at the school and college perience; ...hence it must follow uponlevels the solution is only slightly more and not precede such experience.It,sophisticated. therefore, cannot be made the basis, al- How do you do this? It is true that you :hough it may be made the summary ofcannot set up an adu:terous relationship unification."3 Ideally, a reader is continu- for study, nor can you provide God's ally conscious of the experiences beingfirst born or stage a war or count on a expressed and int rpreted in writings, andcountry boy to tell oc the development anyone engaged 'n activities more socialof his mind. Nor can you expect students than reading is the more conscious andto write classics before the term is over. the more sensitive, maybe even the more Those you read, and you assign critical humane, becauseLis perceptions havepapers on them, hoping students will gain been heightened by ,.-Ler men's imagin- ew perspectives, wider syr, hies, and ings. And ultimately itwill not do toincreased powers of articulation---"a kind think of experiencing and then going offof reservoir of possibilities" there. But to read about what one ilas experienced,there are other facts surrounding students as Dewey seems to advocate. The processand the institutions they attend. Experi- is never that simple. But it is a simplementing with them can make their read- truth that one is in a better position toing more immediate, their writing better. appreciate a work after some experience I chose the town of Amherst itself. Not of what it is about. I taught The Scarletsure how the experiment would work, I Letter to a class that included a vocalpicked an area of experience that I knew preacher and an equally vocal womanwould provide a limitless number of op- who was bringing up her children alonetions. I was sure of the importance of the and it was clear that the book meant moresubject, of the role that towns had played to them can to students for whom ca-in the social and psychic life of Ameri- reers an complexities of married andcans, and I was sure that there was more unmarried life are only possibilities. Athan enough reading to choose from. In rare occurrence, but still you may beways that I shall describe in more detail more likely to create the desired inter-below, students made contact with the action between books and "real" or extra-town, gained some first-hand knowledge literary experience if you can find someof "constituencies" in the town. They way to engage students in social situa-met with people, interviewed them, oc- tions that you will want them to read orcasionally worked for them, and gradu- write about. \Ve often bear in mind theally came to know something about what experiences we think students have orit is like to live in a community that was should have had when we assign booksat least a small town not long ago. (Am- and writings, we could be even more herst's population has doubled in the last conscious and deliberate in our effort toten years because of the expansion of the start from experience. Stated this way the University of Massachusetts; as it turned out our subject was not so much "The 3"My Pedagogic Creed," in John Dewey on Education, ed. Reginald D. Archambauir (NewSmall Tc.vn" as "Amherst and the Small York: Modern Library, 1964), p. 433. Town Myth" or "Coping with Change The Possibilities of FieldIVork 77 in America.")I chose the town asa against the writing of others who have to whole but one might choose among thesome degree shared that experience, and, constituencies themselves, among suchas I will try to demonstrate at the end, groups as the elderly, the black popula-the results can compare with books that tion, the business community, or themight otherwise too easily acquire the street people; among institutions and as-status of final authority. sociations such as churches, schools, the "Our goal," as Whitehead said, "is to Grange, liberationists' organizations, orsee the immediate events of our lives as the police; among the media that inter-instances of our general ideas," and that pret theseareas of experience. Nextis literally and easily done in a course yearthecoursewilldealprimarilysuch as Small Town Literature. 'What with the elderly, recording and creat-Vidich and Bensman say about the rela- ing their memories of Amherst whention between small town politics and poli- it really was a small town and their re-tics at the national level in Small Town in sponses to its changes. Mark Twain saidMass Society was dramatized for the stu- that "Human nature cannot be studied indent working with the Town Planning cities except at a disadvantag--a villageBoard's Project Review Subcommittee; is the place," but the same and manywhat any number of writers, from Wil- more constituencies obviously now existliam Allen 'White or Mary Russell Mit- in urban areas. Field work as I conceive offord or Anthony Bailey on the one hand it, though, does not mean simply goingto E. W. Howe or Sherwood Anderson out and observing or participating in theor Sinclair Lewis on the other, have to lives of such groups, unfortunately wesay about the virtues and shortcomings of may learn very little from unmediatedsmall town life, can be tested daily; what experience. The contact has to be cou-James Agee says in Let Us Now Praise pled with, enlivened by, and it must chal-Famous Men about the responsibility yet lenge the renditions of those areas of ex-the impossibility of a writer's doing jus- perience as they exist in I.% -iting. To taketice to the sanctity of another human be- the most obvious example, students willing is brought home to students every read Winesburg,Ohio,orRonaldtime they attempt to write about their ex- Blythe's Akenfleld, or Anthony Bailey'speriences in the field. The barriers be- In the Village, after stints in the field and,tween the classroom and the outside perhaps most importantly, they will beworld do not come down, but there is writing uptheirexperiencesallthemore traffic. If students (and teachers) time. Their reading is put to the test ofare impatient with the abstractions of the what they are concurrently discovering,academic world, field work affords some their perceptions goaded by what othersrelief. Through field work, life outside have reported and imagined. Out of theand a student's inner life may inform his interaction comes writing that is differentstudy, his intellectual lifeor so it sounds from a critcial paper on Paradise Lost onwhen one turns to an encouraging stu- the one hand and an exercise in "creativedent evaluation of the course. "I am be- writing" on the other. Itis based onginning to see my way alittle more personalexperiencebutitcontendsJcarly. I am beginning to examine more closely the nature of community study *Quoted in rage Smith, As A City Upon a Hill: The Toum in American History (Newand the relationship between human lives, York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1966), p. 262. my own subjectivefeelings, and the

t. 78R. C. TOWNSEND

words that attempt to express those livesclass or occupational structure of the and feelings as truly as possible for alltown of Amherst. We were less objective involved." than that. On the other hand we were not going to reduce Huckleberry Finn, Mid- 2 dlemarch, or The Scarlet Letter to books about small communities in an effort to be Doing field work in, English, then,respectably literary, nor could we take means going out to confront the experi-lesser works like Our Town or Wines- ences the books you might read areburg, Ohio as models for our own writ- about,;loping therebyzq understanding. We were more objective than that more and write more intelligently aboutfor the simple reason that our pri- both the books and the experiences. mary materials were people as they ex- In setting out to do field work, thereisted in the real world and not as they are countless models which one mightwere created by the fictive imagination. choose. Working in the general area ofIf artistic truth was to be present in any- community studiesthe most obviousthing we wrote, it was to be there because models are likely to be sociological or an-the potential for it had first been dis- 'hropological, but there are literary andcovered in the field. For inspiration we unclassifiableexamplesthatIfoundwould cite Agee's remarks on photog- equally helpful. If one were to set aboutraphy: "The artist's task is not to alter working within the black community,the world as the eye sees it into a world literary and particularly autobiographicalof aesthetic reality, but to perceive the works might prove more obviously andaesthetic reality within the actual world, immediately helpful; with churches youand to make an undisturbed and faithful might soon rely on sociological studies.record of the instant in which this move- But whatever the area, one cannot affordmLnt of creativeness achieves its most ex- to be very squeamish or strict about thepressive crystallization."' lines that separate the various disciplines. No amount of defensive criticism of Classicsociologicalstudies,or sec-social scientists' occasional jaw-breaking tions of them, like Vidich and Bensman'sterminology or labyrinthine methodol- book, the Lynds' Middletown, Dollard'sogies should obscure the fact that the Caste and Class in a Southern Town, orreality of which Agee speaks may be as White's StreetCorner Society, maylikely to exist in their writings as in any- prove helpful to students working on par-one else's. Indeed, as early as 1954, on one ticular problems, but none provided thefamous occasion (a review c f David Reis- appropriate model for the kind of writingman's work) Lionel Trilling was led to my students did. The only study madewonder if in some respects the sociolo- by a class that I know of, that on Chan-gists hadn't already taken over: ceaux by Lawrence Wylie's students at Harvard,' isprimarily sociologicalin In writing about The Lonely Crowd I character. But we were not working up, spoke of the jealousy of the social sciences which is likely to be felt by people of conducting and interpreting surveys or literaryinclinationtheyaretroubled questionnaires, and we never sought to because the social sciences seem to be be more than impressionistic about the 6A Way of Seeing: Photographs of New 5Chanceaux. A Villagein Anjou (Cam- York by Helen Levitt with an Essay by James bridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1966). Agee (New York: Viking, 1965), p. 4.

d :$ The Possibilities of Field Work 79

expropriating literature from one of itsin Cornerville, the residents of Watts most characteristic functions, the investi-more than either in Paul Bullock's W attS: gation of manners and morals. This jealousy I myself experienced intensely as IThe Aftermath. In Oscar Lewis' most readIndividualismReconsidered. Nocharacteristic work there is nothing but American novel of recent years has beenthe transcriptions of his subjects' talk. At able to give me the sense of the actualitythe heart of Robert Coles' work is that of our society that I get from Mr. Reis-talk reshaped, recreated, so as to give a man's book, nor has any novel been able to suggest, as these essays so brilliantlyreader as great or a greater sense of the do, the excitement of contemplating ourhuman situation in which his subjects life in culture as an opportunity and afind themselves than might be possible danger? in the languages of social scientists. "So many reportersmistakesocial-science For our purposes, a certain kind of socio-metaphorforfacts,"Albert Murray logical work was particularly suggestive.writes It was the kind in which the investigation of mai..ers and morals came about as a ...without realizing that even the most result of an author's ability to let his ma- precise concepts are only nets that cannot hold very much flesh-and-blood ex- terials break the mould of his well-pre- perience. Whereas the most pragmatic pared experiments and hypotheses, of his thing about poetic metaphor is that you well-defined terms, in order that they know very well that your net cannot trap might find their own truth. Thus William all of the experience in question. Indeed, you often feel that maybe most of it has Whythe's "Reflections on Field Re- eluded you.... You readily concede that search" were encouraging: "It was a long formulations generalized from scientific- time before I realized that I could explain research findings may be nets with a Cornerville better through telling the closer weave, still not only do they re- stories of those individuals and groups main nets, but at best they trap even than I could in any other way. Instead smaller areas of experience than literary configurations, expressly because they are of studying the general characteristics of necessarily in a narrower weave .° classes of people, I was looking at Doc, Chick, Tony Cataldo, George, Rave llo, It was interesting to note, too, that as and others. Instead of getting a cross-artists such as Agee in Let Us Now sectional picture of the community at aPraise Famous Men or Orwell in Down particular point in time, I was dealingand Out in London and Paris and Wigan with a sequence of interpersonal events.Pier or Mailer in Miami and the Siege of ...I was seeking to build a sociologyChicago rendered actual social situations based upon observed interpersonal events.in terms that could impress the social That, to me, is the chief methodologicalscientists, social scientists in turn were and theoretical meaning of Street Cornermaking use of artistic forms. A recent Society."' The citizens of Vandalia, Ohiobook by Lynn Eden, Crisis in Water- tell more of their own study in Josephtown: The Polarization of an American Lyford's The Talk in Vandalia: The LifeCommunity,'" for example, reads, as we of an American 7.021711 than do the boyssay, like a novel. It is a "story" of the firing of a minister in a Wisconsin town 7A Gathering of Fugitives (Boston. Beacon 'South to a Very Old Place (New York; Press, 1956). p. 92. McGraw-Hill Co., 1971), pp. 59-60. 'StreetCornerSociety(Chicago.Univ. 10(Aon Arbor. Univ. of Michigan Press, of Chicago Press, Sec. Ed., 1955), pp. 357-58. 1972).

3 80 K. C. TOWNSEND for marching with Father Groppi amierary approaches to social situations generally alienating a conservative town,or that there have been "literary soci- and it is told primarily in the words ofologists" since Cobbett, since Mayhew the participants in the "drama." Ms. Eden and I know that English teachers can appears like the narrator. It is clear where (like Trilling almost twenty years ago) her sympathies lie, but the burden ofget help from sociologists in examining response is the reader's. he does not standthe human situations that have always on territory carefully limited and markedbeen their central concern. Sociologists by sociological terminology, he must re-too can help train readers and writers. spond to a situation in its psychological,Their works can also demand imaginative historical, politicalin all its dimensions.readings, even to the point where a From a medium where the lines betweenreader has to be as creative, be as sensi- art and sociology are even more blurred,tive to the relations between himself and one thinks of Marcel Ophul's The Sor-the world outside himself, as he must be row and the Pity: Chronicle of a Townin the presence of voices on a stage. "You During the Occupation, an extraordinaryfeel him to be a poet, inasmuch as, for a film made up almost entirely of con-time, he has made you onean active temporary documentaries and the talkcreativebeing,"12Coleridgesaidof of the people who lived in and occupiedShakespeare. Reading Lewis or Coles, or a town in the Auvergne region duringwatching and hearing Mendes-France or World War II." a farmer in Clermont-Ferrand in The One stumbles around a bit in the darkSorrow and the Pity, you have to create area that lies between literary and socio-truths which formerly did not exist and logical studies. Tr ;ere is not much com-w hich exist only so long as you imagine pany and those who have ventured outthem. It is the task of a reader of actual have done so at the risk of being criti-as well as of fictional events. cized for being wayward and undisci- The conjunction of the aesthetic and plined, Oscar Lewis for taking libertiesthe actual is even more challenging and with his materials, Robert Coles for notilluminating to the writer, and my pri- being scientifically (or politically) soundmary purpose in speaking of these rela- enough. But I sense that sociologists aretively unclassifiable works has been to discovc-;ng the advantages of more lit-suggest the variety of them that are available as models to anyone who is trying "Nor, of course, is the interaction merelyto introduce field work into the English formal. SeeClifford Gecrtz, "The Balinese Cockfight," Daedalus, Vol. 101 (Winter, 1972), classroom. A student doing field work pp. 1-37, in which Gcertz sees cockfighting not sets out to discover truths in the actual as a rite or a pastime but as a text in which oneworld, and in the process he may discover can read what a Balinese's "culture's ethos andnew truths about himself. A momentous his private sensibility (or, anyway, certainas- pects of them) look like when spelled out ex-task, it seems, but he has support in know- ternally." Thus the anthropologist too musting about writers like Agee and Orwell, "engage in a bit of metaphorical refocussing of (his) own, for it shifts the analysis of cultural like Whyte and Lewis and Coles. forms from an endeavor in general parallel to To our class no book was more help- dissecting an organism, diagnosing a symptom,ful than Ronald Blythe's Akenfield: Por- deciphering a code, or ordering a systemthe dominant analogies in contemporary anthro- I2Shakespearean Criticism, ed. Thomas Mid- pologyto one in general parallel with pene-dleton Rayser (London. Everyman Edition, trating a literary text." (p. 26) 1960), II, 65.

J : The Possibilities of Field Work81 trait of an English Village," and no voiceor definitions of the new pastoralism but was more helpful than Blythe's in de-with Davie, a character Hardy could scribing how the class ought to proceedhave used: in its study of the town of Amherst. Akenfield is a book about a small East The village fool? So obviously and com- Anglian village (pop. 298). It contains a pletely not. Some slight imbalance, some occasional fall due to "nerves," as all ill- great deal of historical data; introductory nesses beyond the immediately identifiable sections tell of the residences, occupations and accidents arecalledin Akenfield, and even crop yields of its inhabitants' might have placed himmight have en- fields. A prefatory bibliographical note rolled him in the tolerated company of the "touched." Yet the one certain thing lists such books as E. Morris, History and about Davie is his crushing sanity. His Art of Change-Ringing (1931), C. D. isolation is due, maybe, to some snapping Harris, Geography of the Ipswich-Or- of the communication links between his ford Area (Unpublished thesis), and W. world and ours. Scraps of old farming M. Williams, The Sociology of an En- practice can be dragged out of himno- thingspecial. Twenty men and boys glish Village (1956), but essentially the scythed the corn and sang as they went. books is, in Blythe's words, "the quest for "What was the song, Davie?" the voice of Akenfield, Suffolk, as it "Never you mind the songit was the sounded during the summer and autumn singing that counted." of 1967,"14 and most of its pages are de- After that Blythe is content to introduce voted to recordings, transcriptions, re- his speakers and let them do the talking. creations, perhaps inventions, of the talk The book is divided into twenty sec- of the people who live there. It is and tions, beginning with "The Survivors" its not history; it is and it is not soci- (five village elders, of whom one "had ology; it is undoubtedly a literary per-often talked with men who knew the formance, demanding of a reader as muchSuffolk farmers of the eighteenth cen- creative activity, a_ much responsivenesstury") and ending with "In the Hour of to psychological and linguistic subtlety Death," a gravedigger: as one expects to exert in reading a novel or watching a play. And there was this old lady at Wick- Blythe begins by sounding some of the ham Market and she was in three dif- themes that will emerge in more complex ferent coffins. They called her Cheat-the- form from the voices of the villagers. He grave at last. All these things happened because people will insist on checking on speaks of the elemental quality of the death with a mirror, which isn't a mite of growers' life in the village and, by con- good. The only way is to stick a shred trast, of the younger generation's desire of cotton-wool where the lips part and if to escape to Norwich by motorbike on there's the least little wind of life it will the weekends or perhaps forever, and of flutter.I can always tell if a person is dead by looking at the eyes. I never make the new residents' hopes of immersing a mistake about dead eyes. I see at once themselves in a village life that has no when the seeing is gone. existence other than on British travel Village folk have been buried over and posters. His "Introduction" ends not with over again in the same little bits of church- a formulation of city-village dichotomies yard. You have to throw somebody out to get somebody inthree or four sometimes. I always put all the bones back so I3(New York: Pantheon Books, 1969). that they lie tidy-like just under the new 14Ibid., p. 18. person. They're soon all one. The parson e j 82 R. C. TOWNSEND

said to me, "How is it that you get soence metaphor. There is always the pos- many in one grave?" and I always tell himsibility that the world is depicted as all that I must have disturbed a plague pit. Parsons will believe anything. lies, but it seems to me that in these instancestheloose weave captures In between are such "constituencies" asmirrorsmoreabouthumannature people connected in one way or anotherrather than less. with religion, "The Ringing Men" (the In answer to the question, How do local bell-ringers), "The School," "Theyou go about making such a study?, the Orchard Men," "The Law," and,itanswer seems to be that you have to go seems, the only fool in Akenfield, theout into the community as much as pos- poet: sible, know about it and yourself in relation to it, and write the best sen- After Oxford, I worked in Londontences you can. I asked Blythe but I where I wrote a poetry of despair. It wasnever did find out what interview tech- a continuous cry for what I had lost, forniques he used, what questions he asked, the hills and fields, and the vixen wood,or how much he edited or otherwise with the dog-fox barking atnight.I recreated his interviews. imagined myself dying inside and so I came to this village to find my health. My wholeness. That is what I am here. It was I am not a trained sociologist [he wrote not my village but to say that I had re- instead]. I suppose I am a kind of his- turned to it seemed a true way of describ- torian-cum-poet-cum-literarycritic! I ing what had happened to me. Suffolk didn't come to Akenfield, I have been amazed methe great trees, the towering there for centuries. Not in the actual vil- old buildings soaring out. of the corn. lage upon which I based my book but The huge clear spaces. from the same culture. The people in the I am now at home here. I know every- book were saying things which I had body and everybody knows me. Words known all my life. have meaning for me here. I am lucky, I If I had to give anyone advice on how came here to get better but I have in to set about understanding or studying a fact been re-born. I have escaped into small community I would tell them that reality. There are no nameless faces; Iam there are two main paths to the interior. identified and I identify. All is seen. If that is your own community, then you must reach and identify its heart through your own experience. If it is somebody Each section, often each individual,is else's community, then you will never introduced by Blythe, but to the full understand it if you reduce it entirely to force of every monologue and of the facts and figures. The secret lies in your combinationofallforty-nine,each sentence in which you say you would reader must respond inhis own way. like to "put together some writing on the Small town...." There are population (Perhaps to some the poet is a veritable tables, work patterns, health stats, educa- phoenix1)JustastheRicketts,the tion developments, climate and a thousand Gudgers, and the Woods in Agee's Let other skeletal supports to the life in a Us Nolo Praise Famous Men represent particular place, then comes an interpre- the life of the sharecropper to many of tation of life itself. The latterfor me is what really matters. One needs a real us, those who speak in Akenfield give language for this. An ability to state what us the history, the psychology, the soci- one feels to be the truth.15 ology, the very life of the English village in our time. We are dealing in these 15Personalcorrespondence, November16, books with poetic as well as social sci- 1971. The Possibilities of Field Work83

3. of the idea that learning characteristically takes place inside the classroom, Turning now to the course itself,I in relative passivity and silence, the idea had eighteen students and two auditors,"of going our and initiating talk with one of whom was on Independent Studystrangers creates enough fear as itis. and doing what turned out to be pub-(The fear probably is especially great lishable work (in the Agee-Blythe vein)at a privileged institution like Amherst, on the church communities in nearbyfor as Irving Goffman says: "The higher Hadley. We met once a week, in theone's place in the status pyramid, the evening. I made my intentions as clearsmaller the number of persons with as I could at the outset. somehow wewhom one can be familiar...and the are going to study the small town notmore likely itis that one will be re- just by reading about it but by puttingquired to be polite as well as deco- together a book of writings that wouldrous.")2° Agee only intensifies the prob- be the result of our own contact withlem by reminding you that to undergo Amherst. And I started the course notthe task is a sacred act and that ulti- with Blythe but with Agee. mately it is impossible. Isuspected(andevaluationscon- In his preface Agee defines his inten- firmed my suspicion) that there was notions and, with the word "divinity," pre- specific way that I could prepart thempares us for defeat: for their contact with their constituencies. They had to go out and make con- The nominal subject is North American tact and they had to make their own cotton tenantry as examined in the daily living of three representative white tenant mistakes. To ease my conscienceI families. hz.nded out pieces on "Establishing Field Actually, the effort is to recognize the Relations," on "Field Tactics," and stature of a portion oi unimagined exis- on "Field Work Evidence,"19 but if any tence, and to contrive techniques proper reading had any effect on students' at- to its recording, communication, analysis, and defense. More essentially, this is an titudes toward going out of a classroom independent inquiry into certain normal and meeting people it was Let Us Nolo predicaments of human divinity. Praise Famous Men. If anything, Agee is too good forHis hope is to be able to bring us into these purposes. Given the caution, thethe world heexplored with Walker reticence, the protectiveness with whichEvans, to make a reader an "active crea- our culture arms us against Other Peo-tive being": ple, and given the schools' endorsement This is a book only by necessity, more seriously, it is an effort in human actuality, 'AMy colleague, Leo Marx, sat in regularly. in which the reader is no less centrally His suggestions were invaluable. 17John P. Dean, Robert L. Eickhorn, and Lois involved than the authors and those of R. Dean, "Establishing FieldRelations,"in whom they tell.. 21 George J. McCall and J. L. Simmons, Issues in Participant Observation (Reading, Mass.. Addi-but he does not go far before he turns son-Wesley, 1969), pp. 68-70. 16Anselm Strauss etal., "Field Tactics," in Ibid., pp. 70-76. 20The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life 19Howard S. Becker, "Field Work Evidence," (New York. Doubleday Anchor Books, 1959), in Sociological Work (Chicago: Aldine, 1970),p. 133. pp. 3942. 21 (New York: Ballantine, 1966), pp. xiv-xv.

i) J 84R. C. 'rowNSEND on the act of writing itself. He will holdtom tnat art is not lite.t o students, the out some hope for photography (as else-reminder that in using language they are NI, here, like the great romantic he is, heentering a complex relationship with the will aspire after musical effects), but inworldissalutary,but perhaps Agee doing so he only brings further hometends to defeat one at the start. the fact that the gaps between him and But what justifies Agee's presence in the tenant families, between his languagethe course (in any course, really) is the and his Alabama experience, and be-attitude he brings to his work and en- tween readers and that experience aregenders in students in their work. "The ultimately unbridgeable: difficult task of knowing another soul is not for young gentlemen whose con- If I could do it, I'd do no writing atsciousness is chiefly made up of their all here. It would be photographs; the rest would be fragments of cloth, bits of cot-own wishes,"24 George Eliot says of ton, lumps of earth, records of speech,Fred Vincy. No writer knows the dif- pieces of wood and iron, phials of odors,ficulties better than Agee, none tries plates of food and of excrement. Book-more consciously to overcome them. sell,:rs would consider it quite a novelty;Let Us Now Praise Famous Men is critics would murmur, yes, but isit art; and I could trust a majority of you to usefinally not an inquiry into or a drama- it as you would a parlor game. tization of the inner lives of other peo- A piece of the body torn out by thepleagain, he is too romantic for that roots might be more to the point. but like other great romantic works his As itis, though, I'll do what littleI is a celebration, a religious recognition, can in writing. Only it will be very little. I'm not capable of it; and if I were, youof the fact that other human beings exist would not go near it at all. For if yououtside his wishes, his imaginings, and did, you would hardly bear to live.22 his language. One miraculous communication seems to occur, that between Agee's doubts about the efficiency ofAgee and Emma Woods before she goes his prose, his efforts to inventory every off to marry, but otherwise there is only board of a tenant shack, every articleprodigious and awed effort: of clothing, every sound ("The most I can dothe most I can hope to dois For one who sets himself to look at all to make a number of physical entities as earnestly, at all in purpose toward truth, plain and vivid as possible, and to make into the living eyes of a human life. what a few guesses, a few conjectures, and to is it he there beholds that so freezes and leave to you much of the burden of abashes his ambitious heart? What isit, profound behind the outward windows of realizing in each of them what I have each one of you, beneath touch even of wanted to make clear of them asa your own suspecting, drawing tightly whole"),23 these are familiar enough to back at bay against the backward wall readers of Agee, and they may not be to and blackness of its prison cave, so that everyone'staste. Some may murmur, the eyes alone shine of their own angry glory, but the eyes of a trapped wild "but is it art?"; more legitimately some animal, or of a furious angel nailed to the will say they do not like being told they ground by his wings, or however else one could not stand up to the kind of ex- .-nay faintly designate the human "soul" perience Agee had or do not need to be ... how, looking thus into your eyes and

22Ibid., pp. 12-13. 24middlemarch (Boston: Riverside Ed., 1956), 23Ibid., p. 101. p. 89.

.7 1 The Possibilities of FieldIVork85

seeing thus, how each of you is a creatureof the field work activities I had set up. which has never in all time existed beforeSo though Agee can discourage students, and which shall never in all time exist again and which is not quite like anythough it is hard to confroka and inter- other and which has the grand stature :aldview living persons after having suc- natural warmth of every other and whosecessfullyconfrontedonlybooksin existence is all measured upon a still mad courses over a period of years, and and incurable time; how am Ito speak ofthough no one can every really be sure you as "tenant" "farmers," as "representatives" of your "class," as social integers in how successful he is at shaping attitudes, a criminal economy, or as individuals,we set out from Agee, ideally with his fathers, wives, sons, daughters, and as mysense of the importance of the under- friends and as I "know" you? Granted taking. more, insisted uponthat it is in all these Agee was the main text on "field work particularities that each of you isthat which he is; that particularities, and mat-methodology," but there were also, be- ters ordinary and obvious, are exactlysides the pieces I have mentioned, selec- themselves beyond designation of words,tions from Mayhew and from Robert are the members of your sum total mostColes' workexamples of the kinds of obligatory to human searching of percep-responses possible after meetings with tion:nevertheless to name these things and fail to yield their stature, meaning,living persons in the field. Then the stu- power ofhurt, seems impious, seemsdents made contact. Two worked with criminal, seems impudent, seems traitorousthe farmers in town (one literally, get- in the deepest: and to do less badly seemsting up at four to milk), and though impossible: and yet in withholdings ofworking in teams has its benefits (moral specification I could but betray you still worse.25 support, sharing of leads, information, impressions)everyone else worked That, one might say, is an even heavieralonewith the police, with doctors, burden to put upon students, but it iswith ministers, with the elderly, with a one that students should learn to bear.town subcommittee, with theValley "As farashumanistic concerns go,"Peace Center, with students and coaches Herbert Muller writes, "the knowledgeat the High School. In two cases I made that teachers impart matters less than thethe initial contact, a phone call, for a attitudes they induce."" And isit toostudent, but generally it was their prob- much to imagine students learning to belem. It did not take us long to realize serious about the miracle of living per-that Amherst was not a small town, but sons, about existence beyond their ownthese constituencies were themselves like wishes, and about how language createssmall townseach had its own partic- and destroys relationships with others?ular focus and identity, each created for What Agee is trying to doto under-those within it some sense of identity stand, sympathize with, express the feel-and community. The choice of constit- ings and thoughts of others is whatuencies was fairly random (many re- we hope will come from readings ofmain for study in future years), but our works of the literary imagination, it wasassumption was thatthe nature and even more clearly and explicitly an aimproblems of the town were reflected to some degree in every individual and 25Ler Us Now Praise Famous Men, pp. 91-92.group that went to make it up. 26"The 'Relevance' of the Humanities," The American Scholar, Vol. 40 (Winter, 1970-71), Asitturnedout,oneproblem p. 107. emerged as central. That was the prob- 86K. C. TOWNSEND rem of precipitous growth, more spe-side the academy itself (not to is to cifically the problems attending the pos-reduce the ,.ossibilities of encountering sible development of six hundred acres"otherness" considerably), large events by one developer over a five-year peri-may be rare in certain settings, and tim- od, bringing four thousand new residentsing is sure to be difficult, but the num- into a town stillreeling from havingber of small events or happenings that doubled in size in a decade. The plansmay become large is limited only by the had been released on the town the previ-imaginations of aclass. Certainly we ous spring, the arguments over its meritsmight have shaped our writing around were it full swing by the time the coursethe coming of Tony Patterson Asso- began. A citizen's group was formed tociates to a fairly small town tucked away study growth and, more specifically, toin the hills of the Connecticut Valley; stop the developers, special town meet-only my excessive caution prevented our ings were called, letters to the editor ofdoing so. the town newspaper became required Instead, the students went out to dis- and lively reading. Every constituentcovergenerallywhat it was like liv- had some opinion about the developmenting in a growing town. At first I made and several of the most interesting constit-writing assignments that were no more uencies existed because ofit:Ihadspecific than "five pages." I was simply students working with the developersasking What are you finding? How do themselves, with the Amherst Growthpeople sound? How can you get their Study Committee,withscientistsinvoices across in your writing? Some town who might have been said to haveestablished relationships in which it was had some opinion about the ecologicalpossible to use tape recorders, but every- issues raised by the development, andone developed the ability to hear and with a fragile but stalwart town com-to transcribe with imaginative faithful- mittee empowered to review projectedness whether they 'red a recorder or developments in town. not. Theirs was Robert Coles' job: "to We couldhave shaped theentirebring alive to the extent [they] possibly course around this "event." Ms. Eden's[could] a number of lives, and especially Crisisin Watertown isbased on anto bring alive the 'innerness' in those "event," and one can imaginemany stu-lives," and as is the case in Coles' writing, dents having worked on her project,"the words, then, belong to the people working with individual citizens, with[they] met and heard use them; but the the Mayor, with the minister, touchingorder of the words, of whole sentences all the bases she touched. There is alsoand paragraphs and days and days and the model of Edgar Morin's Rumor indays of conversation has definitely been Orleans, a study (a history, a dramatic[their] doing."28 In our evening meet- and imaginative account) ofa rumor ofings we would discuss examples of the a white slave trade run by Jewish bou-writing, seeing what justice we had tique owners, undertaken by a smalldone, what ";nnerness" had been ex- team of sociologists under Morin." As- suming one wants to study events out-American Scholar, Vol. 42 (Winter, 1971-72) pp. 53-62. 270n the potentials of this method, and on 28 Migrants, Sharecroppers, Mountaineers: Morin generally, see Benjamin DeMott, "The Volume 11 of Children of Crisis (Boston. Little, One Right Way to Write and Think?" The Brown, 1972), p. 39. The Possibilities of Field Work 87 plored, what issues had been raised. (the professorial set in this case) and I tried to maintain the right rhythm,those whose lives were more tightly establish the right amount of tension,bound to the town (the farmers, the between readings and field work: readreal estate men)? how does an American Agee one week, write on your field ex-town compare to an English one on periences the next, read Blythe, writethese and other bases? Against the ten- two pages from the field, read Bailey,dency to fall back on the readings, I write three. Early on it became evidentassigned more and more writing, hoping that Akenfield would be the model forthat we could see these issues as people our collection and one student projectedw ere contending w ith them, consciously an outline that we stuck to fairly well.or unconsciously. One could findor we would begin, like Blythe, with theeasily imaginethe developer, the en- "Survivors," move to those who besttrepreneur,inthe fictive world of a knew the land ("The Farmers"), thenDreiser novel, and one could imagine the to those who were trying radically tolocal aristocracy turning away in disgust, alter and those who were trying toor one could imagineand finda local maintain the shape of the landscape, andfarmer in Goldsmith hurt financially and finally see how (if at all) that issue waspsychologically by change in the village reflected in the changing character ofbut unable to do anything about it. But the clergy, the police, the schools, andthat is not quite the way it was. The other constituencies. Towards the endvoices the students heard and recreated of the term, as the focus on the "Patter-might be the more interesting because son issue" sharpened, w e had Pattersonof their literary heritage, but the literary anc his business manager speak to us oneheritagecertainly the stereotypical night, and his most fervent opponent,forms in which we tend to remember the head of the Amherst Growth Studythat heritagewas challenged and rede- Committee, another. fined by the living persons who spoke in Amherst's drama came aliveinthestudents' writing. For example: classroom, but we did not lose sight of its representative force,its bearing on TERRY O'N1ALLEY, PATTERSON ASSOCIATE larger questions about the small town in Terry O'Malley is the youngest of the America. What areitsvirtues? what associates and the one most directly con- does it lack? does it really foster a sense cerned with the architectural aspects off' of community? and if so of what sort the project, with the exception of the master architects, Callahan and Peters. He (here, we read Richard Sennett's The is direct and methodical, and his subdued Use of Disorder)") do people share be- and detailed approach to his work and the liefs and feelings in small towns (or in presentation of it to the Amherst com- what Sennettcalls"purified commu- munity was decribed as "a real hit with nities") or do they come together mere- the academics." I arrived at the farmhouse for an interview just as he was wheeling ly to protect their comforts and their his bicycle with a baby seat attached to privacy in a time of crisis? what are the the back into a large built-on wing that relations between newcomers and old- serves as drafting space, and is overflow- timers? between those whose interests ex- ing with plans, rough sketches, and contend beyond the immediate community structed full scale models of windows, walls and (outside) the kind of exterior, rough wood and stucco, that will char- 29(New York. Vintage Books, 1970). acterize the Amherst Fields clusters. He 88 R. C. TOWNSEND speaks softly, at times inaudibly, with a farmers any more, they don't want to slight organizing and mulling be- milk cows and shovel the shit, they want fore answering questions. to drive their cars and go into the city. We buy up a bit piece of land, and the The University has completely changed neighboring areas are kept open and free the character of North Pleasant Street, from more development because no one and there is a limit to the improvement can compete with us. There is pressure on that can be made there. As the Town the farmers to sell land in a piece, and Manager has said, the primary business of this hurts him a lot. Amherst is not going Amherst is education, and for this reason to be exclusively a university town any the Amherst business community is some- more, and it's just as well for the residents. what insulated from the ups and downs If you want to stereotype the town, it ofnationalbusiness.Amherstdidn't used to be divided into three classes: the realizethe impact of the tremendous "Old Yanks," a big group of professors growth that has occurred here in the last and a small group of professionals on the cle,...de. Thereisan euphoria thatis outside, and the three groups didn't have shared by landowners and by business- much to do with each other. We will men, for as the number of students in- have a broader base here, more different creases, their profits go up. A bunch of kinds of people, which should liven things crappy apartments is built, and not until up a bit. the quality of life of some of the old residents is threatened do people look at what It is amazing to me the pedestrian views has happened. Amherst simply has no of faculty and students toward housing, control over the size and growth rate of among people in architecture and land- the institutions in the town. Therefore, scaping who should know better. No one people attack the symptoms ofit,like is interested in sensitive housing, it'sall Pufton Village, the laundromats and the that variegated stuff and stupidly individ- shops on the strip, but these are services ual crap. They get some money and they that are needed. We are a large target, and all want a house of their own, spruced up Patterson crystallizes the problems that on the outside. Drive down Main Street have been boiling under the surface for a USA and you will see all the trimmings long time. and attempts at individuaity. I don't know Amherst did not recognize the forces it where people get their taste but itis a generated on its borders, with no environ- tricky question. Back in the days when mental cost to itself. Look at that god- places like Amherst were small New En- awful Hadley strip leading in here. Those gland towns, there used to be master "dumb Polaks," as Amherst refers to them, carpenters who built a house and that was live there in poverty, paying low taxes it, with littlevariation. The houses at and their school system isrotten, and Heritage Village (a previous Patterson Amherst couldn't care less. They can go development) all look basically alike, and on farming and keep to themselves at are a return to the simpler major state- the VFW. The problem for Amherst ment. farmers is not only one of higher and higher taxes, but that the growing season O'Malleyisashrewd analysthe is too short, the farms are too small tosenses why the town has picked on his make money, and the land, at least whereboss; he is aware of the complacency and we are going to build,isnot fertile enough. There is better land in Hadley.subtle hypocrisies of its"aristocracy" It is only by encouraging people like us(complaining only when its life style is that Amherst will be able to prevent thethreatened, turning its back on the Polish farmers from subdividing their land andpeople of Hadley)and he is shrewd selling it in small pieces to small developers. You just can't hold the idea of aenough to be able to turn his analysis guy making money off his land down.into a defense of Patterson's develop- The farmers' sonsdon't want to bement. It will be helping those who have The Possibilities of Field Work 89 been slighted; it will recreate a sense of our pile of ambiguities and overlook the community, one that was once the norm world, but I got tired of this restless in New England towns, one that has sitting and decided to do something. Too only recently and temporarily been ob- many things happening too quickly have been going on in this town. A small group scured by a largely academic popula- of people is being allowed to affect every- tion. Just how this is to come about is one's life in town. Patterson went right not clear: what exactly will happen to through the town meeting with the mem- the farmers? how will they feel? is their bers, who are supposed to be intelligent, choice really between shoveling shit and shrugging their shoulders and saying "-why not?" Amherst has to do its democratic being bought out? Nor is it clear that bit, but Patterson is not being democratic the language of the architect ("the sim- the way he steam-rolled his way into ple major statement")really encom- town. passesasenseof community strong People generally felt fatalistically about enough to argue for the removal of "all such problems, but for the first time there is a growing sense that something can be that variegated stuff and stupidly in- done. I feel we can put a sum to unwanted dividual crap." growth and unwanted buildings such as Mrs. Miller is a member of the opposi- the Howard Johnson board ceiling glass tion: structures. Some people say that zoning and building codes used in this manner MRS. MILLER, A MEMBER OF THE AGSC. would be elitist, and I can see their point, Usually, her manner is calm, her speak- yet it seems to me we can have it both ing deliberate and her words carefully ways. We can have good buildings and at chosen. Occasionally though, this quiet the same time low income housing. People demeanor is simmered by tentative quest- can be educated to good taste. Some com- inga form of uneasiness and agitation mon standard of good taste must exist that thatis reflected in the change of her we all can agree upon. We should try to voice to a pinpointed sharpness. In speak- inculcate this good taste and prevent the ing of Patterson, this change is noticeable. continuance of all these dumb building Otherwise, she is tranquil, gracious. projects around town. The Millers live in one of Amherst's Everything in America is instantin- few Georgian colonial brownstones, and stant coffee and now instant development theirsis even more stately because of compounded by the general instanteous- several Doric pillars that majestically sup- ness of life. Time is needed to assess what port the front of the house. In back, there the effects of this development will be, is an ample lawn, bushes flatly trimmed foremost of which are water supply, traffic and several symetrically arranged gardens and school problems. Personally I have of color contrasted and seasonally timed noticed that the quality of our drinking flowersall possible, of course, because of water isdeteriorating and thattraffic agardnerpersistentlyandpatiently around town is getting unbearably con- working under the careful eye of Mrs. gested. Furthermore, with this develop- Miller, who this afternoon was particu- ment, kids may be pouring into our school larly worried about her recently bloomed faster than they can be built. daffodils. The ethic of the businessman in town reallyaggravates me. Businessmen are I contributed to the Amherst Growth waging a war at home for profits; nothing Study Committee when first solicited, but else9, ems to matter. Patterson is the the mounting publicity convinced me that worst of them all. This day care center more should be done, and that I should that he is giving to the town is merely join this organization. I sensed that all the hors d'oeuvre to soften up the town was not above board with Patterson and for the big kill. The only way I can ac- that a few fishy activities were taking count for the mentality of these business- place. We intellectuals can sit around on men is that their lives were severely af-

0 90R. C. TOWNSEND

fected by the Depression. They felt aA concerned citizenintelligent and in- severe scarcity of life then, so that the restexperienced, committed and stymied. of their lives have been spent seeking So it is that one must "read" characters abundance. In A-1erst, we still have a sense of thelike O'Malley and Mrs. Millerattend small town American way of life. Whento their languageas if they were in a you can recognize faces in a town crowd,book. A sensitive novel reader will be you havedistinctlydifferentfeelingsthe more attentive to the play of inten- about where you live. Louis's food store is less than the country store it could be,tion and emotion in their talk; alerted to but you still see people there you haven'tshades of thought and feeling in the talk seen in awhile and exchange informationof real people in a real town, after some with them as if it were a cocktail party.investigation in the field, one is presum- But the town is not much of a community.ably that much livelier a reader of novels When important issues are raised, a com-and plays with a strong social reference. munity may be formed, but otherwise, people go their own way. They tend to And finally,Bedford Plough, who be individualistic and not communitycomes from a family that has been in concerned. I guess the capitalistic systemdairy farming for one hundred and fifty makes this inevitable, and if we are toyears, but who is now only a "hired change, the system must be changed. hand." The Amherst student, starting his Some people have an almost masochis- tic, self-flagellating view of town growth.project at many removes along the social They believe that expansion is necessaryscale,isallowed one day,inAgee's and if you don't have big problems youwords, "to perceive the aesthetic reality just ain't nobody. We have few worrieswithin the actual world." He hears of in town nowI don't have to lock myBedford's dream (a dream that O'Malley doors, I can let my kids loose on the town and the schools are good. I don't see whywill never know about), a dream of how we should purposely have it otherwise. one copes with the changes taking place in Amherst andif it delves as deep as In spite of an attempt at using the lan-I think it doesall over America. It is a guage of the people ("you just ain't no-dreamofanAmericanwasteland, body"), Mrs. Miller is obviously morecovered with gas stations and cities, af- comfortable with metaphors from thefording only momentary relief in the world she knows bestthe academicform of a pastoral vision of children world, a world with a rich social lifesporting on the farmland that he has and few worries about the children. See-lost and that is generally threatened with ing that world threatened she has acted,extinction: taken part in the effort to understand and to protect the community which My first day of work at the Fairview does, after all, provide good schools and Faun, I worked with Peter Barney. We safety for its children. But she is new at worked silently for four hours and after thisunsure of how to reconcile her cleaning and dressing, we walked toward the main house for coffee. Peter noticed democraticprinciples with theelitist a sports car parked in the driveway, and tendencies of her taste. In her frustra- he stopped and examined the car. I could tion she imagines maybe the Depression tell he thought I owned the car, so I exis to blame for Patterson, but through plained that it wasn't mint, thatI had her academically based small talk, comes only borrowed it from a friend. He asked whether he could take "her" for a spin, a more sensible reflection on the problem as he had been a stock car racer down of a commu_lity in a capitalist society. south. But no, snow had been falling and

D7 The Possibilities of Field Work 91 again I explained that the car was not there are some things m this life which mine. He asked whether he could sit in we just are not meant to know because if the "cockpit," and he did and laughed you did know you would crack up. and remarked that he wished he had one of those "fancy pant cars." These examples allow for a moment's I've been dreaming the same dream for focus on the problem of growth in years now, just now and again. I driveAmerica. Many others, scores of other along this road, an interstate in Texas, and combinations, would give an equally every time I pass a gas station, I stop and go into the john. I stop for water orgood sense of how the voices of Am- just to lay down for a few moments onherst express "innerness" and, inthe the floor. Every time a gas station comesmind of a creative reader, how they up I stop and get into the bathroom andbring into relief the cultural drama of lay down and relax and sometimes playlife in one American town. The "field hoop ball with the paper towels and garbage can. I keep doing this until theessays" from which these small examples trash can gets full, and then I drive on toare taken averaged thirty pages apiece; the next station, and I keep on doing this.in the "book" I edited out of the "es- Finally I get into the desert and there aresays" I used about three hundred pages. no more stations so I get out and just go I say "book" because though I have for a walk. Now I lay down cause I am not feeling too well and I see these antshad copies reproduced for the class, and and all I do is watch them work. Theyfor future classroom work, I do not work very hard. I go back to the truckknow quite what to do with what seems and begin to drive again, and soon I getto me to be this excellent material. I had out of the desert and into the cities andsaid at the beginning of th( course that gas stations. I finally end up at the ocean and I just turn around and begin again.the measure of the success of our writing I get into the truck, turn it around, andmight be directly proportionate' to its drive through gas stations and the desertunpublishability and that rather weak all the way to the ocean. Sometimes(and at the time, flip) bit of incentive though I wake up in the city, and I look has come back to haunt me. From Agee out the window of a big building and there is this big parking lot with a smallwe had learned about the seriousness of farm and some grass, and on the otherfield work but we did not establish the side of this parking lot is a great bigkind of working agreement that Agee factory. Well the window lets me seehad with the Ricketts, the Woods, and these little kids playing right below methe Gudgers, nor perhaps could we, the and they are having a grand time jumping in water and mud and screaming andsubjects being so different. It is not clear really enjoying life. But way down on theto me what people in the town thought other side there are some old cars andor think of their experiences talking to thereis these people screwing around.students. I do not know what under- Some lady who is upstairs cries out, "Hey standings existed in individual cases as youpeople, why areyou screwing around here," and then I am driving theto what project was afoot, what assur- truck again. I am one hell of a crazyances of anonymity or possibly what sonofabitch. Boy, if people only knewpromisesof reciprocityweremade. how crazy we are! Looking for truths within the actual I know that I am not that intelligentworld you run risks the novelist and the and my brains work only so far but I have no idea why this thought keepspoet does not run and for the most part, popping up in my crazy head. Maybe II am embarrassed to say, we ran those just shouldn't know becauseIbelieverisks blind. Embarking on a course in- 92 R. C. TOWSSEND

volving field work one would be wellmutual ignorance and mutual antago- advised to consider the moral and ethicalnism are not among them, and students dimensions of field work more thor-have every bit as much to gain from oughly and explicitly at the outset.3° renewed contact as "townies." Yet though the problem of what to do 2. By going out into the community with the writing remains, there is muchthe quality of student learning can be from which to take heart. Trying toenhanced in the ways I have repeatedly arrive at a solution to just such problemstried to define. They were not getting what are the moral and ethical issues?credit merely for existing outside the what audiences does one have in mind?academy; they were out there in order of what possible service could such writ-to test and discover things about certain ing be to a community or to individuals?ideas and they were returning in order what are the effects of such work? to take stock with their classmates, their could be listed among the possibilities ofteacher, and with books. Theywere field work. But this time around theseeing "the immediate events of (their) advantages of field work seem to comelives as instances of our general ideas." not from the issues raised by field workField work is an obvious means of ful- itself; they could be seen more clearlyfilling Whitehead's aims for education. from three other perspectives: 3. Less obviously, field work can take 1. Students got out into 'the commu-students out of themselvesor make nity. This can be done in the environstheir inward journeys richer.Itputs of any academic community; it waspar-them in touch with Others who do not ticularly appropriate in a New Englandnecessarily share their wishes and opin- town whose residentshad,afterall, ions, whose existence they may not need helped to construct the College and,to take so seriously in books, but to until only recently, had had close social,whom they ought to be able to respond religious, and intellectual relations withhumanely if they are to consider them- its students and teachers. For all theselves educated. benefits of the isolation of the academy, Rene wed contact with one's community, one's learning, one's social being. It seems presumptuous to claim so much. 30Had I read Myron Glazer, The Research But these are at least possibilities when Adrenture: Promise and Problems of Field Work (New York: Random House, 1972), Iyou engage in field work, and English could not have been so cavalier. teachers ought to explore them more.

:3J DENNIS SZILAK

Tricks

SOMEBODY'S CLASSICAL MAXIM of teaching is to bring a student to where he casts off the teacher. A few years ago in the case of the student in Taipei, Taiwan, reported by a UPI news item, who beheaded the instructor with an ax in the classroom, the fundamental is taken too fundamentally. Most classes can let out with a less dramatic gesture of the independence that learning is to lead to. About this independence, teachers might agree that it's of the "free" that the truth-will-make-you sort. One aspect of this freedom is that which results from submission to a discipline. For the student of composition, forbearance can be the contact-clause for effect rather than the run-on sentence by ignorance. Each discipline has its instruments. A person wearing mittens can play the piano, so can a writer attempt exposition encumbered by whimsical structures and dic- tionboth, however, violate the natures of their instruments. The result, non- systematic elements in codification, is noise. It is to be free of this tyranny of noise that teacher and student explicitly and tacitly expect each other to do dutifully within the compass of and by the instruments of writing. The nature of the stream is to flow around the rock that will not flow with it. In accommodating all, so it is the nature of running water to overcome all. The student who accepts the nature of the writing discipline finds the power avowed of words. The order of thinking is not the order of writing until the thinking is restrained by the student's practice of the rules of writing. This freedom within a discipline prevails against entropy, the "natural" mind conditioned by "common sense" (called by Einstein the prejudices accumulated by the age of eight..n) and the 1Al2SS media grooving at 33'A revolutions, oscillating at 60 cycles, and flickering

Dennis Szilak is an instructor at Northwestern Michigan College.

Reprinted fromCollege English,Vol. 36, No. 5, January 1975. i J .! 94 DENNIS SZILAK at 24 framesthe "natural" mind running down to equilibrium motion stopped, absolute cold. Clearly it is not the restraints of writing, of the discipline, that thestudent is to cast off to be free of the teacher. The liberation and the problemare played against some other backdrop. The situation of student and teacher,not the discipline, gives rise to the problem. Bad teaching, the teacher.lacking competence in his subject,does not create the problem of dependence. Students flee from it inone manner or another. Good teaching makes disciples; and lo, themaster is not with them even unto the end of the world. It is not the discipline of writingor of chemistry or psychology that makes disciples. Chemistry bonds chemists andpsychology conditions psychologists but they can be seneschals servinga harsh mistress, loyal to the traditions of the arts and sciences,not particularly bound to lip-service all her future progeny and pretenders. Inany field, students and teachers can be royalists to the past and revolutionary to the future. Disciples are created by situational design. Teaching isa design used by a person of experience and kno wledge to train students with less experience and knowledge. It is a design that at some levelmust finally efface the teacher. The edifice that is built up in the classroom must fall,even if it falls all over the teacher. It can not be otherwise, for pillars of the templeare supporting 1 past that is beyond the recollection of the studentsnot thepast of the subject (which is the foundation), but of the teacher, his experience andperceptions. The great skill of teaching is to use to advantage what Ezra Pound called the "natural destructivity of the young"-Lhere, the rejection of the teacher'sformulation of experience. Out of that opposition is tocome the extension or liberation of the individual that will have reached its limits in the classroom design. TheTempest is full of such liberations, both ways: My charms I'll break, their senses I'll restore, and they shall be themselves.

...I'll break my staff,... I'll drown my book. ... What a thrice-double ass Was I to take this drunkard for a god And worship this dull fool! Be free, and fare thou well.... Now my charms are all o'erthrown, And what strength I have's mine own, Which is most faint.. .. When Oscar Wilde, with a hint of Plato's Meno, says: Education is an admirable thing, but it is wellto remember fromtime to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught. he has not said enough. What is learned in the classroom isavariable, of the experience each individual has of that classroom. It becomesa part of each i ) 1 Tricks95 student's and teacher's past and is there to lean against their presents and futures, or to be forgotten, ignored, or embalmed. To the extent that itis forgotten, ignored, embalmed, does not lean on the knowing that can't be taught, it has been a waste of time; it is the business of a teacher not to waste a student's time. It is no mean feat to teach a student the tricks of the trade, of the discipline, but drudgery, pedantry, and forced marches can lead the student to some writing competence. Also, it is no mean feat to bring a student to where he casts off the teacher, to use to advantage the "natural destructivity," to not waste time. It is a trick. It is particularly the "trick" of the trade of teaching, that the teacher of composition must play if he wants facility along with competence in his students. Facility in writing comes to the student at the point where, whether his ideas are different from or similar to other ideas, they are his own, at the point where he brings his discipline of form to bear on content, realizing the distinction between "form" and "content" was a trick. He is discovering then whether he can think with some degree of freedom from educational or psychological com- pulsions. Some of the conditions that stimulate such a discovery may depend upon the teacher's awareness of the paradoxical nature of his relationship with the student and his courage to accept the disgust that can come with the break: the freeing of the student from the teacher. Teaching, particularly the teaching of writing in a liberal arts tradition, cannot be separated from the student's search for meaning in terms of his experience of the subject matter as it relates to his experience, not the teacher's experience. A candidate for that subject w hick is often made most remote from personal experience is literature.Itis most remote whenever the absence of any vital purposes is supposedly compensated for bythe "symbolism" of the material. Symbols become as specious as unrelated facts w hen they are unassociated with experience. The signs of the times are only signs outside of those times. The Depression, as hardly a young person has not been told, was not a symbol for anyone near the bottom of the Depression. Learning about and by literature to y;. Id what Wayne C. Booth ("Knowledge That a Man Must Have") calls the "know ledge or capacity or power of how to act freely as a man" is probably no different than learning about and by cyber- netics or carpentry to yield the same generalized result: through study and conscientious thought, to school his choicesthat is,to free them through coming to understand the forces working on them. It is not an original obser%ation that applied science or vocational arts may achieve the goal of liberal education, and that for some, say teachers, liberal education becomes a vocation and for the rest an embarrassment. Does government and business welcome the liberal arts graduates. because they are "well-rounded" or because their roundness w ill encompass any sort of programming? It may be that the greatest threat to independent thinking lurks in those courses that put the most stress on it, and composition is surely one of them. To the extent that the teacher organizes and explicates ideas, he imposes upon the student 96DENNIS SZILAK certain points of view. To the extent the student models his writing or his interpretations upon his teacher's presentations he is a disciple of "right" thinking. Of course, any teacher w ill have to be right w hen education is played in terms of who has it and who doesn't. The rigidity is necessary in courses where factsare the answers. There, at least, the student understands the game. When meaningsare the answers the game is more insidious because the responses are disguised as facts rather than recognized for w hat they are. somebody's experience in somebody's order. Thus, there arises both the paradoxand an absurd solution. The teacher's duty is to free the student (make the student independent of the teacher's lines of thinking) but the teacher can only act on his duty by binding the student (showing the student how the teacher thinks and presenting and explicating his models of thinking). Now, the contemporary solution to the paradox has been for the teacher to expect students to pull their own rabbits out of theirown hats rather than force them to see there is nothing up the teacher's sleeve and he has no rabbit and no hat by letting them act consistently on their false premises about what there is to know and learn. The do-your-own-trick solution, as Henry F. Ottinger ("In Short Why Did the Class Fail?") shows to the dismay of himself and his students,goes from "initial ecstasy to final catastrophe." Conjure up the scene. The first day of Mr. Ottinger's class is unusually pleasant for both teacher and students. Bothare re- laxed, knowing nothing is expected of them. Itisa new day, a beginning, a moment of suspended cynicism. May be this time the magic will happen. Is there anyone who does not, at the least, hope that excitement is possible in a classroom, that learning is possible? That it does not happen, not hereanyplace else, but not here, or that it happens here so infrequently as to seem the merest chance occurrence is part of everyone's experience. It is one thing that we have learned in school. Still, the boredom, the humiliation of other classes are put out of mind and one hopes....If wishes were horses, there would be a lot of horses. First day, freshman composition, students assigned to this section, to thisroom, at this hour, have arrived. Mr. Ottinger has not. The students look each other over, looking for friends, looking for love? Who to avoid? Who to support? Who to depend on? Who to cross off? Class: a set, collection, group, or configuration containing members havingor thought to have something in common. What do the students have in common? What is the organizing connnonness? Is it, or can it be something other than the other who will shortly appear on the other side and face thewrong way? The motorman. And the rest? Passengers? Mr. Ottinger arrives. He reads from Jerry Farber's book, The Student As Nigger. The class is given its situational design:

And I suggested that we try to break the mold, that we could write paperson any subject we wanted, that we could spend class time discussing thingseither "the burning issues of the day," or otherwise You seemed toagree, and we spent a lot of time agreeing together that indeed Farber had the word andwe would do what we could to break out of the mold Most of all you had the opportunity to be freefree from the usual absurdities of a composition class where topicsare as- j, ,3 Tricks97

signed, thesis statements are submitted, and so on. You also had freedom of thought as long as it was confined to the standards of formal English. You had the opportunity to be freeto be responsible to yourselves.... Mr. Ottinger breaks his staff and drowns his book in the beginning, and disgust is his in the end: Generally, this class has been the most silent, reticent, paranoid bunch of people in a group I have ever experienced.... and you succeeded in proving to me and to yourselves that Freedom is Slavery, a line from 1984 which I hope, for the salsa of all of us, isn't prophetic. But you protest! (Oh, how I wish you would): "We're incapable of handling all this freedom at once. You see, Mr. Ottinger, we've been conditioned; we'renot used to all this!" Well I read that in Faber, too, and it's bull. Rats and dogs are conditioned, and are usually incapable of breaking that conditioning. Human beings can break conditioning, if it's to their advantage.... Why is it to your advantage not to break the mold. In short, why did the class fail? Is there a teacher who I as not shared Henry Ottinger's feelings? One would suppose not and suppose a, from reading the reactions to Mr. Ottinger that appeared in The New York Times. William Bonderson told him that itwas "unreasonable to expect someone who has long lived in darknessto immediately operate effectively when he is first exposed to broad daylight," and cautioned against either radical authority or radical freedom. Malcolm L. Diamond observed that examination must begin with the faculty's motivations:

The motivation of teachers is comp!ex. It involves such laudable featuresas curiosity about the world and the desire to help students to learn about it. It also involves such natural drives as the search for status and other rewards ofa successful career. One of these rewards is turning studentson. Mr. Ottinger was clearly frustrated because he was open to students, gave them freedom, and still failed to turn them on.... Mr. Ottinger's essay shrieks its message of betrayal. Mr. Diamond has got Ottinger and teachers, generally, on asore spot. Few would deny the desire (to turn students on) or the attempt to fulfill it. However, the need to turn students on, if successful, creates disciples, dependency; ifnot, betrayal. The Bhagavad-Gita suggests an answer to the dilemma, which is,as always, to ignore the problem. "You have the right to work, but for the work's sake only. You have no right to the fruits of work." A teacher willing to do his duty has to both turn students on to turn them off and turn them off so they can turn themselves onhas to be heedless of any need or any fruits of being admired or feared. If the betrayal of "relevance" has turned our noses towards "accountability," the most accountable teachers, as were the most relevant, are likely to be those that can operate in the spirit of non-attachment to the bubbles of their student's praises or the slings and arrows of their discontents. Chiding Ottinger for never learning "in all his courses leading to the doctorate, that the instructor is the one responsible for the successor failureof a class," Patricia Reinfeld makes it uncomfortable for all teachers who can feel or remember having felt Ottinger's sort of failure, with her "surely" and "my good-

I ,, 98 DENNIS SZILAK

ness" pinches. Reinfeld, however, misplaces thesource of Ottinger's anguish: Has Mr. Ottinger never learned about directed,or guided, freedom in the classroom through which the teacher unobtrusively moves things in the direction through which they must go? He blames his students fornot thinking; it sounds on the contrary as if he took the vacation. And is it so horrible to assign general topics to (I assume) freshmen students, who needto become acquainted with, if not to master, particular kinds of writing? The critic here is mixing up the freedom within the disciplinewith freeing of the student's thinking from cultural thinking (including teacherthinking), which is the rock Ottingcr is shipwrecked upon. Why else could she referto "directed, or guided, freedom ... the teacher unobtrusively moves 11 ) Another Ottinger critic, Harvey T. Thomson,gets us nearly to the crux of the problem: Classroom dynamics can be described in terms of teacher andstudent roles. Ac- ceptable role behavior is normally agreed upon implicitly by both parties.How- ever, the change in the ground rules in Mr. Ottinger's coursemeant that both students and the instructor had to learn to play their roles differentlythan they had been used to in the past. Mr. Thomson's point is that one cannot play thegame without knowing the rules or the roles. Along the lines of this metaphor it is also a point thatone cannot play the game if he does not know a game is being playedor if he does not know what game is being played. In such situations students go backto the only game they know, but get no play because the deck is stacked. It is not surprising that young people are unableto initiate or organize responses (choices) in Ottinger's class, conditioned (despite Ottinger'seasy dismissal of conditioning) as they are by the only game intow n. being jugheads to be filled up with education for a remote future. It is not only some laboratory isotopes that have "half-lives" of a few seconds. Whatmen know because they are aware of having been taught it by the specific task of learningmust be continually relearned and unlearned. This is a costly operation inw hich Mr. Ottinger's knowledge for its own sake as a "valid and valuable goal" slowly becomesexhausted. Only a mathematical trick makes the operations ofmatter cost nothing. Like- wise, every learning and unlearning costs something. A refusalto learn can be a refusal to self-destruct. ("Ve are the stuffed men/ Leaning together/ Headpiece filled with straw, alas!") Ottinger's design shows the students that theyare passive. This is not his intention nor is it an end in itself. The student alreadN, hasa sense of his passivity anyway. The inability to complete the task, to even determine what the task is, is the problem for Ottinger's class. His imposing of the original problemis recognized as ingenious but not genuine. (The class is still onlya class and they are still students to be graded.) For the most part, the passivity itself isnot genuine. Students are more likely frustrated actors than dissatisfiedspectators. In the past several years a great deal of discussion has focusedon roles and role-playing in education. Ottinger's shift in role froma supervisory to a more egalitarian position is perhaps a result of this trend. That his studentsdid not respond with a corresponding shift toa more decisional position in the classroom Tricks99

process suggests that a person can only change a role when he perceivesa change in situation. Roles are after all defined by situations. Allthe commentary about role-playing and the sorts of roles to play ina classroom has given us little idea of what the varieties of classroom situationsare. Roles may have changed but the classroom situation is treatedas static. Ottinger's experience shows that his class,as so many others, is made up of students who act as if the members have individual (personal)situations, but the class has only one situation. The mostcommon class role in a situation that appears singular and setbesides defense against the other (the teacher)is laughing at one of its own. Class dialogue, in the staticsituation, is most often between one student and one teacher; and sometimesbetween students in the manner of debate, the teacher dignified as the final arbiter of salient points. Periodic outbreaks of opinion tradingmay give the teacher the impression that he is making progress, even though the substance andmanner of such exchange is what any saloon keeper would put downas "booze talking." In a class that found itself working with a multiplicity of situations, studentswould not so much say different things as do different things. Students learn a great deal from their peersbutnot much qua students. There is little information on how groups learn; that is,on groups formed for the expressed purpose of learning. Conflicting studies haveresulted in determining how class size affects learning. Conclusionsare centered on the individual. He is not affected by class size. He is affected. Or he is and is not affected, depending on subject matter and methods of presentation. Such studies sayvery little about groups, much less group learning situations. Group manipulation, or interaction and roles, inpractice, gets little exercise because information about classroom roles is useless withoutclarifying classroom situations. Inaction or habitual action is dueto the lack of definition of the situations, not to the artificiality of the classroom, which is,in fact, congenial to role taking. To the exent that the situation is treatedas the same old game, the traditional roles of tyro and tyrant (no matter how these rolesmay be temporarily disguised) are played out, the participants becoming what theyare pretending to be. When there is no perceptable change in situation, peoplefall back into their old roles and reinforce them (play them witha vengeance). Such limitations are particularlydetrimental to most women, the exception generally being black women in state colleges. They, for economicreasons, seem less locked in the feminine "mistake" that pervades therest of the national culture. If women cannot be encouraged to trade off participationalroles with men, the activity and learning of the group cm hardly be enhanced.A teacher can have at least a notion that not just the isolation of individuals butgroup division along sex lines will affect the group. Male teachers are seldom aware of the problem. Their ignorance reinforces the female role, justas their authority forces the male one. A woman teacher may be more aware of the roles, having had to push against them, but the gain may be taken out on students of bothsexes, if their intellectual inquiry is taken as a threat to person. In other words, itmay be that women teachers have to be always right more than men teachers. In consideration of the re-examination of attitudes thatyoung women are WO DENNIS SZII.AK initiating and inheriting, teachers should at times meet separately with the male and female students so as to organize calculated responses to affect shifts in roles. This could involve a trading off of roles as the nv o groups perceive them in the environment of the class. It could also mean the planning of moves to conflict with or call into question roles as they are played out in the youth culture and American society. The nature of the acting a ould depend on the nature of the material being dealt NI,HI, and on clarification of situational responses. Since jolting awareness requires some shock to the sy stem--whether thesystem be individual or institutionalsome students N%ill have to be "taken," and perhaps be unaware that they are being played until long after the take isover. Tricks need be play ed because there is noNkay of convincing, by exhortation or confession, a Nell- conditioned student that nothing NI,orth knowing, beyond the discipline, can be taught, that one discipline is as good as any other, and that the schools are only equipped to do lobotomies on thinking. A student, if he is to learn his ow n mind at all, must be tricked into insight. This is an infrequent case in most classes but nonetheless a useful general principle. And the trick does not involve having the student guessing what it is the teacherN%ants him to do. ("How do youN%ant this paper done. If you'll just tell me how to do it," i.e., how to think it.) Having provoked a variety of situations, the teacher is indifferent; he does not want the student to do something. Any thing that the student chooses to do, will do. The student knowing some of the varieties and choosing fromamong them gives the lie to passivity, conditioning, and dependency. The good teacher keeps his students entertainedNI,bile they learn themselves what it is that they, themselves, learn; and it is easier for them to await their own changes if they have the impression that something is being done to bring about these changes. What is being done is the trick. To the extent that snidents are let in on the tricks (partly Ottinger's approach but he fails to make use of it as a strategy) they lose confidence in their teachers, and the art of teaching, of having the student cast off the teacher, proceeds by the invention of new and impenetrable tricks,Nkhich are alw ays ways of getting the students to act upon their false premises about the nature of their learning. At best this is a conscious and deliberate spoof to exorcise an unconscious and otherwise inexorable illusion on the part of the student that he has something to learn about how to think for himself. Such a teacher does not think of himself as something other than what he is doing. teaching a discipline at one level and being a magician pulling rabbits from hats on another. He is not in the situation of pretending without knowing that he is pretending, which appears to be Ottinger's situation. Social conditioning and institutional patterning are misapplied by persuading students from an early age not to accept learning themselves and to accept the task of being taught. Necessary as this strategy is for training the young, it is a fiction of limited use and is even destructive if consistently applied in higher education. Certain institutional forms are self-contradictory or in actual conflict with individual advancement. But these institutions have a great deal of human effort and emotion invested in them to maintain themselves, and are never short of Tricks 101

champions, martyrs, and inquisitors. These institutional forms and patternsare the rules of communication and relation IAhich people understand one another and relate to one another. And such designs have been impressed into the behavior of children, not as games to be played, but with the fullforce of survival mythology accompanied b% social anxiety. Children become convinced of their dependency on these forms, not just in action but in spirit, and at the same time are humiliated and suffer from some of the very ideas which they believe to be vital to sanity and survival. A teacher takes their pain and frustration seriously but only acts as if he takes the problem of their passivity, and the problem of their need to be taught, seriously. Accumulated deposits of false problems must be filed away overa period of time. A teacherhu secs the problem as a false one can be the beginning of the process. As for the tricks, it should go \% ithout saving that the falls should go to the major;.y rather than the few, and to the strong rather than the weakpassivity beirig the measure of thecak, and not an intellectual judgment. To begin, the initial trick of the teacher is to move the student away from his conditioned notions about the classroom as a particular kind of situation. What are the varieties of classroom situations? To begin to ansm cr the question requires some experimental models of behavior, particularly those that have to du m ith experimentally produced neurosis. The relevance of such experiments to the normal classroom should not besur- prising because if, at one level, the teacher is involved in a paradoxical situation ith his students, the classroom is a laboraturN of neurosis. To solve the problem that cannot be solved is vain, to attempt to solve it is unreal, so neurotic. Flow- ever, a bind that has arisen must be broken 1:4, the context in which it arose, under the principle that like cures like. As a little butter gets machine grease off your hands so a student can be freed of teaching in a classroom. Pavlov's experiments in the 1930's with "conditioned reflex" in dogs suggests o of the sorts of situations that arise in the classroom. In one of the experiments, Pavlov presented a dug with the problem of distinguishing between an ellipse and a circle. Motivated b% a no-meat-fur-ellipse and meat-for-circle inducement, ttic dog had soon made the differentiation. Drooling saliva for the circle, none for the ellipse, the dog had learned. The original ellipse, a long narrow one in a ratio of 9 to 2, was changed successively. 9 to 3, 9 to 4, 9 to 5, etc., Pavlov waiting each time until the dog had learned to continue differentiating circle and ellipse. Finally the ratio between the ellipse's vertical and horizontal axes m as 9 to 8, a ratio that gives people some difficulty in distinguishing from a circle. To shorten a long story, months of rest with sedation m ere required before the dog m as able again to do a day's work. Experimental neurosis is what Pavlov called that which bit the dog. Gregory Bateson has suggested that the real neurotic was not the dog but Pavlov, who did not distinguish between situations by requiring the dog to perform a differentiation in what had become a "gamble" situation. Bateson gives as an example of a gamble situation, one in which an animal searching for food looks under rocks for slugs. One rock is as good as another 102DENNIS SZILAK

rock for any slug to be under so the animal's brain isnot overextended or wrongly exerted, is not subjected to stimuli that are too confusing when it iswrong, when it does not find a slug under the odd lot of rocks it has overturned. Bateson'spoint is that an animal in the wild knows its situations, doesnot get neurotic in a gamble situation, and keeps on rocking. Pavlov kept the rules but changed thegame on the dog. The situation with the ellipse and the circle was an operationalone up to the end when it became a gamble. An operational situation can be defined as one in which a personor an animal performs a specific operation (differentiate the ellipse from the circle) that it has been taught to perform or feels it is expectedto perform. An operational situation, then, is one which requires operators (students)to perform an operation that has been constructed by some agentor agency (teacher or institu- don). Filling out a U.S. Census form isan operational situation, as is the filling out of most any form or questionnaire. The Census Bureau is not interested in individual histories but masses of data, andone lump of operators will do as well as any other lump of operators. Likewise, the accumulation of papers, assignments, and scores is an operational procedure performed fora grade. In most classes, one way or another, every student gets a grade, and the grade is pegged by how and to what extent the applications for itare filled out. Around age 65, most Americans have the right to Social Security benefits. Butno one gets Social Security without filling out the forms for it. It isa purely operational situation that has little to do with merit and almost nothingto do with need. Those who are eligible and fill out the forms get it, those whoare elligible and don't, don't. Students of writing and of other subjects have been conditionedto operational situations in classrooms, and it is difficult for themto see that a classroom contains any other sort of situation, the result is passivity. Such passivity, the student thinking of himself as only an operator, is the hold the teachermust ',teak if the student is to cast off the teacher. Passivity is, after all, the necessary result ofan operational situation. The classroom also is subject to the principle of experimental interference. Whena scientist shines a light on a particle withan electron microscope he jolts it. So some aspect of the natural state of the particle is interfered with, either its position or velocity must be determined statistically(i.e., cannot be determined by observation). When Harris takes a poll, the framing of the questiondetermines the response. When a psychologist observes behavior the design of the observation determines behavior. When the design of the classroom is operational, passivity is determinant. None can escape from this principle of interference,to observe behavior, phenomenon, to measure it, is to affect it. The design of the observing or measuring situation affects the response. In any situation it is never demonstrated either thatw hat happens could have happened otherwise, or that what is done must be doneexcept byconfining one's attention to very small fields, that is, by takingevents out of the contexts in which they "naturally" happen. The scientist often knows what is beingig- nored, so much of what he does turns out to be useful withina limited range. What happensThen a scientist is not fully aware of what he is ignoring Tricks103 because he is mostly looking for support of his theory? The scientist getsa lot of mileage out of his theory. In 1960 Stanley Milgram began exploratory studies at Yale on destructive obedience. The summary of these original experiments, "A Behavioral Study of Obedience," appears in a numb: of anthologies of expository prose, including The Norton Reader, third edition. An abstract of the study, written by Milgram, is in the headnote, whichappears with the article as it was originally published. S is subject; E the experimenter: This article describes a procedure for the study of destructive obedience in the laboratory. It consists of ordering a naive S to administer increasinglymore severe punishment to a victim in the context of a learning experiment. Punishment is administered by means of a shock generator with 30 graded switches ranging from Slight Shock to Danger: Severe Shock. The victim is a confederate of the E. The primary dependent variable is the maximum shock the S is willingto administer before he refuses to continue further. 26 Ss obeyed the experimental commands fully. 14 Ss broke off the experiment at some point after the victim protested and refused to provide further answers. The procedure created extreme levels of nervous tension in some Ss. Profuse sweating, trembling, and stuttering were typical expressions of this emotional disturbance. One unexpected sign of tensionyetto be explainedwas the regular occurrence of nervous laughter, which insome Ss leveloped into uncontrollable seizures. The variety of interesting behavioral dynamics observed in the experiment, the reality of the situation for the S, and the possibility of parametric variation within the framework of the procedure, point to the fruitfulness of further study.

I 104 DENNIS SZILAK

Indeed, study has been so fruitful that social psy etiology- is nearinga second generation of naive subjects to sit down before Shock Generator, Type ZLB, Dyson Instrument Co., Waltham, Mass. Output 15 volts-450 volts, and depress the switches that have never given any of the victimsa tickle, much less a shock. Changes have been rung (those damn "parameters")on Milgram's experiment now for fifteen years, an anniversary commemorated by the publication in January 1974 of Milgram's book, Obedience to Authority. The experiment that Milgram fathered has been repeated in Pnaceton, Munich, Rome, South Africa, and Australia. Milgram's study isso well known that it is a wonder that experimenters can still find "naive" subjects. Yet Milgram, in an article ("The Perils of Obedience") for the December 1973 issue of Harper's, says:

psychiatrists, specifically, predicted that most subjects Nlo ould not go bey and 150 volts, when the victim makes his first explicit demand to be freed. They expected that only 4 percent would reach 300 volts, and that only a pathological fringe of about one in a thousand would administer the highest shock on the board.

Harper's so much liked the unequivocal wrongness of the psychiatrists that the zinger became a marginal head in12-point type. "Psychiatrists predicted that only a pathological fringe of about one in a thousand would administer the highest shock on the board." Still, in the sixties when Milgramwas asking psychology majors at Yale for predictions, the mean prediction for subjects that would go all the way was 1.2%. Granted, Milgram has gotten more drama ( "at- .nized scream") into the show since those early days when the victim merely pied a tattoo on the wall and refused to light up the answer board. How ever, 6(.,.:rcent of the subjects fully obedient remained the going rate around New Haven, aid rates were "invariably somewhat higher" in other places, extravagant Munich scored 85 percent fully obedient. Milgram's basic experimental design %v as highly original and, no doubt, very useful in examining NI, hat he calls "a deeply ingrained behavior tendency, indeed a potent impulse overriding training in ethics,sy mpathy, and moral conduct." (This quote from Harper's is the same in the original publication of findings, except the 60's "prepotent" has become only "potent" in the 70's.) The proliferation of Milgrams, how ever, makes it appear that behavior, here, hasas much to do with design as with obedience. Like Pavlov, Milgram can be accused of playing two games withone set of rules. One is an operational game, the other a discrimination game. In a discrimination game a person makes choices, makes designs instead of submittingto or being a part of another's design. Philosophers like to call such a game "ethics" or "moral conduct." Clearly, Milgram's subjects are being scored as if they are playinga discrimination game:

Stark authority was pitted against the subjects' strongest moral imperatives against hurting others, and with the subjects' cars ringing with the screams of victims, authority won more often than not. I Tricks 105

This quote is from Harper's and it is similarto the judgment made in the Milgram original- "It is clear from the remarks and outward behavior ofmany participants that in punishing the victim they are oftenacting against their own values." It is Milgram who has slipped theterms "ethics," "moral conduct," "moral imperatives," "values" into the conclusions, and theyseem, from one point of view, to belong there. From another point of view, however, the experimentis indeterminant at the critical crossroad of moral and ethical conduct. A subject that volunteers for a laboratory experiment, w hether that laboratory isat Yale or in a tree house, a subject that is askedto perform a designated task (an operation), the parts of which, if not particularly complicated,are numerous and specific that subject is to some degree locked intoan operational situation. In one sense all \lilgram establishes is thatmost subjects who begin operational situations finish their operations. Those subjects that break off participationare making a discrimination, it appears, but those who string along, whatare they doing) Are they making a choice, discriminating,or unaware, that the game involves choices, merely operating? There isno w ay to tellexcept by confining one's attention to "ver% small fields," by takingevents out of the contexts in which they happen, by ignoring a great deal. Someone at this point would like to say thatan "agonized scream" is a clear enough signal to base a discriminationon. A scream is a clear enough signal, all right, a signal of the state of the victim. But does the "feedback" clarify the subject's choices? A person who does not know what the choicesare in a particular situation may be in a critical situation but itcannot be called an ethical or moral situation. A couple of changes still need to be rungon Milgram's experimenta couple of "parametric" variations, to use Milgram's word. (Parameter: "a variable... which. determines the specific form of the expression,"to use The American Heritage Dictionary definition.) The varieties of Milgram donot include a situation in which there is a clear signalto subjects that they can refuse to cooperate with the experimenter, before the first switch is depressed or atany "depressing" point along the way. In suchan experiment a subject would also be a confederate of the experimenter and would be observed by the "naive" subjects. Such a "subject" would refuse all experimental commands and articulate the reasons for his refusal, or adamantly demonstrate his refusal. This is Mark Twain ("The United States of Lyncherdon") on the point:

A Savonarola can quell and scatter a mob of lynchers witha mere glance of his eye so can a Merrill' or a Beloat.t For no mob hasany sand in the presence of a man known to be splendidly brave. Besides,a lynching mob would like to be scattered, for a certainty there are never ten men in it who wouldnot prefer to be someplace elseand would be, if they but had thecourage to go. When I was a boy I saw a brave gentleman deride and insult a mob and drive it away; and afterward, in Nevada, I saw a noted desperado make two hundredmen sit still, with the house burning under them, until ht gave them permissionto retire. A plucky man can rob a whole passenger train by himself, and the half ofa brave man can hold up a stagecoach and strip its occupants. Then perhaps the remedy for lynchings comes to this. stationa brave man in each affected community to encourage, support, and bring to light the deep dis- 106 DENNIS SZILAK

approval of lynching hidden in the secret places of its heartfor it is there, beyond question. Then those communities will find something better to imitateof course, being human, they must imitate something. 'Sheriff of Carroll County, Georgia (M.T.) tSheriff, Princeton, Indiana. By that formidable power which lies in an established reputation for cold pluck they faced lynching mob: and securely held the field against them. (M.T.)1 To the extent that a plucky subject comes off pluckier than the experimenter before an audience of naive subjects, it's likely that there will be more discriminations than operations performed in Milgram. But, it just wouldn't do to have invariably high instances of training in ethics, sympathy, and moral conduct indeed, perhaps a potent or prepotent impulse overriding a deeply ingrained behavior tendency. For one thing, fifteen years of Milgram would have gone out the window. No matter, such an experiment would establish little about morality. All it would suggest is that subjects in a situation signaled as both a discrimination and an operation will discriminate and operate, and likely a little of both. One of Milgram's own experiments nearly bears this out. In it the procedure was the same as for the standard experiment, except the experimenter explicitly told the subjects that they themselves could choose the levels of shock for "thirty critical trials." In his Harper's article, Milgram tells us the result: The average shock used during the thirty critical trials was less than 60 volts lower than the point at which the victim showed the first signs of discomfort.... the overall result was that the great majority of people delivered very low, usually painless, shocks when the choice was explicitly up to them. The next step would be to have the experimenter tell the subjects that theycan choose not to give any shocks, that there is really nothing for them to do, butat such a point, what is left of the experiment? Or, let's try the late-night-movie version of Milgram. The scene shifts from Yale to Transylvania. The "naive" subjects who have volunteered to come to the laboratory are snow-bound. The experimenter's confederates are sets of three- year-old twins. The twins are all identical sets, and all girls, rosy-cheeked and pigtailed, dressed in long flannel nightgowns with decorative designs of Winnie- the-Pooh characters. Other confederates are two h...nchbacked half-wits, unrelated, and a handsome dwarf, who are posing as "na:ve" subjects. The standard experiment is for each naive subject to hold a loaded .38 caliber Magnum Special to the temple of one of the victims v, hile she learns to recite the "Sermon On the Mount" in English, a "parametric" variable being that all the victims speak Magyar. The experimenter explicitly tells the naive subjects that if a child does not learn, the subject is free to pull the trigger or simply retire to the cafeteria for brandy and cigars. The experiment begins, but as a further demonstration of models of behavior, the first three subjects are the experimenter's plucky companions. The first half- wit blows the brains out of one of the twins halfway through her recitation of

1Maxwell Geismar, ed. Mark Twain d the Three R's Wow York. Bobbs-Merrill, 1973), pp. 37-38.

1 Tricks 107 the "Sermon," alas, in Hungarian. The second half-wit blows out his own brains. Confused by this turn of events, the dwarf, who is irredeemably naive and for- getful, blows out the brains of the experimenter. At this point the rest of the subjects go to the cafeteria. The experiment is inconclusive. Someone is saying this is blatantly unfair reduction of Milgram to the absurd. It is not! Shift the scene to My Lai, Vietnam. Remember: It was a ditch. And so we started shooting them so altogether we just pushed them all off and we started using automatics on them. men, women, and children, and babies. And so we started shooting them, and someone told us to switch off to single shot so that we could save some ammo. So we switched off to single shot, and shot a few more rounds. Also remember that one American soldier shot himself in the foot that day; and that a helicopter crew trained its guns on Ca lley w hen he tried to interfere with an evacuation of w ounded civilians. There w ere explicit and implicit orders surrounding My Lai. There were clear signals, muted signals, and other voices from other rooms. For some it was an operation: To us they were no civilians. They were sympathizers. You don't call them civilians. You don't have any alternatives. You got to do something. You're risking your life doing that work. And if someone kills you, those people aren't going to feel sorry for you. It was a gamble: They can't punish us for that. Big officials are saying it doesn't matter that we were under orders, we're still guilty but I don't see that. If you're under orders, you're going to be punished for not doing it and punished if you do. I 4idn't like what happened but I didn't decide. A gamble lost? But also, was it a gamble won or a choice? Remember: It was point-blank murder. Only a few of us refused. I just told them the hell with this, I'm not doing it.I didn't think this was a lawful order. It cannot be told. In any situation it is never demonstrated either that what happens could have happened otherw ise, or that w hat is done must be doneexcept by taking events out of the context in w hich they take place. To solve the problem that cannot be solved is vain, to attempt it is foolish. Who knows what signals the people heard at My Lai (or name y our place), what voices spoke to them, from what rooms the voices came? The nature of the signals, the clarity and pow er of the signals, the frequencies, the noise, determines the nature of the responses. It has been a long march back to the class in composition. The scene, again, is Henry Ottinger's class. His students thought composition class was an operational situation. Ottinger tried to tell them it was not. They didn't believe him. He should have tricked them. Any academic field has practical problems that a teacher goes to directly. Specify ing classroom goals, a teacher also identifies course problems. Achieving competence in terms of these goals is the first level of learning; facility and independent thinking are at the second level. A block (false problem) at the second level temporizes learning at the first. In the traditional approach to freshman composition the goal isA% riling competence, the problems grammatical- 108DENNIS SZILAK

syntactical-rhetorical; the goal is reading proficiency,the problem is vocabulary or just plain lack of concentration, the goal is inferential thinkingand synthesis of formal knowledge, the problem isliteral-mindedness; the goal isa passing ac- quaintance with some of the seminal ideas of civilization("readings for a liberal education"), the problem is the dead weight ofthe corpus. Only the last of these goals emphasizescontent over process, and thus necessitates the storing of bits of information. Yetmany students come to college with an unshakeable belief in the graven image ofthe Fact, as if learning were preparation for some sort of quiz show: "That's the bellsignaling the end of Fleeting Judg- ment; now contestants, let's get ready to play Last Judgment." The artful dodge of instruction isto let the student pose the culturally-conditioned false problems and to let the studentact on his premises. The teacher, by assigning a task that, at level one, familiarizesthe student with the tools of the discipline and, at the second level, involvesa reductio ad absurdum, can work both sides of the street. Such an exercise can be an information retrievalassignment. This is the introduction to one:

The purpose of this exercise isto go through the process of finding various kinds of information. The facts, identificationsand statistics that you will seek out are meaningless in themselves, all that is importanthere is the process of finding information. What we lack are ideas about whatto do with it, ideas about our own rules of perception, aboutour cognitive and logical processes, and most of all notions about how to tune our frequencieson to new programs. The assignment deals with the specialized informationstored in books, getting to it and getting it out. Outside of school it is, probably, the leastimportant sort of information we process inour lives, but to academic performance such information is critical. The sources listed for this exerciseare all in the reference section of the library. They are only a few of the hundreds ofreferences in there. They were chosen either to give variety to the exerciseor because they may be useful to be familiar with in doing your work in college. In doing the exercise, reada question and then determine which reference from the list will most likely leadyou to the answer. The titles of the references should be the only clues you need toconnect questions to references. Once you've gotten hold of a likely source for answeringa question, read the preface on how to use the book and how items are arranged in it.All sources do not arrange items alpha- betically. Know how to use yoursource. In seeking answers, determine themost likel.), headings under which the information you are looking for mightappear. What key word generally identifies the information? If a particular key doesnot lead you to an item, look under a synonym for the word; also pay close attention to cross-referencing inthe sources. Keep an eye on dates; it will bea lot of wasted time looking in references of the wrong years. In some instances you will use references that directyou to books in the stacks. These books I have placed onreserve; ask for them at the desk. This exercise goes through yearly revision. Ifyou feel inclined, write a new question along the line of the questions in theexercise, using any of the books in the reference sectioneither ones I've usedor others. If I can not find the answer to your question within one week from the time Iget it, you are free to ignore the rest of this exercise. If you feel you are being askedto collect a lot of useless information, you are

I:J Tricks109

right. The facts, the content are always stupid. Look to the pattern, the transaction, the process, the doing; there's the point! In an off-handed way, this exercise is dedicated to the propositions: that knowledge is a function of being; that what we are is what we know; that we learn what we already know; that action is a function of being. There are thirty-five questions in each exercise, and threeseparate exercises to hinder the student's division of labors. On the average, it takes a student 5-8 hours to complete the assignment, which is about one-third of the time it takes the instructor to put the assignments together. Most studentsanswer most of the questions, responding to an operational situation in operationalterms. Another sort of situation is suggested by the introduction, however. It is part gamble and part discrimination. The student who writes a question for the instructor to answer can gamble on his cleverness and the instructor's ineptness; or the in-. structor can treat any or some of the discriminations as a gamble won by letting the time elapse he has given for solution of student's questions. Of the forty or so students who have done these exercises, none have taken the gamble/discrimination. Some, not reading the introduction, wereunaware of the alternative until it was pointed out in the post mortem where the consequences of choosing it were suggested. The students who slogged regimentally through the operation were faced with this sampling of questions:

You want to find out how many morticians went out of business in 1958. What do you read? You want to buy covers for your steamship. What address do you go to? Congress cleared a bill in 1971 making it a federal crime to shoot, harass or hunt any bird, fish or other animal from an airplane. What are the maximum penalties under the bill? What are the penalties if you fly a B-52, hunting and harassing people? In the slang of horse racing, what position is the "Kentucky position"? To whom do we owe the pull chain socket? If you looked at a picture of farmer's tools, how many tines would you seeon a beet-lifter? What is the proper form of address for an emperor? How cl)th "welfare" passeth away in Job? You want to be a sheep herder in South Dakota, what book do you read? "Leave her on a lea and let the devil flit her" is a Lincolnshire proverb spoken of a scolding wife; what's it mean? What is the Pauli Exclusion Principle? How many peacock feathers on a hat from Mongolia, the brim of which is covered with velvet and silk, the crown of the hat consisting of pleated brocade and its decorations including a green velvet cord? In Jacopo Bassano's painting of "Christ at Emmaus," who is looking at the dog? Name the titles of five short stories about hit-and-run drivers? Where in the world is Tandjungbuajabuja? Who was the first ventriloquist dummy awarded a college degree? By law how many drunks can ride in a taxicab in Traverse City, Michigan? Student performance was evaluated operationally. correctness and completeness of answers. Also, from the instructor's point of view with regard to the procedures

13 110 DENNIS SZILAK that lead to grades, no more or less merit would have been given to the gamble/ discrimination situation relative to the operational situation. In this assignment one choice was as good as another. Even that purest of operational situations, the multiple-choice test,can be used to question the student's assumptions about his learning. The following questions were used in an open-book quiz over Mi 'gram's "A Behavioral Study of Obedi- ence":

In Milgram, which of the following signs is not an indicator of extreme tension? a. sweating b. trembling c. stuttering d. laughing fits

Which of the following attitudes appeared to influence subject behavior in the experiment? a. ends justify means b. you can't please everybody c. that's the way the ball bounces d. orders is orders

For the first no answer is right. In Milgram's headnote to theessay, he includes all the choices as signs of tension. In the second all theanswers are right, being common expressions that are roughly equivalent to some of the conditions of the experiment that Milgram includes in a "Discussion" section at the end of the essay. The questions violate the operational situation. The form of the first question demands an answer, yet all answers are clearly inappropriate. For nearly half of the thirty students, the form of the question prevailedover what their eyes were reading in the essay.The second question works against the nature of testingas a measuring device. There is nothing to measure since anyanswer will do. One could argue that the student w ho circles all of the choices ismore right than the student who circles only one, but the "w hich" of the question is ambiguous. It coud mean either "which one" or "how many." Overall, the test was not a device to measure recall of information, itwas a teaching instrument. The first question, in fact, is a model for the Milgram experiment. The design of the question conditions an operationalresponse. To answer it "rightly" requires a sort of gamble. don't answer, or a discrimination: make up your own answer. Another unworkable assumption that compromises learning is that thereare academic problems (arbitraryoperations) and experiential problems (genuine operations involving discriminations), and it is the content of the problems that distinguishes school from "life." Posed against this attitude is the philosophic view that problems are all logical (in the mind), that thereare no problems in Nature since Nature, pursuing no purpose, is meeting no obstacles. There is little comfort in this for the y oung, perhaps no comfort for the old, either. However, instruction can throw some spidery threads across the abyss, that is, deemphasize culling and memorization of facts in favor of inferential processing with emphasis Tricks 111 on synthesis of all knowledge. There is nothing very profound about this approach. It's materials are often commonplaces tricked up in high feather for interpola- tion. Characteristically, the material involves a sort of reading between the lines and behind the lines, a seeing of what is not there, of what the mind can put there by that habit of intuition that seeks interesting answers and suspends belief about the rightness of answers. The spirit of playing with such questions seems inversely proportional to the spirit of academic inquiry. And the capacity to play is not dependent on specialized information. The student merely has to bring into the circle of the problem that which he already knows. Students have difficulty with such problems because they conceive of learning as reaching out for the unknown. Problems can come from any field or from far afield: (Item in Detroit Free Press) Maudester Divens, 24, whose only steady income is her welfare payments, struck it rich at Sportsman's Park Racetrack in Chicago last week, winning $12,318.90 on a $2 bet. Friday night, Miss Div.ns returned to the track, picked up the cash and was robbed of the whole payoff as she left the track. Police investigator William Strucke said Miss Divens spends a lot of time at the track. After being robbed of the jackpot, she returned to the track Tuesday and won $600, police said, then won $200 more Thursday. (You've got to get up early to mess over foxy Maudester. Despite what the newspaper says, why is it unlikely that Maudester was robbed?) The "organ of Corti," a structure in the cochlea of the ear, consists of rows of very fine hairs joined to nerve cells that are stimulated by the vibrations pf the hairs. The organ of Corti is one of the few parts of the body not directly nourished by the blood. Why not? For these two examples the instructor has turned what were originally descriptive bits of information into interrogatives. Another approach is to revive an old problem. Instruction in the sciences does some of this, but to save time on thinking the student mostly gets a description of problem and solution. Then, like thousands before him, he goes to the laboratory to prove the same old solution, neither experiencing the problem nor discovering the solution. Such problems w ill probably nut arise naturally in the student's experience but their solutions can be experienced: There are three basic ways of writing language: a. draw a picture to represent a word; b. use a sign to represent a syllable (Note. In English there are words like in-di-vid-u-al and strength); c. use a sign for each basic sound in the language, alphabetic writing, as En- glish is. You have to decipher a script called Minoan-Nlycenaen Linear B. It contains about eighty -nine separate signs. This language is probably which of the basic types? Father Scheiner, a contemporary of Galileo, measured the anterior surface of the cornea of the eye. He used a window with a cross painted on it, a person to look at the cross, and a bag of marbles (of 1,ariuus sizes) with mirror finishes. How was he able to make the measurement of the person's cornea? 112 DENNIS SZILAK

Parmenedes said, "This is the fundamentalnature of the universe. It is a plenum, the universe is filled up. Thereare no empty spaces. Let's be stoical." Heraclitus answered, "Moveover. No man steps in the same river twice. Every- thing moves and changes in the universe." The ancient Greeks saw these two points of viewas contradictory and irrecon- cilable. Reconcile them. Think ofa universe in which the two views can co-exist; in other words, what kind ofpattern or motion would such a universe have? Look in your toy chest for the model of sucha universe. Then, of course, therearc always the real problems of real life: Dear Heloise: I had always opened atuna can and scraped it into the bowl. Then I would have to get another spoon to dip out the mayonnaise. Today Igot a bowl and .... 26 yrs. The-Wrong-Way (What amazing hint did this reader sendto Heloise?)

Students were shown a photograph with the caption:"Chinese farm worker is still walkingthanks to transplant of leftfoot to his right leg." The photograph showed a man seated, wearingpants that were rolled up past the knee on the right leg. He wore one boot, andon the other side was a, sure enough, bare left foot on a right leg. The question: "Either the Chineseare inscrutable or there are circumstances under which the operation makessense. What circumstances?"

Quirky observationscan also be given a turn. The following questionswere used on a quiz over William James's"The Ethical and Pedagogical Importance of Habit," which begins witha story about a practical joker, who, seeing are- tired veteran carrying home his dinner,suddenly called out, "Attention!": A person walks intoa movie theatre, walks down the aisle, stops, watches the screen (a scene from The Devil In Miss Jones), placesone hand on the back of an aisle seat, unaccountably drops toone knee, rises quickly, blushes slightly, and take a seat. (What is this person's religion?)

A man with a highly specialized occupationtakes a day off and drives to the country. He stops by a field and decidesto steal a pumpkin. Just as he is ready to run off with the pumpkin, several hunterscome out of the woods about 30 yards in front of him. He then behaves curiously, takinga step forward, hesitating, then taking another step. Then he too, like the movie-goer dropsto one knee. (What is the pumpkin stealer's specialty?)

There are two attitudes that dismissproblems of this sort as child's play. One is that the content of the problemsis undisciplined (unsystematic)or outside of disciplines. This is a valid point inthat although specialized knowledgemay not be necessary to solvinga problem, such knowledge is necessary to formulate the question. Oppenheimer once said that therewere children playing in the streets who could solve some of the top problemsin physics, because they had modes of perception that he had lost. However, for themost part, specialists get to solve problems because they know howto or care to put together the problems. Still it can be said that intuitive thinking or solving duesnot require specialization, that

:1 Tricks 113 it is a process that can peek behind any sort of content. The uneducated man who has the knack is obviously better off than the Ph.D. that can only raise problems. Some sort of content will come the first man's way, the second is lost. Another objection to the NIaudester-to-Pumpkin-Patch problems is that, even though they may be useful in wiring up certain circuits in the mind, they are still only paper problems. They arc outside what is ordinarily meant by experience. Little effect on this is the reply that there is not paperexperience and genuine experience, there is only experience, John Dewey's Democracy and Edu- cation speaks on the other side about the essentials of method in education:

They are first that the pupil have genuine experience...; secondly, that a genuine problem develop within the situation as a stimulus to thought.2 Dewey's notion of experience was something like. when I act, it acts. Very well, the instructor w ill give it one more try . He will structure a situation, one that he can justify' by Dewey, that the student can act in, also one that acts uponthe false assumption that paper is only paper but pins prick. The instructor asks the students to read Milgrama paper experience. During the next class he shows a film described in the Fifth U.S. Army pamphlet,Army Films, as: Nuremberg-76 mins. (3 reels)War crime trials conducted by allies at Nurem- berg. Flash backs to various crimes against humanity committed by German High Command during WW II. Contains many scenes of unbelievable atrocities against humanity. It is more believable in the 70's than it w as in 1946 but, no matter, it has its effect a visual and highly emotional experience. The lights go on. Thirty-three students have seen this other version of Hogan's Heroes. The instructor asks the students not to leave the theater because the Chief of Police would like to speak to them. The Chief enters and reads a letter: Dear Chief McCloskey: As you know, the President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administra- tion of Justice, National Security Committee, has asked for the cooperation of civic officials in conducting a survey on Citizen Support for Law Enforcement Efforts. During January, 1973, the National Security Committee will be conducting hearings and sampling opinions in select communities in the Mid-Western states. To did in its efforts the Committee has asked that you, or a member of your staff, administer the questionnaire that appears on page 17 of the Survey Packet sent to you by the Commission in Nov ember. The sample questionnaire can be duplicated and given in toto to one or more of those civic, fraternal, or educational groups defined on page 4 of the Guidelines. Or, the questionnaire car be edited, deleting such questions as may be inappropriate to some respondents, and executed in its revised form. Since there is a community college in your area, the Commission asks that oil, or more samplings be taken among the student population. The Commission's Task Force Report cover sheet mast be attached to all copies of the completed questionnaire. Revised questionnaires must contain the same instructions to respondents as the sample copy. The Commission asks that in ad- ministering the survey, responding groups be asked to follow these instructions.

2The Free Press (Macmillan paperback), 1966, p. 163. 114DENNIS SZII.AK

The Chief leaves, saying that he must administerthe questionnaire to another class. The questionnairesare passed out. The cover sheet, a collage of type styles, reads:

Task Force Report: Citizen Support for Law Enforcement Efforts National Security Task Force on Assessment The President's Commissionon Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice Inside are some ominous-sounding instructionsand even more ominous, the questions:

Instructions to Respondents: To the best ofyour knowledge, please answer the following survey questions on CITIZEN SUFPORTFOR LAW ENFORCE- MENT EFFORTS. The survey is completelyconfidential and requiresno signature; nor is any signature or identifying codeto appear on it. Please answer all questions by checkingone and only one of the YES-NO responses. Do not alter the questionnaire in anyway or add explanatory material. THANK YOU. Do you consider yourself to bea loyal American? Would you aid a law enforcement officer indistress, or aid him in the apprehension of a criminal? Have you or do you knowanyone who has conspired to commita subversive act? Do you believe it is reasonableto expect people in public places to stand for the playing of the National Anthem? Do you feel draft resisters and deserters shouldbe given amnesty? Do you believe the United States hasever waged an aggressive war? Have you ever heard anyone threatenthe life of the President? Do you believe that publicprayers should be allowed in public schools? Do you believe Americangovernment is basically honest? Do you believe in the principles stated inThe Constitution and The Declaration of Independence? Do you believe in some form ofgun control? Have you ever planned or carriedout an act of sabotage? Do you believe in government of, for and bythe people? Have you ever traveled toa foreign country? Have you ever been arrested? Are you proud of America'sspace successes? Do you believe the news media is objective? Do you presently correspond withsomeone in a foreign country? Have you ever taken part ina demonstration?

Students are mostly still pondering theinstructionsIIGII h male student in the front row gets up, says loudly, "Iain't doing this shit," throwsa crumpled up questionnaire on the stage, and makes exitup the center aisle. He is out the door when two other students, aman and a woman, without comment leave bya side aisle. There is a stirring and five "naive" subjectsleave the theater. Of thetwenty- Tricks 115 five students that remain, seventeen will answer all the questions and four will answer only some of the questions. Sonic of the answers will be "un-American." Four of the questionnaires will be returned with no answers. During the next class the student. watch a video-tape of themselves. Only the police chief was real, elderly and dignified witha real police chief's name: John W. McCloskey. The experimenter's other confederates were the first three students to walk out. The instructor wrote the letter, the questionnaire, and turned on the video-camera just before he turned on the lights. The trick had been impenetrable. The students are asked to write a paper connecting Milgram to Nuremberg to their own experience: paper to pins. The experiment was a sort of Milgram; only the signals for operational behavior and discrimination behavior are, perhaps, clearer to the students than they were to Milgram's subjects. The behavior, however, has also been impenetrable. The students that stayed, were they operators or did they choose to stay? What of those v, ho did not follow the instructions? Those who turned in blank forms? and those who left, did they choose, or v ere they operational in terms of another model (the questionnaire-crumpler who showed them the way)? The instructor falls into the machinery. In As much as distinctions are made, one should also know where to stop. There are not operational situations, gamble situations, and discrimination situations, anymore than there are classroom situations and life situations,anymore than there are logical situations and physical situations. There are situations. And the distinctions, tricks.

1. - t), ,10r. --- I, if

a ,i ; ROBERT ZOELLNER

Behavioral Objectives for English

A review-critique of On Writing Behavioral Objectives for English, edited by John Maxwell and Anthony Tozatt (Champaign, Illinois: Commission on the English Curriculum, National Council of Teachers of English, 1970, 136 pp., ;2.50, stock no. 04024C)

Everywhere one looks, remarks Robertfor the edtcative process: these are the Hogan in his delightfully humane end-metaphors of linearity, of the core-idea, note to On Writing Behavioral Objec-and of the system. First is the assumption tives for English (WBOE), "teachers arethat the linear aspects of mathematics and writing behavioral objectivesin July, onbioscience can be discerned, if one looks Saturdays, or after school and far intohard enough, in humanistic disciplines Wednesday night" (p. 127). Indeed theysuch as English. It ought to be possible to are. Behavioral objectives, the new wavemake rational judgments concerning the of English pedagogy, threaten to sweepinherent and relative difficulty of prose us all into the vast river of technologicalversus poetry, of the symbolic versus the change which is contemporary America,non-symbolic, of the realistic versus the and from which, heretofore, the teacherimaginative, of the comic versus the of English has generally stood fastidiouslytragic, or the expository versus the argu- aloof. But it becomes increasingly evidentmentative, so that one could develop a that the bastions of humanistic affirma-linear curriculum, running from kinder- tion on which most of us stand are notgarten through the last year of college, nearly as sturdy as we thought, and thatexhibiting a gradual progression from the profession of English is like to drownsimple to complex. We would know, in the eddying complexities of systemsthen, precisely where in the continuum analysis, cost accounting, and empiricalof literary artifacts to teach Aesop, Wind specificationism. We are, in short, and inin the Willows, Elmer Gantry, and Kaf- James Moffett's telling phrase, about to ka's Metamorphosis. be MacNamara-ed (116). Equally significant in curricular think- Underlying these recent developmentsing in the past decade has been the meta- in English pedagogy are four convergentphor of the core-idea, the quasi-Jungian phenomena, three of which have theirconviction (easy to assert but difficult to roots in pervasive conceptual metaphorsprove) that underlying all literature of all cultures and times are discernible ar- Robert Zoellner teaches English at Coloradochetypal pattetas expressing the com- State University. He wishes to thank Williammonality of human experience. Thus, the G. McBride of the CSU English Department for invaluable suggestions and criticisms of this hero and the heroic is such a core-idea; Paper. SO are the struggle between good and evil,

Reprinted from College English, Vol. 33, No. 4, January 1972. 123 Behavioral Objectives for English 117

the relationship between man and nature,even taxonomic arrangement of subject- the loss of innocence, the At..rnal tensionmatter in any discipline might be possible. between head and heart, :nd the problem Similarly, Bruner's linear theories of child of achieving the good life. Fundamentaldevelopment, his conviction that any to this metaphor is the belief that if theidea can be taught in some form at any teacher deals explicitly with the core-ideaage, his pervasive stress on the articula- of A Tale of Two Cities or The Waste-tion of core-ideas (such as invariance and land, he can assume with considerableequivalence in mathematics, or tragedy confidence that he has conveyed to thein literature), and his suggestion that cur- studenttheessentialandperdurablericula be "spiralized" to assure the con- "truth" of the work of art. Predictably,stant return in successively more elab- the metaphor of the core-idea has beenorate forms to these core-ideasthese superimposed on the metaphor of line-conceptions (or perhaps more accurately, arity. Because the core-idea appears inthese metaphors) reinforced the belief works so simple as the fable and so com-that education was indeed a process, and plex as Joyce's Ulysses, it has the happythat the process was linear. effect of endowing the linear curriculum It is only on the most superficial view with conceptual unity and thematic co-an accident of history that these concep- hesion. tual metaphors should parallel the emer- Pedagogical theorizing of this sort wasgence during the same period of another given immense impetus by the publica-and at first entirely unrelated theory of tion in 1956 of the first part of Benjaminlinearity, systems analysis. The central S. Bloom's Taxon.7my of Educational Ob-assumption of systems analysis is that any jectives: The Classification of Educationalentity which can be conceived of as a Goals,'followed four years later byproduct must be the result of the opera- Jerome S. Bruner's enormously influen-tions of a system, and that any system tial The Process of Education.2 Bloom'scan be usefully conceptualized in linear basically metaphorical belief that humanterms. If this is dune, then the system can thinking can be conceived of as occurringbe broken down into components ar- at different "levels" of difficulty and so-ranged in a manner analogous to a flow- phistication, running from the lowestchart, and each component can be ana- levelofknowledge(simplerecall)lyzed in terms of input and output. To throughcomprehension,application,facilitate the job of analysis, the product analysis, and synthesis to the highestis conceptualized as a set of specifications level, evaluation, reinforced the convic-to be achieved within the criteria of econ- tion already abroad that a linear, perhapsomy and accountability. at least in theory, the linear mode of conceptualization 'Handbook 1: Cognitive Domain (New York: makesredundancy,inefficiency,and David McKay, 1956); David R. Krathwohl, Benjamin S. Bloom, Bertram B. Masia, Hand- overlapping functions immediately ap- book 11: Affective Domain (1964). An inter-parent.3 esting, perhaps not entirely persuasive application of Bloom's ideas to English is Sandra Clark, "Color me Complete and Sequential," 3A useful summary is Bela H. Banathy, In- in The Growing Edges of Secondary Englishstructional Systems (Palo Alto. Fearon Pub- (Champaign, Ill.. NCI E., 1968), pp. 28-50. lishers, 1968). Eight articles on specificationism 2(New York. Knopf and Random House,and accountability will be found in Kappan 1960), especially pp. 13, 52-54. (December, 1970).

124 1 18 ROBERT 10F:LLNER

Given the stress on linearity which al-ternal events, beyond either observation ready characterized educational thinkingor verification. The systems analyst pre- during the sixties, it was inevitable thattends not to know what is meant by "en- the systems "approach," which has scoredjoyment" or "hunger." Behavioral theory so many apparent successes at Generalappears to offer a way out because its Motors and in the Department of De-methodology converts internalevents fense, should be brought to bear not onlyinto external events. Behaviorally, Robert on the linear curriculum itself, but alsodoes not "enjoy" tennis; rather, he can the other "components" of the entirebe observed playing tennis every day. system. the teachers, the physical facili-Similarly, Robert is not "hungry"; rather, ties in which they work, the media theyhe is to be observed ransacking the ice- utilize to enhance their effectiveness, thebox or wolfing down a sandwich. The service personnel who support them,translation to English is (at first glance) even the social and financial communityeasy and obvious. Robert does not "ap- which underwrites the entire operation.preciate" literature; rather, he can be Most cruci.y, the student himself isobserved reading a good book for hours conceptualized as a product, and an at-on end. Thus the demand for specifica- tempt is made to write a set of specifica-tion comes to a climax when the product tions for that product. It is at preciselyof educationthe studentis described this point that the metaphors of linearity,in terms of observable behaviors about of the core-idea, and of the system allwhich there can be no subjective or in- coalesce with a fourth convergent ele-terpretive argument. Here, for example, ment, behavioral learning theory. Theis part of a behavioral specification for coalescence is precipitated at least in partforeign-language facility at the elemen- by the high degree of specificationismtary school level: implicit in the three metaphors. A linear curriculumcannotpossiblybecon- The student is expected... within a structed without sharp specification of lexical stock of about 800 words, to degrees of difficulty. Similarly, no cur- comprehend: riculum can be "spiralized" without spec- (1) A short statement (not more than ificationofthosefundamentalideas 10 syllables) of the native speaker, which define the spiral. Finally, systems produced at a normal rate of speed, analysis demands rigid and totally ex- referring to something concrete in plicit specification of product, and of in- the immediate environment of the puts and outputs for each component of student. To this, the student should the total activity. respond The difficulty is that in education the (a) by indicating if the statement "product" is a human being, and the is true or false; ordinary language used to specify human (b) by selecting an appropriate activity is unfortunately encrusted with picture or object(s); or manip- locutions which, the systems analyst is ulating objects corresponding certain, have little or no objective mean- to the utterance. ing. We habitually assert that Robert (2) A short question (not more than "enjoys tennis" or 'is very hungry." But 6-7 syllables) produced by the native "enjoyment" and "hunger" are both in- at a normal rate of speed, and to re-

I, 0 Behavioral Objectives for English119

spond to it by signaling yes or no. question. Any book which deals with (3) A short command (less than 7theories of educational linearity, with syllables) produced by the native atspecificationist techniques, with systemic a normal rate of speed; and to reviews of the educational activity, or with spond to it by performing whateverthe formulation of behavioral objectives, the command will suggest' without dealing with the psychological base builds, inevitably, on shifting sand. The theoretical value of such quantita- In these circumstances, it is dispiriting tive and observable formulationsin En-to have to report that the final effect of glish as well as in foreign-language studyOn Writing Behavioral Objectives for is obvious. Such behavioral objectives,Englishcurrently an NCTE best-seller if feasible, should make possible a ration-will probably be further to perplex, ally formulated curricular linearity basedrather than clarify, an already perplexed on observable performance. They shouldissue. The reason is simple: the dozen or help us put first things first and last thingsso eminent contributors to WBOE, with last. Finally, they should eliminate to atwo or three exceptions, appear not to large degree that subjectivity of bcthhave done their homework in the difficult judgment and measurement which is per-area of behavioral science, or if they have, haps the weakest point of traditionalthey are very successful in masking that humanities teaching. As teachers of En-fact. WBOE thus stands as a superb ex- glish, the methodology underlying be-ample of the conviction, widely enter- havioral ot jectives forces us to think hardtained in the profession, that scientific and honestly about whether or not wematters, when you really get down to it, really intend that teaching in the humani-can, with a little effort and careful ex- ties, in English or history or philosophy,ploitation of the resources of ordinary should have consequences in observablelanguage, be handled unscientifically behaviorsshould, inshort, somehowpoetically,metaphorically,analogistic- make the student act differently. But ifally. Geoffrey Summerfield, no doubtun- the value of linear specifimion and be-intentionally, makes my point precisely: havioral objectives is obvious, the dangers are much less so. For the minute one at- The intelligent discussion of any of the tempts to restructure any academic dis- major social issues of our time...is cipline in terms of observable, external- clearly dependent on the availability and ized behaviorsin humanistic terms, the effective, actual usefulness of 2 generously full and responsively subtle lexis. minute one moves from "inner man" to When comparing a useless account with "outer man"one commits oneself in- 2 useful account, the stultifying with the exorably to a psychological model and a illuminating, one of the first features to psychological base, both of which must compel attention is the discrepancy be- be scrutinized with rigor for their philo- tween 2 limited and limiting lexis, on the one hand, and 2 subtly responsive, sophical, moral, pedagogical, and opera- preciselymodulatingandmodifying, tional implications. This is to say that the specifically particularizing lexis, on the psychological questionis the ultimate other. (108) 4A redaction from Bela H. Banathy, "The Systems Approach," unpublished paper, Defense Honesty compels me to hoist Mr. Sum- Language Institute, West Coast Branch. merfield, and most of the other contribu- I 20Ron ERT zo .I.LXER tors to WBOE, on just this petard. In thebehavior because the laboratory model several decades since the first dog sali-furnishes a handful of conceptual sim- vated to Pavlov's first ringing bell,a plicities which mayor may notmake "generously full and responsively subtlethe study of human beha%ior more man- lexis" has gradually been developed byageable. When the humanist observing behavioral scientists as an essential con-this procedure concludes that the be- comitant to the animal-learning modelha% ioral scientist is equating humans m ith which constitutes the bedrock substraterats, and reducing complex human beings of all behavioral theory. The contributorsto "mere animals," he simply reveals his to WBOE make little or no use of eitherlack of understanding of investigative the model or the lexis, and indeed giveprocedures in the sciences. every indication that their grasp of both The second reason for refusing to is minimal to the point of non-existence.utilize the "subtly responsive, precisely As a consequence, their discussion of themodulating and modifying, specifically validity or invalidity of behavioral ob-particularizing lexis" of behavioral sci- jectives in English tends to beMr. Sum-ence arises from the humanist's convic- merfield's terms are entirely appropri-tion that most scientific nomenclature is ate"stultifying" rather than "illuminat-"just jargon." The inbred conservatism ing." of most English teachers with regard to This refusal to use the contemporarylanguage-use persuades them thatsci- behavioral lexis or the animal-learningentists, and particularly social scientists, model from which it springs has threecould say w hat they have to say' in plain sources.First, many English teacherslanguage "if they just took the trouble." have difficulty grasping the use in scien-Well, there is plenty of jargon in the tific fields of conceptual models to focussocial sciences. When Albert Bandura inquiry, to reduce the number of vari-speaks of a change agent w hen what he ables with which one must cope, and toreally means is teacher, he is using jargon. introduce a degree of rigor into the ex-But N% hen he uses a term such as shaping trapolative processin short, to make theor extinction he is indicating a real, ob- unmanageable manageable. The astro-set.% able phenomenon, something which physicist interested in the complex pro-at some point in time was new under cesses going on in a collapsing star simpli-the sun, and for w hich a new term had to fies his analytical task by constructing abe ini,ented. On a deeper and perhaps less partially hypothetical, broad-stroke attractivelevel,the English teacher's mathematical model of what he supposesresistance to "jargon" is often symptom- the process of collapse to be, and thenaticofaclosed-mindedprofessional feeds the parameters of this model into achauvinism. For many teachers, succes- computer. Not for a moment does hesive approximations, stretching the ratio, confuse his model with real stars. He isresponse-contingent reinforcement, and simply using a well-established methodol-schizokinesis areall "jargon." On the ogy to "get a handle" on a reality soother hand, terms such as negative ca- complex that it would otherwise remainpability, incremental repetition, dangling intractablyinaccessible.Similarly,be- construction,lexis,mixedmetaphor, havioral scientists resort to the animal-metaphysical conceit, objective correla- learning model when studying humantive, segmhtal phoneme, lest, sprung Behavioral Objectives for English 121

rhythm, iambic pentameter, structure andHow, for example, is one to critique a texture, and dissociation of sensibility arebook on behavioral objectives which in most decidely not "jargon." One must130 pagesand I here deliver what seems perforce conclude that jargon is any termto me to be the most damning generality with which the teacher of English is notabout WBOEdevotes no more than per- comfortably familiar or which somehowhaps five pages to actual student behavior, threatens the security of his cherishedsays hardly a single word about teacher world-view. behavior, and nothing whatsoever con- Third, some of the contributors tocerning that complex interaction which WBOE have been corrupted by associa-we may term student-teacher behavior? tion with those educational psychologists But such a criticism is only a beginning. whose method-of-work is basedon anWhat is needed is some organizing idea all-encompassing eclecticism. They makewhich will enable us to illuminate the a virtue of "not being tied" to any "sim-general educational philosophyif there plistic" or "primitive" model of humanis oneunderlying the book as a whole. behavior. Of totally catholic tastes, theyI think the requisite touchstone can be draw their terminology from all areasfound in the following assertion:the ofpsychologycognitive,psychody-theory of behavioral objectives adum- namic, and behavioralutilizing thosebrated in WBOE is dominated by a terms which fit their preconceptions, andStimulus-Response(S-R)psychology, rejecting those which do not. The factrather than a Stimulus-Response-Rein- that the various models on which theyforcement (S-R-R) psychology. Granted draw are often radically contradictorythat many of the contributors to WBOE and mutually exclusive, one explicitlyneed not be rigorous or radical Skin- denying what the other explicitly affirms,nerians in their theoretical outlook, one bothers them not at all. In essence, theyis still overwhelmed with disbelief when ask us to accept the reality of a Capitalis-he realizes that he must read through 102 tic Communism and aLatitudinarianof the 130 pages of WBOE before he Fundamentalism. encounters the term reinforcement used Most of the contributors to WBOEby Isabel Beckin a properly technical exhibit one or more of these hang-ups.sense.Thisfactalonesuggeststhat They meticulously exclude any definedWBOE isa very lop -sided book, re- laboratory model from their delibera-flecting in the most distorted manner the tions, they eschew the behavioral lexis ascurrent state of behavioral science. if it were a series of four-letter words, A full appreciation of this lop-sided- and they display a methodological stanceness cannot be achieved, however, with- so flabbily eclectic that in attempting aout some understanding of the immense critique one hardly knows where todifferencesphilosophical, psychological, begin. They resemble the man who wantsand methodologicalbetween an S-R and to perform surgery without learningan S-R-R psychology. They are so far anatomyor build spaceships withoutapart that they can be said to constitute mastering rocket technology. The resultutterly different psychological universes. is a massively unbehavioral discussion ofThe classicconfiguration of the S-R behavioral objectives; it is as if Pavlov,model is Pavlovian. a bell rings (stimulus) and Watson, and Skinner, had never lived.and the dog salivates (response). The 122 ROBERT ZOELLNER classic configuration of the S-R-R model(The reader will not miss, I hope, the is Skinnerian: the rat makes some re-resemblance between this phrasing and sponse(moving,turning,liftingthethe phrasing of most behavioral objec head) to an unspecified stimulus, andtives.) Indeed, so fundamental is this con- is instantly' rewarded with a food-pelletceptualization that w hen one moves from (reinforcement). The difference is cru-the autonomic orvegetativeactivity cial: in the S-R-R model the responsewhich concerned Pavlov to the much the organism makeshis actual behaviormore complex skeletomuscular activity is considered to be a plastic, shapeablemediated by the "higher" nervous system entity under the partial control of thewhich concerns most contemporary psy - experimenter; in the S-R model itis chology, the coercive mechanism of the not. When Pavlov rang the bell, the dog"switch- light" paradigm is retained, both salivated. If Pavlov rang the bell again,methodologicallyandphilosophically. the dog again salivated. The classic S-RThe Skinnerian model is as different from construct is therefore at root a "switchthis as night from day, as the following on, light on, switch off, light off" model. comparative schemata, which assumes It generates a methodology in whichfour successiveinstances of stimulus- given a specified stimulus, the animalpresentation, will suggest: will produce a totaliy specifiable response.

Pavlov S-R Skinner S-R-R Stimulus Response Stimulus Response Reinforcement (1) Bell Salivation Unspecified Moves toward lever Food (2) Bell Salivation Unspecified Moves next to lever Food (3) Bell Salivation Unspecified Touches lever with pawFood (4) Bell Salivation Unspecified Depresses lever Food

The rigid, radically mechanical natureexcluded, doomed to a kind of empirical of response in the S-R model, and theannihilation. In total contrast, under the plasticity of response in the S-R-R model,S-R-R model the experimenter must wait areobvious. But this difference onlypatiently, allowing the animal to "behave scratchesthesurface.Philosophically,along" until he emits some bit-of-bethere are three massive disparities be-havior susceptible to shaping toward the tween S-R and S-R-R models: desired terminal behavior. The first re- (1) Freedom v. Coercion. In S-R psy-sponse is unspecifiedor, more precisely, chology, the response is specified withthe animal specifies it and all succeeding a coercive linearity sure to delight theshaped responses are determined by and heart of any systems analyst. The ratgrow out of this first response. Under will run the maze, will cross the line,S-R-R models, the animal must be al- will discriminate the colors. Terminal re-lowed to do his own thing. He furnishes sponse is fully specified before the animalthe response freely, he defines the param- does anything. Under such a chain-linketers of the learning sequence. paradigm, an individualistic rat who is (2) Stimulus v. Reinforcement. S-R "unable" or "unwilling" to perform thepsychology is stimulus-centered, S-R-R "assigned task" is statistically ignored or psy chology isreinforcement-centered.

,J Behavioral Objectives for English 123

The difference carries immense philo-tightly particularized, predictive specifi- sophical consequences for the teacher. Incationofdesiredterminalbehavior, the S-R model, the experimental variable,either autonomic or skeletomuscular. In the crux of the matter, is the highly spe-contrast, the S-R-R model suggests a cific stimulus which impinges on the or-much more generalized, less "specific" ganism. It is here that the experiment isspecification of terminal behavior. This structured, and it is this that makes the ex-fact is widely misunderstood because of periment "go." S-R models, howeverthe inclusion in most Skinner-boxes of a complex and ingenious, and whethermanipulandumusually a lever to be de- addressed to the autonomic or skeleto-pressed or a disk to be peckedso that muscular systems, can always be detecteddiscrete behaviors can be counted against by the degree of concentration on stim-time to produce a learning curve. These uli: the arrangement of lights or patterns,features have led to the supposition that the construction of a maze, the carefulSkinnerian shaping depends upon some sequencing of sounds. In contrast, in thevery precise specification of terminal be- S-R-R model stimulus-definition is a mat-havior, such as "depressing the lever." ter of secondary importance. In theBut in fact the manipulandum and count- Skinner-box, for example, thestimuli ing mechanism are not essential aspects which are causing the rat to behave areof the S-R-R model. The Skinnerian not known, are unspecified. The crucialparadigm can functionand indeed func- experimental variable under this model,tions more elegantly and clearlyif the the element which makes the S-R-Rmanipulandum is eliminated. This gives experiment "go,"isthe reinforcementa free-floating learning situation where and the timing of its injection into thethe experimenter can shape the behavior behavioral stream. Everything swings onof the organism toward some terminal this. As a consequence, all S-R-R modelsbehavior of a generalized sort, and de- exhibit a dynamic, flexible, transactionalmanding only a generalized specification. relationship between two organisms, theIn any caseand this is the crucial point rat and the experimenter, which is miss-the animal meets the generalized speci- ing from most S R models. The signifi-fication in his own unique and generalized cance of these differences to behavioralway. Any Skinnerian experimenter will theory in education can hardly be over-affirm that nearly every animal has his stated.Stimulus-centeredpsychologyown "style," and that this style is an minimizes the importance of the teacher,integral part of the way in which he and maximizes the importance of thesatisfies the terminal specification of the curriculum and of curriculum objec-Skinner-box. Seasonedexperimenters tives.Reinforcement-centered psychol-with a sense of humor often have endless ogy maximizes the importance of the stu-cocktail-party stories about the prima- dent-teacher relationship and makes cur-donna cat who refuses to work unless the ricular matters subordinate to that dy-experimenter speaks to her cajolingly, namic relationship. about the individualistic,off-beat rats (3) Tight Specificationism v. Loosewho depress the lever, not with the con- Specificationism. We come now to theventional forepaw, but with nose or crux of the matter. The w hole historicalrump, about the smart-aleck, exhibitionist thrust of S-R psychology is toward thechimpanzee who discovers that the really

).1 1 24ROBERT ZOELLNER

fun way to press a button is while stand-ous doubts about the whole business ing on your head and making faces. Inseem willing to concede that traditional short, the S-R-R model allows for, andobjectives in disciplines such as English even exploits, individual differences, in-the "appreciation of literature," forex- dividual idiosyncrasies, individual style.ampleare suddenly andinexplicably Philosophically, the latitudinarian dimen-meaningless or simply ritualistic. The sion of the Skinnerian model finds itsconsequence is an appallingly mechan- source in the pervasive probabilism ofical view of the behavior of the literate S-R-R theory. The experimenter mustperson. In WBOE he bucidenly becomes wait for the animal to "emit"a bit-of-that individual who spends 45 minutes behavior which the experimentercon-per waking day talking about books, siders shapeable. Whether the animal willwho passes through the library turnstile in fact emit such behavior isa question5 times per 30-day period, who has 36 of probability. inches of shelf-space in his home devoted These three differences between S-Rto literary works per thousand dollars of and S-R-R psychology can, I think, fruit-income, and who visibly (and,we hope, fully be brought to bear on the generalmeasurably) perspires from aestheticper- thrust of On Writing Behavioral Ob-turbation every time literature ismen- jectives for English. The almost totaltioned, I engage in parody, ofcourse, but inattention to the teacher as reinforcer,the parody has a point. The thrust of as the crucial shaper of the learningWBOE is towaril the measurement of be- process, as the person who must exerthavior. But in my view it is a total philo- a directive influence if any objective issophical distortion of the model to as- ever to be achieved, gives WBOE a dis-sume that the Skinner-boxor any other tinctly S-R orientation. While the teacherlaboratory constructmeasures behavior. is ignored, the curriculum-as-stimulus isIt does not. tt measures frequency of be- given close attention. There is much dis-havior, which is an abstraction from be- cussion of curricular systems, of system-havior. Behavior itself, in all its incredible modules, of modular linkages, of moduleand beautiful multiplexity, hasnever yet tests. Unmistakably, certain contributorsbeen measured, and we oughtto keep to WBOE regard the teacher as a dis-that fact firmly in mind whenwe at- tressingly unpredictable variable in thetempt to translate behavioral learning learning process. They therefore puttheory to fields such as English. their faith in elaborate and systematized The school of educational psychology curriculum-articulation. The result isa represented in WBOE will almostcer- stimulus-centered pedagogy whichcantainly object that my black-and-white be called behavioral only by ignoringdivision of behavioral theory into S-R most of the last thirty years of behavioraland S-R-R represents the erection of false research: it out-Pavlovs Pavlov. Finallyalternatives, and that I do theman in- and most crucially, the entire theoreticaljustice in "pigeon-holing" them in this structure of WBOE is based on the as-way. I must respond that the only de- sumption that behavioral objectives mustfensible extrapolation from animal learn- be stated with complete delimitation,ing theory is a tightly rigorousone, and great precision, and sharp specification.that such anapplicationofcurrent Even those contributors who have seri-models presupposes precisely the divi- Behavioral Objectives for English 125 sion I have made. Scientific models, if`health.' What, they ask, in the name of they are truly models, are unitary, or-heaven do those terms mean?" And then ganically homogenous, and indivisibleMr. McNemar zeros in on English: "... you buy the whole package or none ofwhat do we mean when we say, 'I want thepackage.Eclecticmodel-extrapo-the student to respond to literature,'I lation is a contradiction in terms. It is thiswant him to understand the role of his- which leads me to assert that the theorytory in the life of Western man,' or 'The of behavioral objectives developed instudent should be a creative, self-actual- WBOE is neo-Pavlovian, ,.nd perniciousizing person'?" (6). It is essential to see by virtue of that fact. Given a maze, thethat Mr. McNemar is really asking two rat will run it, given a treadmill, the ratquestions, confusion at this point could will turn it; given a line, the rat willbe disastrous. The first question is: "Are cross it, given two colors, the rat willtraditional humanistic statements of goals discriminate them. The similarity be-susceptible of sharper specification?" I tween these formulations and the philo- think the answer to this question must be sophical assumptions of WBOE is unmis-yes. Any piece of language can be takable. There is no room in this modelsharpened, and we have a professional for. given a pattern of unspecified andobligation to consider the possibilities of generalized stimuli, the rat may do anymore precise statements of goals in En- number of things, one of which will dic-glish. But underneath this first question tate the topography and direction of theMr. McNemar is asking another, and rest of the learning-sequence. In short,much more crucial question: "Do tra- the S-R paradigm cannot incorporate in- ditional humanistic locutions have any dividuality' or idiosyncrasy. The S-R-Rmeaning at all?" This question, which is paradigmcan.TeachersofEnglishfundamental to every page of WBOE, should ponder this fundamental differ-must be met frontally and vigorously, or ence as they explore the possibilitieswe are all dead. It is therefore distressing and the dangersof behavioral theory. to watch some of the most competent and knowledgable people currently in Beyond these philosophical and ines-English take refuge in nolo contendere, capably scientific matters, the central is-thus giving away the ranch without a sue of WBOE is the question of the va-struggle to Mr. McNemar and his fellow lidity of the traditional humanistic locu-technocrats. Here, for example, is J. N. tions concerning the objectives of liberalHook: disciplines such as English. It boils down, . .. the objectives conventionally fol- finally, to whether or not there is any lowed in English classrooms tend to be so real significance in much of the ordinary, vague as to be almost meaningless. What, daily language humanists habitually use. for example, does "appreciate literature" Mr. (Robert, I think, not Frank) Mc- mean? What does a student do when he appreciates? Wh:c are the evidences of Nemar of Part I states the matter suc- appreciation? A clearer statement of ob- cinctly. "Systems experts tend to be dis- jectives might make much class activity mayed," he tells Emily Jones, "at the less rambling, better aimed, more valuable present educational system which seeks to students and teachers alike. (76) such classic but nebulous goals as 'citizen- And, much further along the primrose ship' and 'worthy use of leisure time' orpath, Mr. Geoffrey Summerfield:

) J..) t..i 126 ROBERT ZOEI.I.NE:R

... whenever we invoke any of the long-perience of concert halls, and I know cherished values of the humanist educa- exactly what Mr. Toscanini meant. So do tional traditionthe notion of the fully developed personality, for examplewethe hundreds of thousands of other civil- have to recognize the distinct possibilityized people with some knowledge of con- that we are merely trading in cliche, incert halls. All of us together comprise a the vacuously formulaic, muttering self-relatively small language- community reassuring incantations. (108) within which such locutions concerning concert halls carry precise meanings. We Both Mr. Hook and Mr. Summerfieldare not in the least discomfited by the are dancing on the edge of a precipice,fact that "dryness" of reverberation can- whether they realize it or not. They arenot be empirically rendered. Acoustical both wit' n half an inch of conceding to"dryness" exists in the experienced ear the systems analyst the functional inutil-and no where else; the oscilloscope will ity of most humanistic idiom. If they gonever be built which can give it objec- that last half inch, English is moribund.tive rendering. It is a purely behavioral Mr. McNemar will shortly be sayingphenomenon. Similarly, I have in recent that the teacher who consumes class timeyears become addicted to professional talking about Milton's "organ tone," orfootball. 'When I joined this particular the "power of blackness" in Hawthorne,language-community, and the announcer or the "tactility of Melville's sensibility,"asserted that Warren Wells had "good or "communication by nuance" in Henryhands" or was making "good moves" as James, is really not talking about any-he ran downfield for a pass, I could not thing substantive,isreally consumingdistinguish "good hands" from other valuable and expensive school time in-hands, or perceive the "good move" the flicting "almost meaningless" literary "in-receiver made in the general continuum cantations" upon the students, and thatof running. But I can now. Hundreds of the school system is under an obligationhours in front of the TV set (I confess to the overburdened taxpayers to stopit shamelessly) was the ticket of admis- funding such obvious nonsense (Sue M.sion to this language-community. I now Brett and John C. Flanagan arc sayingknow exactly what is meant by a "good this already, in my opinion). move" or "good hands." The reason: both I think both Mr. Hook and Mr. Sum-locutions indicate a purelybehavioral merfield are wrong, are on the verge ofphenomenon. conceding far too much, and need to re- The factis that much of the most examine their position. Let me illustratemeaningful part of the life of any civi- my point with a few examples. Whenlized person consists of incredibly subtle NBC completed the famous Studio B forand finely nuanced perceptions which, Arturo Toscanini, the maestro strode intofrom a behavioral point of view, can be the studio, walked amid utter silence toexplained by the simultaneous impact of the center of the stage, clapped his handstens, or hundreds, or perhaps thousands together sharply, listened for a momentof "bits" of information from the external to the reverberations, and delivered hisworld. The result is not discrete or tab- verdict on the acoustics of the hall: "Too ulative fact, but rather a sense of the dry." Now, while I have little or nofacts. And for this sense, we have devised knowledge of acoustics, I have some ex-hundreds of thousands of terms which are Behavioral Objectives for English 127

totally precise in meaning but logicallyhas "an abundance of breed type," or that irreducible. The best way to see this isanother animal is a "wing-shouldered bull to get out of English and other human-that rolls over on his front feet when he istic disciplines and into a language-com-walks," or that another animal "stands in munity where the object of scrutiny istoo much grass," the people of this com- much more tactile, but the idiom equallymunity, who have been working with intuitive. Cattle-judgingwouldyou be-beef-animals all their lives (and suffer no lieve itfills the bill precisely. Listen fordebilitating self-consciousness about their a moment to a seasoned judge at a countyuses of language) know exactly what ob- fair explaining to the professionals in thejective aspect of the animal is being indi- stands why he placed four Herefordcated. They also know that what is being heifers the way he did: indicated could never be demonstrated I placed 4, the largest, beefiest, mostby applying ruler and calipers, in a kind rugged heifer in the class, over 3 becauseof wrong-headed morphological empiri- she has more length of body and morecism, to the cattle being judged. The in- substance of bone. 4 especially is longertuitive language of the cattle industry, and thicker over the loin and rump andwhich determines how hundreds of mil- lets down into a much thicker, deeper, quarter. I criticize 4 for lacking feminin-lions of dollars will be spent yearly, is ity and Hereford character about thefactually substantive but logically irre- head...'.I place 3 over 2 (because]ducible. she is larger in the forearm, and fuller It is important to see that I stand in re- and deeper in the heart and fore rib. Shelation to this Colorado language-com- also stands and travels wider. ... In plac-munity in precisely the same position that ing 2 over1,I have a heifer thatis showing more beef type. She is a growth-Mr. McNemar stands in relation to liberal ier heifer, showing more stretch and trim-disciplines such as English. I knOw next ness of body. I grant that 1is a moreto nothing about cattle-judging, and con- typy, feminine individual.' sequently I cannot perceive the referent We are dealing here with preponder-when told that an animal is "breedy antly intuitive and essentially aestheticheaded," has a "good definition of parts," judgments. Because I have sons in 4-H,or a "soft set about the eye." But that and because I have a behavioral human-does not mean that the referent isnot ist's interest in these uses of language, Ithere. It only means that in the subtle have spent much time in the show-standsworld of animal husbandry I aman igno- incarefullycasualconversation withramus and a goth. And that is what I Colorado ranchers and farmers, tryingtothink Mr. McNemar and his ilkare: determine w hat quantum of meaningignoramuses and gothstechnogothis these terms actually convey. There isnoperhaps the word needed. When Mr. Mc- question that when a judge remarks thatNemar asks me what I mean by the "well- a heifer (which to me appears to be thefurnished mind," or "appreciation of lit- essence of wall-eyed bovine stupidity) iserature," or "the shaping influence of the "feminine," or asserts that an Angus bulltradition"or what Miss Jones means by the"creative, self-actualizing person," 31 am indebted to Professor James Oxley of both Miss Jones and I can take him in the Animal Science Department at Colorado State University for this example, as well asone of two ways. We can assume that he his patience with my persistent queries. is simply trying to get us to be more pie- 128 It()BERT 7.()Ei.i.NEtt cisc in our statement of the humanistic What is needed at this point, although goals of English. If this is all that Mr. Mc-this is not the place to develop it, is an Nemar intends we can be grateful to him,articulatedjustificationOfhumanistic definitive precision of phrasing is a goallocutions such asthe "well-furnished all of us should constantly seek. But Imind," not in logical, but rather in philo- think it would be more realistic to assumesophically behavioral terms. Let me sug- that Mr. McNemar means just what hegest the possibility that such justification says, that he literally does not understand isavailablein Ludwig Wittgenstein's such locutions, that he honestly believesexamination of the NV ay in which we per- them to have no substantive meaning, anticeive what he calls "forms of life," and his that he regards it as his job towean usanalysis of the 'verbal structures we have from such professionally ritualistic incan-developed to indicate such forms. His tations. If this is the caseand WBOE inanalysis, of course, is developed in terms general seems to substantiate this inter-of games, he is fascinated by the way in pretationthen we must tell Mr. McNe-which N% C perceive that two such topo- mar that the phrase, "creative, self-actu-graphically different activities as chess- alizing person" means exactly what itplay ing and tennis are both games. Avoid- says, nothing more and nothing less. Ifing the essentialist position w hich has Mr. McNemar persists in his incompre hension, pretending (or more likely notof the spine in relation to the vertical, angular tiltof the pelvis, cyclic displacement of the pretending) that the phrase has no mean- backside, relation of the balls of the feet to the ing for him, then we should throw himspinal line at the end of each step, displace- out of our classrooms. He is obviouslyment of the cranial center from the body- center at mid-point of strideand perhaps, at an ignoramus and a goth, should not bea minimum, five to ten thousand other such allowed within five miles of a school parameters. All ten thousand of these empirical building, and can only interfere with coordinates could then be fed into the com- ourputer. At this point we could have, say, one job-of-work and reduce our effectiveness.thousand women of notably graceful carriage Moreover, if school boards or collegewalk in front of a scanning device, probably a ten-by-fifty foot electronic grid made up of deans, as a consequence of having had ainch-square "bits," so that the computer could 45-minute lunch with Mr. McNemar,actually measure each woman's carriage against demand that we abandon such humanisticthe parameters already fed into it.It would locutions and get down to brass tacks, wethen be a simple matter for the computer to deliver the normative values inherent in that must stand our ground at all costs. Tosubtle thing called "gracefulness of carriage." concede even as much as Mr. Hook andBut the print-out for "gracefulness of carriage" would stretch halfway acrosscampus.One". Mr. Summerfield appear to have con- would need a wheeled dolly to carry it about. ceded will result, inevitably, in the death And this is only the beginning. A computer- of English as an academic discipline.° accessible set of parameters for "appreciation of literature" or "the behavior of the literate 6In actuality, this represents something of an man" would lead to print-outs that could not over-simplification of my position vis-à-vis Mr.be carriedatall. They would have to be Mcn.mar. Ido in fact believe that human shipped,likecoal, by freight-car or barge. beha .ors could, at least theoreti,ally, be ren-Behind these fatuous examples liesa serious dered in an empirically precise form. Let us point. empirical renderings of complex human take, for example, that subtlething called behaviorsand that is what poor Mr. McNemar " gracefulness of' carriage" in a woman. I amreally wantsmay be possible, but they will certain that with vast labor one could develop ne%er bepedagogically useful,any more than computer-accessible parameters for "graceful- a life-size map of New York City would be of ness of carriage." These might include angleany use to people living in New York City.

) Behavioral Objectives for English 129

traditionally accounted for such verbalobservable behaviors does far more harm phenomena, he suggests that what wethan good" (50). His division of be- actually perceive are chains of "familyhaviors into can-do, may-do, and will-do resemblances" between behaviors. Itis seems to me to be a specious extrapola- this stress on observed behaviors, on be-tion from the model, having the effect havioral topography, on forms of life,of minimizing verbal behavior, which.is which gives much of his work a be-essentially and always of the can-do sort. havioral thrust he was, regrettably, atBut when he gets down to the specifics of some pains to deprecate. If we are pres-his work, such as his brilliantly conceived ently experiencing difficulty in defendingattempts to make visualization behavior our humanistic idiom, it may be becausean integral part of the reading of litera- we stubbornly refuse to understand thatture (57), he seems to be breaking ground when we speak of the "creative, self-which might revolutionize the teaching actualizing person," we are not dealingof Englishespecially if itis reconcep- with a logical construct, but rather indi-tualized in terms of an S-R-R rather than cating our sense of a pattern of externalan S-R model. James Moffett's attack on and observable behaviorsbehaviorsthe Tri-University Project is a study in which, however, are of such subtlety andright instincts and wrong reasons, badly complexity as to stand forever beyonddebilitated by his assumption that all be- Mr. McNemar's gross and tabulative em-haviorism is of the S-R kind. Nothing piricism. If this is the case, then the finalcould be more striking, however, than answer to Mr. McNemar's persistenthis insistence on the centrality of "two- questioning will have to be, for Missway transactional models of action" in Jones and for the rest of us, a humanisticteaching (115). Skinner could hardly behaviorism which will furnish us withhave said it better himself. I cannot agree a genuinely scientific justification for ourwith Donald A. Seybold that Mr. Mof- ways of work, and have the happy effectfett's "concern with the psychological of sending Mr. McNemar's methodology base seems overwrought and misdirected" back to Willow Run and the vocational(119). A lack of concern with the psy- education w orkshop, w here it belongs.chological base is precisely what is wrong with the better part of WBOE, and Mr. In all of this, finally, I do not mean toMoffett's withdrawal from the Tri-Uni- suggest that WBOE is not, in some re-versity Project is, in these circumstances, spects, a valuable and even hearteninga courageously humane gesture. book. It gives one a sense of the funda- The best thing in WBOE, however, is mental strength and perdurability of En-Robert F. Hogan's "On Hunting and glish as a discipline to watch professionalsFishing and Behaviorism." When one of great competence come by instinct togoes hunting, he asserts, one knows ex- the right conclusions in a situation whereactly what he is going after. When one they are, perhaps, somewhat out of theirgoes fishing, however, things are much natural element. James Hoetker, for ex-more iffy. there may be a "stray rock ample, does much to save the ball-gamecod," or there may not. One may instead with his warning that "simple-mindedcatch a small sea bass, or a halibut, or a insistence upon the a priori specificationsmeltor none of these. In this case one of all objectives in terms of convenientlyhappily settles for "the affective response 130 ROBERT ZOEI.I.NE" to the sun and the sea and the fellowship"lishing and modifying their objectives" (125). Mr. Hogan is saying a number of(127). Finally, Mr. Hogan's last para- things, at least two of which are worthgraph brings WBOE to a close on a heart- redacting here. First, he is affirming theening note of humane affirmation: joy that behavioral creatures take in be- (Tonight I am going to try again to havior for its own sakeand objectives teach my youngest daughter to brush her be damned. He quite properly fears the teeth up and down. I am also going to "no-nonsense, mission-centered mental- kiss her goodnight and nuzzle her a little. ity" (126). Second, his fishing metaphor I would like her to grow up with clean, strong teeth. I'd also like her to grow up affirmsthepervasiveprobabilismof nuzzled. I have the feeling it will make teachingin theliberaldisciplines. a difference, even ifcan't tell how that Teacher and student, in the transactional difference will manifest itself.) (129) situation, fish together, neither alwaysMr. Hogan might be surprisedperhaps being entirely sure what they willcomeeven put offto learn that he is a Skin- up with. Mr. Hogan is rejecting, as anynerian, but he is. His instinctive faith in humanist must reject, the non-probabil-the long-term efficacy of nuzzling sug- istic nature of the S-R model and the be-gests that he entertains a reinforcement- havioral objectives derived from it. I hopecentered psychology, and a concomitant he will hesitate, however, before he writesbelief in generalized behavioral objectives. offall behavioral theory. The S-R-RHe subscribes therefore to the only be- paradigm does allow, as the S-R paradigmhavioral psychology which, it seemsto does not, for the situation in which, forme, a teacher of English can permit in example, "children are constantly estab-his classroom.

1.. Part II. Tactics

I )J W. Ross WINTEROWD

"Topics" and Levels in the Composing Process

ONE OF THE MOST INTERESTING (and cer- side an Orator be ignorant, and under- tainly one of the most neglected) aspects stands not the bottom of what he Treats, of rhetoric is the notion of topics or he can speak but superficially, he cannot come to the point; and after hehas placesof invention. Throughout the talk'd and argued a long time, Hs Adver- more recent history of rhetoric, the im- sary will have reason to admonish him portance of topics for invention or cre- to leavehis tedious talk that signifies ativity has been either minimized or nothing; to interrupt him in this manner, overlooked, and the prevailing attitude Speak to the purpose; oppose Reason against my Reason, and coming to the was never more unequivocally stated Point, do what you can to subvert the than by Bernard Lamy, whose De PArt Foundations upon which Isustain my de Par ler appeared in English translation self.' in 1676: Lamy might well have been paraphras- Those who reject these Topicks, do noting remarks that typify discussions of deny their Fecundity; they grant thatrhetoric in both English and speech de- they supply us with infinite numbers ofpartments of modern universities. things; but they alledg that that Fecundity But topics need to be reconsidered isinconvenient; That thethingsare trivial, and by consequent the Art offrom both the theoretical and the peda- Topicks furnishes nothing that is fit forgogical points of view. The purpose of us to say. If an Orator (say they) under-this discussion will be (a) to point out stands the subject of which he treats;that all topics fall into one of four cate- if he be full of incontestable Maxims thatgories, according to the nature of their may inable him to resolve all Difficultiesoperation, and (b) to attempt to revi- arising upon that subject; If it be a question in Divinity, and he be well read intalize the concept of topics in rhetorical the Fathers, Councils, Scriptures, &c. Hetheory and in pedagogy. The first pur- will quickly perceive whether the ques-pose of the discussion will clarify the tion propos'd be Orthodox, or otherwise.nature of all topics, and among the ex- It is not necessary that he runs to hispert witnesses who would testify con- Topic Its,or passes from one common place to another, which are unable tocerning the desirability of the second supply him with necessary knowledg forpurpose is Richard McKeon: decision of his Question. If on the other We need a new art of invention and dis- W. Ross Winterowd, Professor of English at covery in which places are used as means the University of Southern California, is interested in rhetorical theory and in modern 'Quoted in Wilbur Samuel Howell, Eigh- poetry. He directs a new interdisciplinary doc- teenth-CenturyBritishLogic and Rhetoric torate in rhetoric, linguistics, and literature. (Princeton University Press, 1971), p. 92.

Rcprintcd from College English, Vol. 34, No. 5, February 1973. I J3 "Topics" and Levels in the Composing Process 133

by which to light up modes and mean- Central to the composing process is ings of works of art and natural occur-what rhetorictraditionallyhas called rences and to open up aspects and con-"invention,"the means whereby the nections in existence and possibility. The data and qualifications of existence arewriter discovers mbject matter. And the made by attention and interest; and dis-concept of "topics" or "commonplaces" coveries made in a book or a work of artwas the very heart of invention in the should provide places by which to per-classical theory of Aristotle. It will be ceive creatively what might otherwiserecalled that topics are, in effect, probes not be experienced in the existent worldor a series of questions that one might ask we constitute. Itisa long time since topics have been used as an art of inven-about a subject in order to discover tion in rhetoric.... A reconstitutedthings to say about that subject. They are verbal art of invention, adapted to ourgeneral and apply to all subject matter; circumstances and arts, might be used tothey are not, as it were, subject-specific. shadow forth the methods and principlesSo that Aristotle's topics can generate of an architectonic productive art generalized from invention in language toargumentsfor,say,negotiatingany discovery in existence? peace, not just peace in Viet Nam. For example, the first of the twenty- With at least one school of moderneight demonstrative topics that Aristotle linguistics, I assume that the composinglists is the argument from opposites: process involves putting meanings into structures or saturating structures with If, now, it is not fair to grow enraged meanings, though, to be sure, the mech- when evil doers injure us unwittingly, then neither do we owe a grain of thanks anisms whereby this process takes place to him who does us good when forced are not known, and, in fact, the assump- to do it. tion thatsomething of the kind takes place is really just an explanatory meta-Another of the topics is a fortiori (from phor adopted to get theorists over thedegrees of more and less): barricades of some extremely difficult If it behooves each citizen among you to questions. What I am sayingthough I care for the reputation of your city, it do not intend to argue the pointis that behooves you all as a city to care for the in some sense, there is both form and glory of Greece.4 meaning, even though separating the two is next to impossible if one holds as a There is no better comment on the criterion the complete satisfaction oftopics than Kenneth Burke's: "The so- every opinion concerning what is formcalled 'commonplaces' or 'topics' in Ari- and what is content.3 stotle's Art of Rhetoric ... are aquick survey of opinion. ..."5 Burke goes on 2"The Uses of Rhetoric in a Technological Age," The Prospect of Rhetoric, ed. Lloyd F.harmony (or at least not unrelieved harmony), Bitzer and Edwin Black (Englewood Cliffs,it is resolutely contrapuntal, it mixes voices in N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1971), p. 55. a volume, not in a line, not even a double line." 3Roland Barthes goes so far as to say, " ... "Style and Image," Literary Style: A Sympo- we can no longer see a text as a binary struc-sium, ed. Seymour Chatman (London and New ture of Content and Form, the text is notYork. Oxford University Press, 1971), p. 6. double but multiple, within it there are only *The RhetoricofAristotle,trans.Lane forms, or more exactly, the text in its entiretyCooper (New York. Appleton-Century-Crofts, is only a multiplicity of forms without content. 1960). The twenty-eight demonstrative topics We can say metaphorically that the literary are on pp. 159-72. textis a stereography: neither melody, nor 5A Rhetoric of Motives, A Grammar of 134 W. ROSS W1NTEROWD

to say that in the topics, Aristotle "cata- What is involved, when we say what logues" the available means of persuasion, people are doing and why they are do- and it will be the kinds of cataloguing mg it? An answer to that question is the subject of this book. The book is con- that interest us first, and then the sorts cerned with the basic forms of thought of things that are catalogued. In fact, it which, in accordance with the nature will become apparent that, classed ac- of the world as all men necessarily ex- cording to system of cataloguing and perience it, are exemplified in the at- things catalogued, there are' only four tributing of motives.... any complete possible kinds of topics. statement about motives will offer some kind of answers to these five questions: First, simply but significantly,itis what was done (act), where or when apparent that topics can be either finite it was done (scene), who did it (agent), or non-finite lists. how he did it (agency), and why (pur- Perhaps the most common sort of Pose)1 topics that one encounters (and in many ways the least interesting, though use-(The Pentad is particularly useful, of ful)arewhataregenerallycalledcourse, in generating subject matter con- "methods of paragraph development."cerning any piece of discourse, either These are so commonly encoutered thatwritten or spoken, either literary or non- I will not here go into detail concerningliterary. But my purpose at the moment them, but typically such alist wouldis not to demonstrate the usefulnessor contain items like the following: data,lack thereofof any set of topics.) enumeration, analogy, anecdote, cause It follows from the nature of a finite and effect, comparison and contrast, defi-list of topics that it must not allow for nition,description, metaphor,restate-any questions that are not "covered" by ment, and so on.° Now it is perfectlythe items in the set. That is, if one can obvious that this list could be extendedask questions, within the terms set down almost indefinitely, for it might containfor the Pentad, which cannot be classed all of the sorts of things that can go intounder one of the items of the Pentad, paragraphs,which ultimatelyimpliesthen the Pentad is faulty as a finite set classification in some way of all the sortsof topics. (I personally do not feel that of things in the universe. That is, meth-the Pentad is faulty, but that question is ods of paragraph development as topicsbeside the point of this discussion.) are characteristically non-finite lists. Aris- A faulty set of topics, used here as an totle's topics are also just as obviously aexample, will clarify the problem that non-finite list. we are getting at. But we can conceive of, find in great A five-item set emerged from the Na- abundance, and inventforourselvestional Developmental Project on Rhet- topicswhichconstitutefinitelists.oric.8 In a severely abbreviated (but not, Burke's Pentad is nothing more than aI think, unfair) form, this is the set: finiteset of topics, as Burke himself avows: I. The social reality of the present moment may be viewed in terms Motives and A Rhetoric of Motives (New York: World Publishing Company, 1962), p. of the resources for innovation or 580. the defense of tradition....what 61n fact, this is the list in Structure, Language, and Style, a rhetoric handbook that I wrote 1.(1 Grammar of Motives, p. xvii. three or four years ago. 8The Prospect of Rhetoric, pp. 228-36.

1 "Topics" and Levels in the Composing Process135

are the social conditions and re-that do not fit); therefore, the set is sources available to the inventingfaulty. person? If rhetorical theory is to have the in- 2. A second set of questions: Whattegrity that only precision and logical are the materials and perspectivesconsistency can bring to it, then non- upon facts out of which inventionfinite sets of topics must not masquerade may be fashioned? What tech-as finite sets. We have here something of nologies may be harnessed in mak-the dilemma faced by grammarians who ing a car, what facts or interpreta-worked under the assumption that "A tions of facts may be spoken. ? noun is the name of a person, place or 3. What about the persons who willthing" or that "A sentence is the expres- participate in the inventionandsion of a complete idea." These defini- the drives which make them vitaltions were theoretically destructive and or retarding factors in the pro-had only marginal valueif anyin cess...? pedagogy, since they precipitated the 4. What is the deep structure of thewhole logomachy of what a "thing" or invention... ? a "complete idea" is. Sets of topics can be, then, either finite 5.Finally, what presentational formor non-finite lists. They can also be con- is adopted for the thing invented.tent-oriented or form-oriented. For one example of a set of form-oriented topics, I refer to my own "The For this provocative and useful set ofGrammar of Coherence,"" a set that, topics, the authors9 make the followingaccording to my claim, will generate unfortunate claim: "These five aspectsstructures at the paragraph level and be- may be considered as a generative frame,yond. (In brief, my argument is that an ordering of all the relevant aspects ofsix and only six relationships prevail in any invented, innovative, or novel crea-coherent discourse beyond the sentence, tion. As such they provide a place ofor, more precisely, beyond the transfor- places, a frame of frames, an account ofmational unit. If this is indeed the case, the origin or creation of all things novel,as I believe it is, then these relationships includingrhetoricalartifacts.")Onewill serve as topics that will "automati- question generated by another set ofcally" generate paragraphs or, for that topics that we will be dealing withmatter, essays.) shortly" demonstrates the faultiness of A further example. in an article that the above as a finite set. "How is the sub-has received far too little attention, Alton ject under consideration changing?" ThisL. Becker's developed a schema to ana- question does not fit any of the topics inlyze and describe the structure of para- the set (and one can find other questionsgraphs. What has not been generally recognized is that this schema can be gRobert L. Scott, James R. Andrews, Howard used as afiniteset of form-oriented H. Martin, J. Richard McNally, William F. Nelson, Michael M. Osborn, Arthur L. Smith, Harold Zyskind. 12Co liege English, 31 (May 1970), 828-35. wThe ProspectofRhetoric,pp.232-33. 13"A Tagmemic ApproachtoParagraph Italics mine. Analysis," The Sentence and the Paragraph "That developed by Young, Becker, and (Champaign, M.. National Council of Teach- Pike. ers of English, 1966), p. 33. 136 W. ROSS WINTEROWD

topics. It happens that the schema is brief Write a topic sentence. enough to serve as an example in the As one ages, one learns that all vices present context. are pleasant. Becker claims that empirical investigation reveals that expository paragraphs Restrict it. invariably have the elements But some vices are unhealthy. Illustrate. T opic Smoking causes cancer. R estriction Drinking causes cirrhosis. Illustration Even the caffeine in coffee has been P roblem found toincrease the process of S olution aging.

Q uestion Admittedly, depending on one's van- A nswer tage point, TRIQAPS can be viewed as either in various combinations and permuta-a form-oriented or a content-oriented tions, the details of which I will ignore.set of topics. Perhaps the best known (That is, TRIPSQA will describe the formexample of a set of purely form-oriented of any expository paragraph.) Apara-topics is the set that constitutes what graph that Becker analyzes willserve asFrancis Christensen called "free modi- an example of what he is getting at. fiers." Christensen did not view his modifiers as topics, but, in effect, they are (P) How obsolete is Hearn's judg-precisely that, for they can be used to ment? (S1) (T) On the surface the fivegenerate sentences. That is, to a sentence gentlemen of Japan do not themselvesbase, one can add a variety of structures seem to be throttled by this rigid society of their ancestors. (R) Their world is in(noun clusters, verb clusters, absolutes, fact far looser in its demands upon themand so on). In deciding to add a struc- than it once was. (I) Industrialization andture, one must search for subject matter the influence of the West have progres-to "fill" that structure. I will illustrate sively softened the texture of the web.the process. Defeat in war badly strained it. A. military occupation, committed to producinga democratic Japan, pulled and tore at it. Write a base. (S2) (T) But it has not disappeared. (R) The little girl skated. It is still the invisible adhesive that seals that nationhood of the Japanese.(I) Add an absolute. Shimizu, Sanada, Y2M2Z21Ci, Kisel, and Her pigtails flying, the littlegirl Hirohito were all born within its bonds. skated. Despite their individual work, surroundings and opinions, they have lived most Add a verb cluster. of their lives 23 cogs geared into a group Her pigtails flying, the littlegirl society. .. .14 skated, effortlessly gliding down the It is easy to see how ritioAps--and note sidewalk. that I have acronyrnized the systemcan Add a relative clause. serve as a set of form oriented topics. Her pigtails flying, the littlegirl, uProin Frank Gibney, Five Gentlemen of who every Saturday morning came Japan, quoted in Becker. to my house for popcorn, skated,

i 4 3 "7'opics" and Levels in the Composing Process137

effortlessly gliding down the side- Regarding the fourth category, form- walk. oriented non-finite sets of topics, a theoretical problem of considerable dimen- And so on. Note that the instructionssions arises. It is this: any set of topics specify the addition of structures, not ofthat is non-finite and form-oriented must content. Adding a structure must gene-be faulty (according to the definition of rate content for the structure. "faulty" developed in this essay), for it In my opinion, the most interesting isimpossible that formal relationships and productive set of content-orientedregarding any level of discourse can be topics is that developed by Richard E.infinite in number. The same argument Young, Alton L. Becker, and Kenneth L.that demonstrates the finite nature of a Pike." To summarize it here would dis-grammar can be applied to demonstrate tortits complexity, but what Young,the finite nature of relationships beyond Becker, and Pike claim is(a) that tothose handled by the grammar of a lan- know anything, we must know how itguage. The validity of this argument differs from everything else, how muchseems self-evident. Therefore, a form- it can change and still be itself, and howoriented set of topics that is non-finite it fits into hierarchies of larger systems;must be merely incomplete and hence and (b) that we can view anything fromfaulty. Nonetheless, there are such lists. three perspectives, that of particle, thatOne example is lists of figures of gram- of wave, and that of field. The juxtaposi-marfrom Peac ham to Lanham"for tion of these two concepts creates alists of figures of grammar are sets of nine-item finite set of content-orientedtopics; another example is methods of topics that I personally find to be mostorganization discussed in rhetorics. exciting. The conceptual framework for theo- Now then, we can recapitulate andries of topics is, then, clearcut, but what systematize. of topics in pedagogy? One way of conceptualizing the pro- Content-orientednon-finitesetsofcess of composition is to assume that it topics involves a three-level hierarchy. (Aristotle's topics; methods of para- The first level is that of the proposi- graph development, etc.) tion. Following the model developed by Content-oriented finite sets of topics Charles Fillmore, I would argue that a (Young, Becker, and Pike's topics;"core" or "kernel" sentence is made up from one point of view, TRIQAPS;of a modality plus a proposition.'7 The Burke's Pentad; the parts of themodality contains such elements as aux- classical oration, etc.) iliary, yes/no question, negation, and so on. The proposition is a predicate and a Form-oriented finite sets of topics variety of "roles" or cases that relate to (from one point of view, TRIQAPS; the set outlined in "The Grammar of Coherence"; Christensen's free modi- leA Hand list of Rhetorical Terms (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, fiers, etc.) 1968). 17"The Case for Case," Universals in Lin- guistic Theory, ed. Eminon Bach and Robert 15Rhetoric: Discovery and Change (NewHarms (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Win- York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1970). ston, 1968), pp. 1-:.:

1 14 138 W. ROSS WINTEROWD it and to one another. Thus, schemati-of topics becomes tremendously im- cally: portant. To refer back to Lamy, who was Modality Proposition quoted at the beginning of this discus- Present tensePredicate (kiss): Agentsion: surely he and virtually everyone (George), Patient else who in the last three hundred years (Mary) has writtenabout topicsmust have George kisses Mary. missed a significant point concerning the Mary is kissed by George. theory of topics. The purpose of topics is not to supply verbiage in lieu of real The teacher cannot, it seems to me, inter-subject matter, but to generate ideas con- vene at this level. If the student, of what-cerning the subject. In this sense, topics ever age, is incapable of generating theseare devices for problem-solving; they core sentences, there is obviously someare heuristics. Young, Becker, and Pike dysfunction that is beyond the reach ofexplain heuristics and, inthe process, mere pedagogy. give an admirable explanation of how The next level is that of inter-propo-topics function: sitionalconnections, which might be called the level of syntax. A heuristic procedure... provides a series of questions or operations that George, who is a neurotic, chews gum. guides inquiry and increases the chances George, a neurotic, chews gum. of discovering a workable solution. More specifically, it serves three functions: A neurotic, George chews gum. (am- 1) It aids the investigator in retrieving biguous?) relevant information that he has stored in his mind. (When we have In his work, Francis Christensen demon- a problem, we generally know more strates that the teacher can intervene at that is relevant to it than we think we do, but we often have difficulty this level in the composing process, inin retrieving the relevant informa- deed with dramatic results. In Trans- tion and bringing it to bear on the formational Sentence-Combining," John problem.) Mellon also demonstrates that the teacher 2) It draws attention to important incan help the student at the level of syn- formation that the investigator does not possess but can acquire by di- tax. Since one of the great intellectual rectobservation, reading, experi- powers that one can attain is the ability mentation, and so on. to combine predications, the work of 3) It prepares the investigator's mind Christensen and Mellon is not to be for the intuition of an ordering ignored or to be written off lightly. principle or hypothesis.19 But in this discussion of topics, we are most concerned with the third level inInthis sense, everyone uses "topics" the composing process, which I shall callmore or less systematically all the time; the level of the transition since it has tomost of us unconsciously have developed do with units such as paragraphs anda variety of sets of topics that we apply essays. It is at this level that the conceptquite automatically in all kinds of circumstances. (It occurs to me that I have

I8(Champaign,Ill.:NationalCouncilof Teachers of English, 1969). 19Rhetoric: Discovery and Change, p. 120. "Topics" and Levels in the Composing Process139

developed a set of topics for planningtaught writing at any level. As Charlie fishing trips, and my adherence to theBrown learned when his teacher said, procedure that they imply never varies."Write a five-hundred word essay on Of course, in the last three years my suc-what you did during your summer vaca- cess at fishing has been minimal!) tion," one of the most intransigent prob- The concept of topics, then, is notlemsforinexperienced(andexperi- trivial, though, to be sure, there are tri-enced!) writers is invention, and what I vial or faulty sets of topics. But whatam suggesting is that topics as they have about topics in the classroom as a peda-developed and as they are developing gogical device? provide the best devices of invention. The future of the profession holds a This is not to say that students are great deal of promise; we are well intorobots, who automatically turn to this the era of "technical breakthrough"; weor that set of topics before they write, are at the point where we have the "soft-but that they are alert and aware, and ware" and the "hardware" to do a muchthat they know what sort of help is avail- more effective job than we have in theable to them when they must solve the past. As briefly as possible, I would likeproblem implied by the question "What to explain why it is conceivable that in-can I say about this subject?" I am also struction in writing can now be moreclaiming that some work with sets of effective than it ever was in the past. topics will introduce students to tech- Firstan important point that is con-niques that they can use to develop their nected with my thesis, but that wouldown problem-solving devices, their own take us far afield if we pursued itweheuristics. are at the point where we can say, with I must plead guilty to the charge that the eloquence and passion of JamesI sound unhumanistic, for I am pro- Sledd, "Leave your language lone!" Wefoundly unhumanistic in the normal En- are ready to allow youngsters to functionglish department sense of that word, but in their own dialects, and hence we willI do avow that I am not suggesting stu- not wreak the spiritual devastation thatdents should be deprived of their marve- a"purist"attitudeinevitablybringslous, chaotic freedom, for I love both about. chaos and freedom. But what I am sug- At the level of syntax, we are begin-gesting is that there are more efficient ning to get theories and materialssuch"programs" for enabling students to gain as those of Francis Christensen and Johnthe freedom to express themselves than Mellonthat enable the teacher to be ofthe old by-guess-and-by-golly method significant help in the student's quest forthat is so tremendously humanistic. The the ability to put idea within idea withinobject is not syntax for its own sake or idea.... That is,for the first time, werandom ideas to fill empty egg crates; now have the means actually to help stu-rather, the quest of the English teacher dents systematically attain syntactic flu-should be for every means whereby the ency, and surely that fluency is one ofstudent can most efficiently gain the thesignificantintellectual accomplish- liberation that self-expression gives him. ments. Now my final comment about the Finally, it is time to revitalize the con-theory of topics can be made. Composi- cept of topics. The reasons for this aretion is obviously a total process, a whole clear enough to anyone who has everfabric, that can be "taken apart" only 140 W. ROSS NVNTEROWD schematically and for theoretical pur-unified under the auspices of invention, poses, so that when I claim there aregenerally conceived to be the least me- three levels in the process of composi-chanical and most "creative"of the tion, I do not mean to imply that in prac-departments of rhetoric. tice the writer works first on one level And this viewpoint is a healthy cor- and then on the other. (In fact, I knowrective to the tendency that creeps into just as little about the act of compositiontextbooks and classrooms:namely, to as anyone else.) And viewing the compo-"do" a "unit" on the sentence and then sitional process from the standpoint ofa unit on the paragraph, and so on. Thus, topics allows us to conceptualize it in athe theory developed in this discussion more unified way than the points d'appuicould, ultimately, lead to a change in taken by most theories. What I mean isclassroom practice, and it seems to me this: if one views theories of form andthat change is badly needed. theories of style merely as sets of topics Topics should not shackle the mind. which in most instances they areThey should liberate. then the whole process of composition is MICHAEL PAULL JACK KLIGERMAN

Invention, Composition, and the Urban College

WE HAD WHAT COULD BE CALLED thechanged, so have the problems of fresh- typical training. for teaching freshmanman composition. composition: none. Otherwise, our un- Let it be clear that we do not wish to dergradLate and graduate careers in En-Jpread blame. We wish, on the contrary, glish have been exemplary. The design ofto offer here a record of how we tried to modern departments of English, howeverface our own inadequacies as teachers of one should say the modern universitycomposition in one of the most difficult is such that we, and thousands like us, be-of situationsan urban commuter col- come teachers of a skill that we knowlegeand how we tried to turn the course little about. We learn to teach composi-that too often is the lackey of the general tion by experience, itis true, but itis college community into a vital presence unpredictable and to a large extent acci-in the intellectual lives of our students. dental if we ever become proficient inWe first had to isolate our problems. our trade. Perhaps such a situation was Inthepast,freshmancomposition acceptable before World War H, beforecourses, we felt, had been committed the colleges expanded and their popula-solely to the service of a discursive prose. tions changed from a relatively smallThis prose was packaged in the form of number of "college preparatory" stu-logically structured essays, with innumer- dents to an ever-increasing number ofable handbooks telling us how to find most high school graduates. Such, cer-their beginning, middle, and end. The tainly, is t.tie case in the City Universityessay was to transmit information as of New York, which began implementingeconomically as possible. That informa- "open enrollment" in the 1970 academiction was taken for granted, as was our year. And such, probably, is the case instudents' ability' to find it. We paid little the many state and community collegeattention, however, and nothing in our systems throughout the country. As theacademic experience, either in classrooms number andkindofstudentshaveor in textbooks, had pointed the way to developing in our students an aware- Michael Paull is an Assistant Professor of En-ness of cognition, of the ways in which glish at Herbert H. Lehman College of the City sensation, perception, and concept for- University of New York where he teachesmation operate before one even begins to courses in Linguistics and Medieval Literature. write. We came to believe that the stress Jack Kligerman is an Assistant Professor ofon technical proficiency and rhetorical English at Herbert H. Lehman College of the City University of New York where he teachesskilland the grading of compositions courses in Linguistics and American Literature.has been misdirected, and that much

Reprinted from College English, Vol. 33, No 6, March 1972. 142 MICHAEL PAULL/JACK KLIGERNIAN

energy has been dissipated in attempts toprocess of invention, through perception achieve minimal levels of competencyand concept formation, could be held up according to socially acceptable stan-for inspection and, ultimately, recog- dards of usage. Alter much experimenta-nized as the essential beginning to the tion, we found ourselves returning to thevt riting of effective compositions. classical insistence on teaching invention What follows will be a description of as the prerequisite to composition. Thussome of the specific exercises we used to the classroom, instead of being a placeimplement a course teaching the funda- where we came together to analyze thementals of invention. As teachers,we writings of others, now became a placeconfined ourselves to presenting these where the whole range of mental proces-exercises and to supporting the students ses we call cognition could be directlyin their attempts to complete them suc- experienced. cessfully. In other words, after we had In stressing the importance of inven-stated an assignment, we left it up to the tion, we were attempting to re-educatestudents to determine its direction and our students, to make them, in a sense,its conclusion. We did enter the discus- learn language all over again, but thission, however, v. hen it was obvious that time with an awareness of what they a student was using unrecognized cliches were doing. We recognized that languageto structure hi. perceptions. Otherwise, and, indeed, all of cognition, existon e attempted to encourage the student various levcis of abstraction and concre-in discovering how he himself actually tion, and that the real task of the teacherperceived things. This was the extent to is to make it possible for the student toN% Ilia we actively participated in the differentiate between those levels and toclassroom. We were afraid that any more move easily among them. Seemingly,involvement w ould shape the students' however, our students had losttheirperceptions more than they were already "ability to look at the world directly,"'being shaped by the nature of the specific they did not see that language, especiallyexercise. We will now list the exercises in this age of mass media, often forcedas they occurred, and give a brief expla- them to look at the world through thenation of what they entailed and what veil of overly generalized concepts. Inresults they produced. many imperceptible ways, they were allowing interpretations of experienceHappening:2 This exercise began with embodied in the language of others toour giving each student a separate written order their own experience. Thus, weinstruction, which, at a given time, he decided that the place to begin this taskNI, as told first to read and then to follow of re-education is with a concentrationuntil we signalled a stop to the action. on the problem of "concreteness." ToSome of the directions read: (1) Go to accomplish this end, we tried to presentthe blackboard and place your palm on classroom exercises through which theit. Move all around the board pushing on students could discover cognitive struc-it as if you expect one panel to open; (2) tures that jibed with their own experience of the world, through which the complex 2The Happening exercise was suggested by Wallace Kaufman, whose ideas on creativity in lAldous Huxley, The Doors of Perceptioncomposition courses can be found in the re- and Heavet, and Hell (New York. Harper ¢ly published The Writer's Mind (Engle- Row, 1963), p. 74. wood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1970). Invention, Composition, and the Urban College 143

Go up to the front of the room and faceMeditation I:Initially we wanted the the class. Count to yourself, and eachstudents to consider how they would time you reach five say, "If I had thedefine a meditation. To help them in this wings of an angel"; (3) Sit in your seatwe had them read and discuss John and watch the person facing you fromDonne's meditation on the church bells the front of the room. Each time hesaysfrom Devotions Upon Emergent Occa- "angel" you clap. Don't look anywheresions. The class reached the conclusion else; (4) On a piece of paper keep writ-that a meditation could begin with a ing, "I am, I am, I am..."; (5) Sit at yourperson's selecting some objectinhis deskand pretend you arecountingimmediate environment and then focusing money in two-dollar hills. Each time thathis attention upon it. At first thisperson, you have a stack worth $30, gather it upthe perceiver, describes in some detail the and throw it in the air and say, "Thirtyphysical appearance of the object, select- dollars!" (6) Walk around to everyoneing those features of it which strike him in the room, pat him on the back lightly,as important. He then begins to formulate and say, "It's all right." questions about these features, attempting After the Happening, the students satto understand his reasons for selecting down and began to discuss what had justthem and rejecting others. Stating this occurred. At first they &scribed it inanother way, the perceiver notices a ways that would allow them to unify allphysical object for the first time, and by of the separate events underone fairlyconcentrating on that object comes to general label, e.g., "It was a madhouse."understand what about it is important to Gradually they began to see the ',happen-him and why. In the process, the percep- ing as a series of random and unrelatedtions move organically from the concrete events. They saw that, as such, it wasto the more abstract. For example, Donne only an exaggeration of the randomnesshears a church bell, he recognizes it as a of normal daily experience, e.g., ridinga funeral bell, he thinks about death; he subway, sitting in class, etc. Many of thethinks about his own death; he thinks students came to realize that each andabout the nature of death. In a sense, this every experience is full of many details,exercise is a repetition of the first exercise many unrelated parts that the per ceiver(actually all of the exercises are variations selects from and attempts to relate., toof one basic theme). The meditation place is a structure. Such perception clanasked the student to look at an object, behighlycreativeandself - fulfilling,notice its parts, select certain of these, especially when the perceiver under-and then place them in a structure. After stands the organizing principle which hasthe discussion oc Donne, we asked the shaped the selecth ity of parts and thestudents to follow the form of a medita- consequent structure. A side result oftion when writing their journal entries. this exercise was that the students became(We will discuss the very important part very conscious of themselves functioningthat journals played in this course later in a classroom. They began to see theon.) flexibility as well as the rigidity that is builtinto every classroom. Suddenly,Meditation II. Here the principles of the "classroom" became an open and dis-previous exercise were repeated, but now cussable concept, one that the studentsinstead of discussing someone else's med- could help formulate. intion the class meditated on one object, 144MICHAEL PAULL/JACK KLICERMAN

an interestingly shaped, painted gourdthings in relation to the squash,e.g., see- that we had brought into class. To initi-ing the golden color of the squashas ate the meditation we had the class sitonidentical to that of the leaveson the the floor in a circle; we placed the gourdground. Like the jar in Wallace Stevens' in the center and then told themto con-"Anecdote of a Jar," the squash provided centrate all their attention on it. Theya structure and an order for the surround- could familiarize themselves with itining environment, while,at the same t -ne, any way they wanted, by handling it,the surrounding environmentgave the rubbing it against themselves, andso on.squash a pre-eminence that it would lack After a period of timewe removed theinthe classroom. As with the other gourd and asked themto describe it. Weexercises, we asked the studentsto enter found that many of them hadnot noticedtheir perception of this experience in the colors or the shapeor the feel of thetheir journals. object, despite the fact that they had been engaged with it for almostan hour.Meditation IV: We broughttoclass Understandably, they were relying in-about thirty different objects, suchas stead on the preconceived structuringpieces of driftwood, sea shells, old but- word "gourd" to satisfy their understand-tons. We asked each student to select any ing of it. As with the Happening,weone that he particularly liked, then to go spent the remainder of the class periodout of the classroom and meditate on it trying to recall the parts,to rememberfor one hour. This part of the exercise exactly what the gourd looked like. Fi-was held out of class because we felt that nally, we asked the studentsto use thisthe student should have some choiceas to exercise as the basis fora journal entry. where he wanted to meditate. We also wanted to give the students a chanceto Meditation III: We again meditatedon abring together the importantaspects of single object, a pumpkin squash, but thisthefirstthreemeditationexercises, time the exercise took place outside thenamely, to concentrate ona single object classroom on the lawn of the college. Wein a loosely structured environment. We were now meditating, or attempting tostressed that each student should spend do so, in a much more distractingen-the entire hour discoveringas much about vironment; moreover, wewere using asthe object as possible, specifically what the object for the meditationa far morefeatures of it were mostapparent and sensual object than the gourd. The resultswhy. Finally, we asked the classto record were almost predictable. At first the classthe results of their meditation. What fol- seemed very committed to the exercise.lows is an example of the kind of result They concentratedon the squash, fon-we received: dled it, and soonone of the students broke it open and tasted it. Others in the I sat beside a bush and watched the people class felt its insides, allowing themselves go by me in spurts of two or three. I saw people scattering in all directions and to experience it as fully as possible. After then shortly after, there was quiet. All a while they became aware of many of the little groups had broken up and each the things around them, the leaves had person had gone his own way and so I just begun to fall, peoplewere playing was left alone and with nothing. But in soccer, the field was overrun with squir- the rim of my hand I held the remnant rels. They began to talk about of a dried sponge. It was white in color, these rough in texture, and crumblyto the Invention, Composition, and the Urban College145

touch. Actually the sponge was a highlyimportaot or ,ssentialfeatures of the complex network of branches. The slight-experience or object. After the students est movement would cause tiny pieces tohad finished their drawings they placed split off and hence the sponge had greatly diminished in size even asI held it inthem on the floor and discussed them. At my hand. I examined this sponge and Ifirst, the students were encouraged to thought of mankind, each of us a minutedeal with the drawings' surface qualities, piece of a branch. I thought of how sur-the use of space and color, and to avoid rounded by people Ihad been a fewguessing at its "symbolic import." Once minutes ago and then how quickly they had alldisappeared.Iwondered aboutthis was done, the students began to dying and why man is forced to leavestructure the concrete details by giving this earth so soon after he is placed uponthe individual drawing a label, an abstract it. Just as the people had wandered awaysymbol. With thisexercise, we were from the campus and the branches hadagain attempting to stress the relation- fallen from the sponge, so too must every man leave this life and be separated from ship between abstraction and concretion. mankind. . Photographs: While the above discussion It actually did not matter, as far as learn-u as going on, photographs were being ing was concerned, that the student hadtaken of each student in the class. The imitated the structure of Donne's medi-students were urged not to pose, but to tation. In fact, the way her own percep-involvethemselvesastheynormally tion of the object was struggling with wouldinthediscussion.Predictably Donne's perception of his was beneficial.enough, some were unable to forget the It presented the student and the classphotographer/subject structure and actu- with an illustration of what one is upall% did pose. After the photographs were against when trying to structure a uniqueprinted, each student was given one of experience. Further, it demonstrated thatanother student and told to write about cognition is a very complicated process,it, employing the methods of description often achieved through the integration ofthat he had learned in the previous exer- one's own personal perceptions and struc-cises. At a later date, these descriptions tures with those of others. The cognitivewere read to the class while, at the same process thus becomes one of continuumtime, the picture of the person being and nuance. described was held up to view. After each reading the class reacted to both the Non-representational Drawings: We gavepicture and the description. The result each student a large piece of brown wrap-of this exercise was that the students came ping paper and an assortment of crayonsto understand point of view in a very and colored pencils. The only instructiondramatic way. In their descriptions, the in this exercise was to draw some objectstudents had to contend with several in an abstract, non-representational way.points of view. On the one hand, they This exercise was designed to show an-knew the subject of the photograph and, other w ay of representing the complexitysupposedly, had preconceived notions of one's perception of a given object. Itabout him. On the other hand, the photo- also was meant to illustrate that one cangraph, compositionally, structured the structure his experience in many ways,subject according to the photographer's some of which are non-conventional,way of seeing him, stressing certain without sacrificing what appear to be thefeatures and ignoring others. In many of 146MICHAEL PAULL/JACK KLIGERMAN

the descriptions the students commentedlicense plate / plane overhead / horns on how the e7lectional features of theblowing / cars with speakers / speeding photograph had either altered or coin-ambulance / lost child crying / Christmas cided with their own conception of thedecorations / bum begging / near col- subject. Consequently, their descriptionslision / woman screaming at children / represented a combination of the variouswoman dropping her groceries / child points of view into a new structure. telling his mother to shut up / manon crutches"; (2) "a soundless music shop Kingsbridge Road: In this exercise we/ holding hands / bubble gum machine told the students to walk several blocks/ a little girl with a balloon / jellyap- down a busy commercial street, and inples / Xmas lights / guy looking at hunt- the process to write down twenty-fiveing rifles / yellow mustang / a runned- observations which they thought charac-over paper bag / autumn leaves mixed terized the street. The form of eachwith some garbage / old pair of combat written observation was to be short, pref-boots abandoned in the middle of the erably a single phrase per observation.street / a smelly cuchifritas shop / stink- When the students returned from thising botanica / a pair of pantihose pinned walk, we asked them to order their ob-sloppily on the wall / scanky flick /a servations in any way theysaw fit, topainted up prostitute on Simpson Street/ place them in existential sentences (ana girl yelling 'Marie' / two drunks in abstraction is linked by the "to be" verbfront of a library / pile of garbagenear to a concrete observation, e. g., happinessmailbox / the color purple on a window is a warm puppy). The observationsdisplay / a pizza man slicinga pie / a themselves were extremely varied. Somegray-haired man closing shop / jewelry tended to be very general, othersverystore." With the final part of the exercise, specific and detailed, butallprovedthe students were learning at first hand interesting in the way in which theyre-the mechanism of analogy, specifically vealed the selection and structuring ofhow it operates to concretize abstractions perception. Almost all of the observa-and to give them personal definitions. tionshad some organizingprinciple, whether grammatical, suchas making allThe Structuring of Experience by the of the verbs into participles,or thematic,Artist: The final three exercises dealt with such as selecting those details which illus-seeing an experience that had already trated the filth of a New York Citystreet.been structured by an artist. The prob- In the classroom, we discussed the obser-lem became, how does one perceive these vations, paying particular attentionto thestructures? We began with a photograph selectivity of details and attemptingtoof a subway station that had been taken discover what governed that selectivity.on Kingsbridge Road, a shopping center The following are two of the observa-in the Bronx. The students would thus be tions that were discussed:(1) "coupleable to recognize the subject, and would walking hand in hand/ family shoppingthereby have some insight into thepro- / smiling faces / brandnew sports car /cess of selection and ordering that the children playing / window washer /pa-artist went through. The class discussion trol car cruising / rattling subway / Con-centered around what the artist wassee- Ed digging streets / people rushing /ing and how he was bringing itto our barking dog / broken window / Calif.attention. At this point in thesemester, Invention, Composition, and the Urban College 147

the students were very sensitive to thethe students seemed to have gained an in- way that the artist structured his per-sight into the part that selectivity and ceptions. They quickly picked up on thestructuring play in the relation between photographer's use of light and shadeconcrete images and abstract ideas. and on the perspective that he chose to present the shapes of the subject. BasedJournal: At the beginning of the semes- on these observations, the students be-ter we told every student to buy a note- came increasingly aware of how andbook to be used as his personal journal for possibly why the photographer had giventhe entire semester. The students were to a certain order to a selected group of vi-begin making daily entries according to sual objects as well as of the thematic im-the instructions on journal keeping, which plications of that order. We then movedread as follows; "You keep a journal in from the photograph to a poem in orderorder to investigate and to remember. to understand how language can be usedGenerally you begin an entry with some in much the same way as a camera toparticular observation that is important order experience creatively. We usedor seems to suggest something important. Galway Kinnell's poem "The AvenueYou look at the observation and its sig- Bearing the Initial of Christ into the Newnificance. You especially try to under- World," because it was a city experiencestand why you chosethisparticular poem, one that was constructed fromsubject. 'What does it mean1 terms of many of the same kinds of perceptionsyour life and interests? Your materials that were evident inthe Kingsbridgewill come from classes, home life, vaca- Road exercise. We concentrated on thetions, memories, etc. But start with some- first three sections of the poem wherething specific! Keep your journal relevant Kinnell strings together a series of obser-to life. Anyone can throw words around vations regarding New York's Lower Eastfor several pages every day. In your Side. The students analyzed the poem injournal you will be practicing freely the much the same way as they did the photo-habits of mind that are necessary to a graph, only now investigating how wordswriter. You will be storing up material to w hich function as metaphors, similes, etc.,write about. You are under no restraints represent reality through language andgrammatically or in terms of form. Your transform it into an imaginative entity.goals are to be honest with yourself and They were for the most part able to useto expand your consciousness of both the their understanding of how they see andinner and the outer words. While the structure experience to appreciate thejournal will be inspected, all entries are poet's handling of his subject. For thestrictly confidential. You are under no most part, the exercise worked. For exam-obligation to record anything you wish ple, by concentrating on the selection andto keep wholly secret. The teacher will order of particular details in the firstmake no comment on the appropriateness, section of the poemthe movement frommorality, or sanity of contentnor on the birds to the sea to a broom to a pushcartstupidity, brightness, or brilliance. He to a horse - drawn wagon to a "propane-might. suggest paths of deeper explora- gassed bus"the students understood thattion."3 section's thematic concept, namely, the 3Takcn from an experimental course in fresh- evolutionary process of a day beginningman composition, first offered at the University on Avenue C. By the end of the exercise,of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1966. 148MICHAEL PAULL/JACK KLIGERAIAN

This part of the course was as impor-space, w e have selected only three of the tant as the classroom exercises. For, withentries. They are by nomeans the best the journal, we could tell whether thenor the worst. They come from that por- student was achieving the goals of thetion of the journals written about the course, whether he was learning from themiddle of the semester, and they give specific exercises and then transferringsome idea of the progress we were trying this learning to his writing. We felt thatto achieve in the course. the format of the journal would allow the student the freedom to develop his imag- (1) After looking at and touchingan ination and his creativity at his own empty brown twelve-ounce beer bottle rate. covered only on one side with dried When the studentsfirststartedtheir our, jagged ocean barnacles (the type journals we insisted that they makeone one would find on a beach boulder very entry per day, that it be about one page close to the surf), I asked myself not long and begin with a specific observa- what was its significance to me, but tion. The last insistence was made inan rather what did it mean to me, if anything, with respect to my life, and more attempt to keep the journals from becom- specifically, my everyday situation.I ing diaries. About every three weekswe drink beer directly from its bottled con- collected the journals and held individual tainer from time to time, and when I conferences with tht students,comment- have taken the last sip from the bottle, ing on the nature of the observations and I always notice a little stream of beer foam on the inside of the bottle. When discussing alternative ways of presenting this stream dries, the residue of the them. As the semester progressed,we told white foam reminds me of the white the students to cut down the number of barnacles on thebottlethatIwas entries to three per week. We did this meditating on. I have seen and smelled because we felt that most of the students and touched several empty beer bottles that have dried out and they are, I be- were becoming quite good at journal lieve, very ugly and disgusting; they keeping, and that to writea daily entry smell terrible and they feel either sticky was just too much work. As it turned or slimy. Now, for (ILI::: a sharp con- out, most of the journals averaged about trast, I picture in my mind a television forty double-spaced typewritten commercial starring a sensuous woman pages in and a chilled, unopened bottle of beer. length. At the beginning of thecourse, As the music plays, during this com- their entries consisted of fights with boy- mercial,this woman dancesabout, friends, condemnations of the American caresses and kisses this bottle of beer. system of education, and disavowals of Now, isn't it odd how this bottle of their parents, all presented in cliches and beer is, at one instant, a very beautiful thing worthy of lots of attention, and general terms. They were not seeing the as this stage passes, an ugly repulsive specific parts of their experience which thing. I think about what is going to they either objected to or liked. As the happen to the bottle of beer L. the semester progressed, the students came to commercial, and then conclude that the understand more about their same thing will happen to the beautiful own abili- woman. Even if she does not become ties of perception and about how abstrac- slimy and sticky, she will become ugly tions can be defined in terms of their and old, just like the bottle. If this is own experiences. Perhaps the only way true for the bottle of beer and for the to demonstrate what we mean is to pre- beautiful woman, isit then true for sent selections from some of the students' every real thing? Can anything remain beautiful and attractive? I don't think journals. Because of the limitations of so. Invention, Composition, and the Urban College149

(2) Again I can't think of anything to grasping at the ground for dear life write. Just today I was uptight. No taking itsy-bitsy size stepsmy whole reason just on edge, jittery. All that body pushing downward to maintain would calm me was a hot bath. So hot my upward position. that you can see the steam rising and This course was not always a comfort- the mirror gets foggy and the walls become beaded with moisture. Youable one for the students or for us. Be- just lay there and almost fall asleep.cause we tried to stay out of the class First of all it takes about three minutesdiscussions as much as possible, there were to get in and then the water is so hotoften long silences while the students your mind becomes clouded. It's almostwaited for us to direct them, to tell them like enduring a fainting spell, it's like causing yourself to pass out. Everythingwhat to do or to tell them if they were goes from your mind, it becomes en-doing the right thing. We did not re- tirely blank. You don't even have tospond to these silences; we felt that, for fill your mind with trivia, so you won'tthe course to work, the students had to have to think of your problems or be bothered by anything important. Even-be responsiblefor understanding and tually you even seem to lose control ofcoping with such situations. They seemed your arms andlegs.It'slike beingto do both admirably, learning that much conscious but asleep. You have all thecan be gained from silence and that it relaxation, restfulness and yet in somedoes not necessarily indicate a void or a way you are aware of where you are and what you are doing. It's like dream-vacuum. They saw that silence is filled ing you're taking a bath. by many gestures which are often more (3) I love snowclean, white, powderyrevealing than words. The class was soft snow. Footprints left in untrodinitially disturbed that we would not tell upon pastures.Icicles dangling fromthem the purpose of a particular exercise. branches. Flakes clinging to my eye- lashesgetting caught on the tip of myThey often walked away at the end of tongue. But after the snowfall comesthe period muttering "What have we the mess. The black slush and unkemptdone this hour?" To compound the prob- piles against the cars. The puddles up tolem, we also refused to say whether your knees and the ice on the streets.their responses in class were right or For some reason as I go sliding my way down the avenue I get hysterical gig-wrong. They continually pleaded with gling. This isn't too bright because itus to tell them if they had given the right only makes for looser footing. I haveanswer. Slowly they began to understand this clear image of my body lying onthat we were not looking for answers as the sidewalk on the icemy feet in athey understood them. With the exercises drift. Even worse are the puddles. Iand the journals, we attempted to pre- wore my pants over my boots and swam across the street. Dripping from thesent situations in which the students could knees down I shivered as I laughed.discover the way in which they perceived A wet and soggy messI giggled on.and structured their own experiences. If What else could I docryscreamsuch a discovery were made, they would get annoyed? A car went speeding pastrealize that they were the best judges of me and water trickled down my legs. The wind made walking impossible. Iwhether their answers were correct or must have been some sightmy feetnot. HARVEY S. WIENER

Media Compositions: Preludes to Writing

IT Is NO NrWS to anyone teaching college English today thatstudents sitting before us make up a non-literary generation where words and books intrudeupon rather than mold a way of life extravagant in its neglect of thewritten form. To the youngster plugged in to his transistor radio, transfixed before thetechnicolor ghosts of the tv screen, bombarded by magazine pictures of wild anderotic action in all but a very transitorysense, for him the word is buried in a landslide of visual and aural excitement. Ofcourse, as instructors of English and composition, itis our charge to resuscitate thepowers and glories of the written word, to bring the student in some way tosee along with Emerson that words are a mode of divine energy and that wordsare actions and actions a kind of words. Some (but not many) instructors have attempted to explore the possibilities of written language by means of those very media that do hold the student's attention. television, movies, and multimedia presentationsare no classroom strangers. However, these attempts are not always integrated into the compositionprogram in a meaningful way, serving more as motivational devicesto keep students awake than anything else. I should like in this essay to suggest to those who wouldgrant non-written media a place of significance in the writingprogram some student media compositions as preparatory exercises for theme assignments. I donot mean watching network television in class, listening to professional records andtape recordings, or looking at commercially prepared slides or movies in the classroom. I do not mean allowing the dazzle of the media to replace the tedious, discouraging process of learning to write. I do mean, on the other hand, permitting the student to compose in a non-written medium as a prelude to a written exet,Le. By non-written media I include fon is of compositions suchas the collage, the photo essay made from newspaper and magazine presentationsor from the student's own still or slide photography, the cassette tape recording, and the student- made slide and tape multimedia presentation.' Work in filmor video tape, because of their costliness, I exclude although student interest in these forms is high. Having experimented as a frightened amateur with all of these inmy open admissions composition classes, and having demonstrated the approach thisessay introduces to eager but terrified colleagues onmany campuses, I know the anxieties instructors may face w hen they move into media presentations. Fortu-

Harvey S. Wiener, author of Creating Compositions (McGraw -Hill, 19731, is Director of Com- position at LaGuardia Conmiunity College, City University of New York. Faculty at LaGuardia Community College are fortunate to hate, under theterms of a grant from the National Endott ment for the Humanities, supplies of Instamatic and Polaroid cameras. film, and projectors %%Ilia students and teachers may borrots for their ott n projects.

Reprinted from College. English, Vol. 35, No. 5, February 1974. i el) Media Compositions: Preludes to Writing151

nately, students share little of our ownsense of insufficiency and will survive with a smile and a helping hand our difficulties with the Machine Age. And surely outweighing on a grand scale whatever problemswe anticipate are numerous advantages to the young writer's growth and development. In the firstplace we can involve the student in an unthreatening medium which gives him the chance to express his thinking without fear of penalty. It is true that instructors ofart or film classes have critical standards as firm as those we have for written composition; but as English instructors lookingupon a student's collage or photo essay, which of us will say, "This is right"or "This is w rong"? Our responses are essentially emotional. although we would surelycorrect a dangling modifier or a mis- spelled word (as would every one of the student's previous English teachers) there is not much in a visual presentation thatwe would know how to grade or correct. Committed so to words, we are much less rigid in our responses to non- verbal impressions offered by students. This absence of standards of rightand wrong is a tremendous advantage especially for the man or woman with skills problems because it helps reduce self-consciousness and allows the growth ofan clement of creative expression that is often lost in the student's panic forcorrect- ness. There is an advantage too in that student and teacher, because of their mutual inexperience, can develop together botha critical awareness about the creative process in another medium and what James P. Cooney, Jr., calls the "enthusiasm which grows from virginal confrontation with unanticipatedart."' Furthermore, students can demonstrate ina non-w ritten form a conceptual understanding of the terms of au assignment,one that a written activity frequently denies at the outset to the poor writer. (For those who need such proof, media composing is a remarkable indication that mansw ho read and w rite poorly can often demonstrate creditable, fertile minds.) Thereare also some similaritiesin conception, theme, style, form, organization,sequence, and logicbetween the non-written and the written composition. These similarities shouldnot be exag- gerated, yet, very often students may come to terms nicely with problems in media compositions, and these solutionscan make the w ritten work easier to bring to life. Finally, to one committed philosophicallyto the value of personal experience as the core of effective composition,a media production is very valuable. Surely one key goal for the y oungw riter is to translate sensory experience into verbal expression. I have already show n how it is possible to convince even the poorest student to have confidence in his ow n tactile impressions.' If sense experience is the seed from w hich meaningful ss ritten language may eventually grow, every student has w ithin himself that seed.w ith his eves, his cars, his nose, his hands, he makes endless contact w ith the world of the senses. But when written W. ords disappoint or even frighten the student forone reason or another, we can provide an intermediate means for him to convey his sensors responses. The non-u ritten, often non-verbal, composition can allow the studentto grapple

2 "On the Dangers of Pre-Plotting in English," College Composition and Communication,24 (May, 1973), 207. 11-larve) S Wiener, The Single Narrame Paragraph and College Remedianon,College English (March, 1972), 663-664. 152 HARVEY S. 1VIENER

with creative instincts in a visual and/or auditory medium even before writing begins. I should like to explain in detail a freshman English activity with imagery, one that requires first a student-made composition in a simple visual medium, and then a written composition for the same assignment. I shall illustrate both phases of this exercise with student samples. Then I shall suggest how the non-written composition may precedenot supplantsome traditional assignments offered in college writing programs. Towards this last goal I shalluse some of the impromptu suggestions that grew out of various seminars and workshops I have conducted. To allow an appreciation of the nature of imagers, to students uninvolved with words it is important to realize that a standard definition like Laurence Perrine's ("Imagery may be defined as the representation through language of sense experience"), no matter how simple, is really not effective unless language includes visual and other non-w ritten forms. For man\ students imagery is not conveyed exclusively through the language of w ords. I hoped to use the student's ready response to and facility with non-verbal imagers to allow him to see the depth, beauty, and value of the verbal image. I also hoped to allow the student to evaluate the verbal image and to create it from his own range of experience, a poetic task indeed. Starting backwards with averbal activity,Iintroduced Whitman's poem "There \Vas A Child Went Forth," adapting an assignment developed with Don Marion Wolfe.5 After an oral reading, the class concentrated upon the psychological implications of the poem. Did students agree that what a person "Look'd upon, that object he became ... for many years or stretching cycles of years"? Do experiences define the man or woman? What kinds of experiences define the child in Whitman's poem? HON% has Whitman conveyed those experiences to the reader? Through lines like "The early lilacs became part of this child,/And grass and white and red morning-glories and ss hite and red clover, and the song of the phoebe bird ..." and "The mother with mild w ords, clean her cap and gown, a wholesome odor falling off her person and clothes as she walks by" students may acquire a basic, albeit passive, understanding of th, pictorial nature of language as it is realized in the sensors image. The colors, the specific naming of flower and bird, the lines about the motherthese allow the poet to translate his own experience into identifiable entities to which re4ders can then respond. Beyond this students pushed further in their consideration of Whitman's stress upon environment as the essential designer of man's personality. What kind of child do you see based upon the poet's portrait? Suppose it were a youngster today in Harlem or on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue in the Seventies that Whitman wanted to describe. What images would he need then? Professor Wolfe says, "Like Whitman, each of us calls up sights and sounds and moments of taste and touch that answer the question 'What Am I ? ( p. 421). Suppose it were you

4 An Introduction to Poetry (New York, 1969), p. 54. 5 Fora brief discussion of the assignment Nk it h ou t itsisual component, see Don M. Wolfe, Creative Ways to Teach English (New York, 1966), pp. 421-422.

t.) Media Compositions: Preludes to Writing 153 answering the question "What Am I?" by means of imagery. What kinds of images would you use? That last query set the frame for two compositions, both to answer the intriguing question "What Am I?" In the first, a collage (we defined the word and I showed samples), students presented to the class through tactile images what they saw as basic features of their ow n personalities. There are some samples on this and the following page. Presented anonymously, the collages provided the basis for active discussion. What kind of personality reveals itself through the visual representation? What traits did the creator of the collage wish to present about himself? What image best illustrates some trait you recognize? Of course, students enjoyed (as we all do) this amateur psychology. "This person leads a very active life. Look at all the sports figures." "This one was made by a boy. Look at all the porno shots." Or, "This person feels isolated, alienated. There are so many white spaces, and the blacks and whites are lined up one group against the other." Every one of us responded without judging the skill of the artist. We spoke a bit about every collage. Sometimes the analyses must really have missed the mark, but for a student with very little confidence in his own ability to create, it was revealing to hear people respond to and appreciate something of his own making. As I had hoped, the question of accuracy arose. How could anyone be sure that alienation, for example, u as a personality trait the creator of the collage wished to present? How do we know for sure that this is the work of an active personperhaps the creator was %try inactive and merely envious of the active life. On a more basic level, could w e say accurately that a male or female, black

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7 Media Compositions: Preludes to Writing155 or white, youth or adult prepared a given collage? Some students suggested that the visual image had some shortcomings in communicating with certainty. Could the verbal image offer more accuracy, depth, force? Returning briefly to Whitman's poem, I asked students to look again at the lines describing the mother and to assume that those lines presented Whitman's own parent. By means of an opaque projector the class compared a photographic portrait of her with the verbal picture. Which did students think more clear, easier to visualize? Some chose the picture for its instantaneous appeal to the sense of sight. Most students, however, found the verbal image more satisfactory. During discussion the class asserted that the verbal image could appeal on more than one sensory level. Whitman's image itself (though less specific than many might desire) suggests sound and smell as well as action. After some activities on how to build a verbal image, students agreed to attempt a paragraph which would answer in intense verbal imagery the question "What Am I?" We established a list of basic standards,6 urging w riters to express the deepest and most important features of their own personalities. I assured anonymity to those who requested it so that I might read papers freely in class. And as always we examined student models before any writing began. Here are final drafts of two papers, yen, different, yet, despite limitations in content and form, each extraordinary in the personality it projects. The first sample is the work of the student who prepared collage A.

What Am I? West, Clapton, and Flynn I am the ringmaster of a three ring circus formally known as my family. I am the arguments between my brother and the whisperings of my sisters. I am the polluted, greyish-blue sky of Long Island City and the slimy, filthy waters of the East River and Newton's Creek. I am the limp in old Jack's leg or the large red girder that smashed down upon it. To my childhood companions, I was a real Casanova for going out with twin sisters at the same time and to those girls I am a devil. And I am the look that I still receive from their reddened blue eyes. To mom, I am still her blue -eyed bundle of joy, may be growing up to wear the black robe of priesthood, while to pop, I am a future Jim Thorpe sprinting flat races, hurtling over large obstacles with a pole vault, and smacking through defenses for touch- downs. Or am I a future Jerry \Vest, swishing the winning basket at the buzzer? On the football field.' am every player to hold a ball but after ripping my leg open I change from a grow ling bear into a purring kitten waiting to die. In the hospital, I become the uncontaminated cleanliness and the antiseptic fragrance of the ward. I also become the lethal point of the syringe used to render me into the "world of nod" or the scent of flowers I receive from close friends. While listening to my stereo, I become Eric Clapton strumming "Lay la" before close to thirty thousand screaming fans and I also become the tangy odor of marijuana that permeates Madi- son Square Garden. I become one of the fans smoking a joint in the front row. My gang thinks of me as just another head in the crowd but I am still part of each one of them. one person's sneer, another one's smile, I am the hate and the love that exists among them. In the movies I become an Errol Flynn and a John Wayne who rescue the beautiful brown -eyed damsel and slay the cowardly rogue. I am

6See inthis connection'Wolfe, Creative Ways, p.491, and my essay "Single Narrative Paragraph," 664-665. Along w ith the model theme the listing of dearly drawn standards offers the beginning student the best chance for successful writing.

u 156 HARVEY S. WIENER

the pebble in a little boy's shoe, a knife in a policeman's back, a dent on someone's car, a Hank Aaron homerun, my mother's teardrops, a bubble in Raquel Welch's bath, or a derelict stinking of alcohol. I am all of these things and many more. Iam life.

What Am I? A Bloody Nose and Salty Tears Where can I begin to tell of the sorrows and joy s that ha\ e occurred 0%er what has seemed like nineteen centuries instead of nineteen y ears? Maybe it all begins with my first asthma attack. I'm that terrified four year old whose grandmother seems to be more afraid than she is, but is trying desperately not to show it. I am all those giants standing over me dressed all in white. Then they placed me under a gigantic plastic bag. That part was very strange, for grandma had always told me not to play around w ith plastic bags. These bags w ere supposed to be dangerous articles around a child. How come the giants in white weren't told to pull down their pants so they could get it good? Grown -ups got away with everything! Or maybe I'm the harsh, loud words that shot back and forth from my mother's and father's mouths. Or I'm the door daddy slammed so hard I felt I wanted to fall off my hinges. No! I'm the sweet smelling air stirring in the kitchen, lying over and around the chocolate cake, the homemade ice cream and apple pie that grandma has just finished preparing. I'm men the song that choir members bf Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church sings. They're singing me with such faith and deep meaning that if they stopped, the world would crumble with grief. I'm the junkie's mind, standing w ith him in front of the 77th Street Bar, trying to tell him, "Man ou don't need that, get y ourself together brother." See that dark red blood running from Elaine's white nose, that me, the day she informed me that I was doing too well in school, considering that I was black. She couldn't understand where I acquired my intelligence from at all. And that big soaring jet that left Kennedy Airport on February 23, 1971 was me. It took my man to fight ina jungle for a man named Sam, who only knew of him in the form of a nine digit number. And God knows, I'm the salty tears that fell into the coffin of Martin Luther King, Jr. the day somebody decided he needed a long rest. Man, he ga% e his only life to setme free. I'm my mother's face Vi hen the bills pile up. Then she works overtime to make ends meet. She's been the only bread winner since that day daddy slammed the door behind him.

Comparing collage A to thefirst paragraph, students further defended for th--Iselves the strength of the verbal image. The line that offersa picture of sprinting flat races and hurtling obstacles w itha pule vault convinces readers of the writer's preference for the active life and makesmore specific in terms of the student's existence the magazine pictures of athletic events in the collage. The verbal image of the writer at his stereo is muchmore intense and personal than the snapshot of Eric Clapton in the upper left portion of the collage. (Thesetwo together, of course, gave students the best opportunity to judgeone against the other, the verbal and the pictorial, both dealing here w ith thesame subject matter.) The humorous "I am... a bubble in Raquel Welch's bath" is strangely coy and suggestive compared to the flagrant sexuality so much a part of this youngsterthat emerges from the collage. From a structural point of view, as the first w ritten assignment, the "What Am I?" paragraph fortunate)lacks many difficulties which often confound students too early in the semester and therefore allows students to show their strengths, not weaknesses. There is no need to labor a topic sentence. everyone may begin

(2 1 MediaCompositions: Preludes toWriting 157

"1 am...."Students may write a string of images, each image in one sentence, each sentence presenting a different picture about a different thing. Or students may build images in thought groups, raking several sentences to develop through sensory language some personality trait. Not every paper, by any means, was as good as the two above. But every paragraph exploded %k ith at least one image that probed the student's deepest memories and presented in sharp sensoryterms a verbal picture to which anyone could easilyrespond, Having first created a strcessf it visual composition, and realizing its limitations as a mode of communication, the developing w riter investigates the pow er of the verbal image. Creating imagcry himself, he understands much more actively the value of pictorial language in dramatizing his ow n life's experiences, and can learn to respond to such language in important literature. Words for sound, color, action, touch, smell. the reliable tools of the professional w riter in the hands of the novice achieve wonders on any lever Media compositions are effective intermediary stages in more traditional theme assignments too. Without attempting a comprehensive listing, I offer heresome of the activities in rhetoric frequently required of v. riters in the freshmanpro- gram, along 'ith some interesting possibilities for individual or group presentations in the media. Of course, w ritten assignments always follow the media projects. Most of these audio-visual activities I have either tried with my own students in the classroom or have -..amined from students in classes where others have attempted to use this method. Rhetorical Skill Media Composition before the Ilmitten Exercise Description of a place 1. Visit some place which conveys a sharp impressionquiet,noisiness, activity,etc. Convey that impression with a camera and a tape recorder. 2.Prepare acollage on a place you know well, one which you can convey vividly in visual terms.

Prepareaphotoessay(withyour camera or with newspaper or magazine cutouts) in which you relate a story about a robbery, a day in the country, a train ride, a walk in the city at night. Comparison-Contrast 1. In a photo essay, dramatize wealth and poverty in your community. 2. The high school student and the college student: record on a cassette the impressions, opinions,interestsoffered by students on each of these levels. haN e demonstrated in "Single Narrative Paragraph" hov, skills in concrete sensory expression help develop skills with exposition. 1 u3 158HARVEY S. WIPNEK

Argumentation 1. Invent a commercial product. Pre- pare three advertisements in which you attempt to convince people to buy your product. 2. Take pick-sin your immediate college community in order to illustrate your opinion on a key social issue: pollution, women's liberation, urban problems, traffic. Prepare a sound track with words and music on tape cassette to accompany your visual presentation. Description of a person 1. Prepare a collage which will intro- ducesomeoneyouknowrelative, friend to the people in the class. 2. Ask a volunteer to stand before the class and speak for five minutes about himself. Take photographs which attempt to convey some dominant impression you have about the person. Arrange the pictures and present them to theclass.

Similarly, skills in narrative sequence, style, tone, using several supporting examples to develop a paragraph idea, classification, writing introductions and conclusions, figurative languageNI, ith all of these the student and instructor may experiment in the media before the written assignment. Admittedly, time for demonstration and discussion of projects bite heavily into classroom hours. Many instructors report, however, that work with visuals earls, in thesemester allows later on for a more sustained interest on the students' behalf for building writing skills. To hold an inveterate suspicion toward thenon-u &ten medium as if it debases the word as the golden means of communication isa narrowness of vision that will not serve well the interests of this special generation of students.It is an uncomfortable contradiction, too, that many amongus cannot ,varm to what for our students is the very life's blood. But touse the media composition in order to bring students to a pitch of excitement about words and their power iscer- tainly no abdication to the non-verbal. It is insteada little pragmatism that en- riches the learning experience. JOSEPH COMPRONE

Using Painting, Photography and Film to Teach Narration

I exposition and argument.' The theory and practice which is explained here is MOST STUDENTS LIKE, even prefer, the meant to help students refine and become narrative mode. Narration usually is more more conscious of relatively basic nar- easily formed to student experience; it rative principles. Also, this approach to seems more natural, easier to control, and narration should construct a foundation less explicitly rhetorical. But there is, of for the transfer of narrative skills to other course, a sophisticated core of narrative- written forms. rhetorical principles that every narrative I will suggest two methods of teaching writer must control and ust, whether he writes fiction, a brief sketch, or a nar-narration. Both methods will be supple- mented by photography and film, two rative-example to support an opinion he media that provide useful visual para- has presented in an expository format. digms to written experience. Many of our Thesenarrativeprinciplesareoften students are visually sophisticated; they taken for granted because, as readers, we.are able to follow relatively complex have internalized them. A story usually flashback and montage techniques in film begins at the beginning, climaxes in the and television as well as understand rela- middle, and winds down to a graduated end. We notice departures from thattively sophisticated visual perspectives in photographs. But they seldom demon- norm, but we take the norm itself for strate similar skills when they analyze granted. Young writers, however, can improve II use the term "rhetoric" in its most general their own writing by becoming con- sense here. as representative of a body of princi- scious of narrative-rhetoric, of strategiesples that may be used to discover and create form inexperience.I am not speaking of and techniques that a writer may employrhetoric as explicit persuasion. I refer to Ken- in order to organize and arrange objects, neth Burke and Wayne Booth as rhetoricians events, and people in space and time onwho apply the term in similar ways. I do not intend to deal with the very imoortant but ex- paper. In fact, many of the rhetoricalceedingly complex problems of how narrative principles of narration,if thoroughlyskills can be transferred to expository and argu- taught, can be transferred by students to mentati%e contexts at length here. Let me merely mention that the chronological or subjective arrangement of experience in narration is not Joseph Comprane teaches modern literature and distinctlydifferent from the many forms of directs Freshman English at the University ofexperience that we find in the contemporary, Cincinnati. He has published over ten articles on personal, or informal essay. Orwell's "The Road rhetoric, composition, style and media and will to Wigan Pier," and "Politics and the English publish From Experience to Expression. A Col- Language," and William Styron's "Seigeof lege Rhetoric, William C. Brawn PublishingChicago" are excellent examples of such essay Company, this year. forms.

Reprinted from College English, Vol. 35, No. 2, November 1973. 160JOSEPH CONIPRONE written words, when they read a stream-class. of-consciousness novel, or even when Suppose the class has decided to de- they are asked to read an essay or poemscribe a photo of an old woman crossing tnat includes severaldifficultspatical,a busy street. They choose a vantage temporal, or perceptual metaphors. Theypoint, say from a second-story window are, in other words, accustomed to ex-in a building along the side of the street. perience rendered visually, but not ac-They have also chosen to emphasize the customed to experience rendered in writ-visual, with perhaps a few audial details ing. Here are the two approaches com-interspersedsaytrafficnoise,shouts bined with pedagogical suggestions onfrom the sidewalk, or the cries of a boy how to use the photographs, films, andselling newspapers. We begin, then, to writing assignments in a natural sequence.w rite cumulative sentences describing the action, working from general to specific, I on the board.3 Then, I have the class add qualified I begin with a deductive approach. Idetail, always with their eyes on the ask the students to look at a paintingorvisual material and with the point of photograph, preferably one that showsa view, perspective, and sensory appeal continuing action. We begin the com-clearly in mind. Our aim is -o create, as posing process by producing, as a classclosely as possible, the illusion that the in discussion, a group of sentences thataction is actually occurring before the summarize the action in general terms.eyes of the reader. We then select the best sentence, put it We add details to the base clause with on the board or on an overhead projector,three principles in mind, that every de- and use it to generate a whole narrativetail should be clearly related to another, sequence that works from general ob-that the sentence modifiers ought to be servation back through specific details.varied, that w e should never add more Before we begin actually writing thenar-detail than a reader can comprehend in rative, however, we decide as a classona single sentence. Here is an example of three general qualities what visualper-a sentence thatN%as produced using these spective we will take in the narrative;exercises. what senses we will plan to awaken in the reader, 2nd what major and minor details She limped over the curb and pushed her from the painting or photographwe will legs forward from the hips down, her use and in what rough order.2 These bulky brown pocketbook dangling from class exercises usually take a whole class how what they remembered might lead to a hour. The writing begins in the followinggeneral interpretation or impression of the painting or photograph. Such preliminary exercises 2There are numerous exercises one can usegive a sense of purpose and direction to the ac- to get the details of a painting or photograph in tual writing of a narrative. some kind of rough order precious to writing. 31 am assuming at least some familiarity with Have students look at the item for a few min-Francis Christensen's theories, as described in utes and try to recall as much detail as theyNotes Toward A New Rhetoric. My h"rrovv- canSelect paintings that include detailsar- ings from Christensen are slight and very gen- ranged in simple designs to implement observa- eral, however, and are based primarily on the tion and retention (John Peto's "The Poorconcept of the cumulative sentence as the base Man's Store" has worked well this way for me).element in narrative writing. I also emphasize, Then have students suggest in class why they in slightly altered form, Christensen's concept of recalled certain details and forgot others andmodification by addition. Using Painting, Photography, and Film to Teach Narration 161

her wrist carrying her shoulders hightions, gestures, or pieces of dialogue will despite the curve that began at her waistbe emphasized, and anindication of and worked up to the top of her head. where the writer will begin describing Then I have the class respond to thesethe action and where he will stop. But questions:"Arethewords concretemost importantly, the summary ought enough so that the reader can feel theto include some description of the im- action? As each detail is added, can thepression the writer wants to make on his reader relate the specific detail to thereaders and why. After we've produced general picture of the action?" A fewone sample summary in class, I have each students, for example, felt that the laststudent compose his own summary to modifier in the sentencethe curve thatserve as a working plan for his own nar- begins at the woman's waist and followsrative. her spine until it reaches her headdid This approach reverses the process that not clearly relate to the subject of thewe described in the first. Here the writer main clause. The reader, they said, wouldconceptualizes an entire narrative before not get a clear picture, a coherent visualhe begins. When using the first approach, perspective of the ongoing action. he works on cumulative sentences, com- We revised and produced two sen-posing an action-description piece-by- tences. piece. The first approach helps a writer find material and a means of expressing She limped over the curb and pushed herit; the second helps him discover overall legs forward from the hips down, her bulky brown pocketbook dangling fromconceptual forms as he composes. Here her wrist, carrying her shoulders high.is a sequence of classroom exercises, built Her body began to form a curve or ques-uponqualitativecomparisonsamong tion mark from her waist to the top ofphotography, film, and written narrative her head. that should help to combine both the This first approach, then, emphasizes thedeductive and inductive approaches to making of narrative sentences. From thisteaching narration. approach, the writer learns how to bring the details of an experience into smaller, I begin by spending some class time composite narrative units. The core unitanalyzing an action photograph, suggest- of this approach is the cumulative sen-ing what actually happened before and tence, w ith details included, arranged toafter the shot was taken, trying to piece fit a perspective and modified to appealtogether the overall sequence of action, to tht reader's eye. working from the single moment cap- tured in the photograph.* I have had

II 4Select photographs that suggest action and continuity rather than photographic stills, por- The second approach works inductive- traits, or static patterns of imagery. The Search- lyfrom specifics through to a formaling EYE, a brief film distributed by Grove design. I begin by having the class com-Press (16mm, 11 minutes, color), makes an expose a plot summary of the action wecellent transition from photograph to film. It includesstillshotsof several contemporary will narrate, usually in about a paragraph. landscape drawings in juxtaposition with actual The summary usually includes a designa- film of the landscape photographed. To pur- tion of perspective and point of view,chase or rent The Searching EYE send to The Short Film Division, Grove Press, Inc., 80 Uni- some indication of what particular ac- x ersity Place, New York, N.Y. 10003. Rental

0 b 162 JOSEPH CONIPRONE

excellent success with an Associated Pressinto narration. Begin by suggesting how news photo in which two New Yorkthis single shot might fit into an entire police detectives carry a wounded fel-action sequence and work toward de- low-detective from a Muslim mosque infining specific writing techniques that Harlem to a waiting automobile. Theywill help add a sense of motion through are protected by another detective whospace to the written description. warily holds a gun as the wounded man 3. Work specifically on sharpening iscarried toward the automobile. Onsome of the narrative devices I've already both sides of the detectives are taunting,mentioned--have the students develop screaming people, probably also recentlyand practice in class different kinds of emerged from the mosque. I show thesentence modifiers. Participial and abso- photograph without background infor-lute phrases are especially useful devices mation and we begin to build a morefor adding both physical detail andmo- complete account of what happened, astion to a base action, especially when if we were news reporters covering thethey are clearly related to a subjector action. Such an exercise provides a usual-predicate in the main clause. I usually ly welcome complement to straightan-work from single-word modifiers,espe- alysis of written material. It also helpscially concrete adjectives and adverbs, students to associate visual experiencethroughlarge-constituentmodifiers more coherently before they write andprepositional,participial, and absolute ultimately leads naturally to considera-phrases as well as clauses. Specific gram- tions of sequencing in written narration.matical advice and practice usually works We work in class with photographsbetter in this context than in most others and narrative-action sentences similar tobecause the students immediately apply the sentences I described earlier. Afterthe advice to their own narratives. In discussingthegeneralqualitiesofa other words, grammar becomes a matter photograph we move to these specificof style, not mechanics. exercises. After the focused exercises with photography,afilmbecomesanatural I.Have each student compose, duringmedium for the expression of action and the first ten minutes of a class period,detail in motion and sequence. I use only an objective description of the photo-short films. They are better than full- graph. If the class hasn't already spentlength films, when you want a class to some time with description, have themanalyze technique, for two reasons. First, prepare by making lists of specifics fromperspective and detail are more easily re- the photograph with perhaps one sum-called, the "content" of the film ismore mary sentence that describes what hap-obviously affected in a brief film by style pens. and structure. Second, films of less than 2. Have several students read theirtwenty minutes can be screened twice descriptions. Then discuss how these de-and discussed in a single class. Have the tailed descriptions might be transformedclass watch and enjoy during the first showing; you might want them to take feeS1250Purchase price.$125.00. In any notes or even suggest interpretations as case, select photographs that capture continuingthe film is shown a second time. actiona tennis player in the midst of returning a volley, an individual at a restaurant about Films, even very short films, compose to put food in his mouth, a child running. and integrate a great deal of experience

..t..3J Using Painting, Photography, and Film to Teach Narration 163 very rapidly with the illusion of real-lifesequence of events and put them into motion and time. As a result, most filmssome natural order, either by chronology provide a much better metaphor foror by pointing out causative relationships teaching patternthe way specific ex-among various events. Then we consider periences are interrelated and connectedhow and why the filmmaker put the to form a plot, a unified sequence ofexperiences into the form he did. What, action. Photography singles out a singleabove all, did he gain by mixing up the sequence for scrutiny just as a writer mayactual order? Was the filmmaker able to decide to scrutinize a single piece ofemphasize certain actions, gestures, or action, a bit of detail that he wants to bedetails by removing them from chron- sure to get right, as he composes a nar-ological order and :ihowit,g them as they rative. Film, in contrast, lets the viewerwere remembered by the protagonist? see and hear experience in connection and Here are a series of assignments and interrelationships. I often use the shortexercises I use to teach ,iarrative skills film Bang Head Go Bang Bang to dem-with Bang Head Go Bang Bang. onstrate narrative sequence and the de- 1. Have two groups of students un- velopment of a conceptual frameworkravel the flashbacks in the film and pre- for a complex series of actions.5 sent to the class a chronological survey This film works by visual associationof the action. rather than a more traditional or literary 2. What kind of person is the main plot-line. Chronology is purposely dis-character in the film? How would he talk torted and we see the experiences as ifif you met him on the street? What they were coming to us through thevalues does he hold? And what particular mind of a man who awakens with aevidence can you draw from the scenes severe hangover. The protagonist awak-and actions in the film to suppdrt your ens in a small apartment bedroom. Both answers? he and his surroundings are in obvious 3. Have the students select one re- disarray. As he goes to the medicinepeated image in the film and show how chest to take something to relieve histhe filmmaker uses it to unify the events headache, we see flashbacks to the previ-of the film. ous night and we, along with the pro- 4. What does this film say? Does it tagonist, try to piece together the causeshave any message beyond the linking toof the hangover. We see a television box-gether of certain actions in narrative ing match, a confusing barroom scuffleform? If it does, how is that message as if we were one of the participants, anrelated to specific details in the film, to unidentified woman at the bar, the man-events, actions, or gestures,especially with-hangover as he drinks beer at thethose that are repeated or emphasized. bar, as he walks a city street and enters 5. Have the class compose as a group the bar and, finally, a television screenseveral cumulative sentences that describe blacking out as the protagonist is knockeda single sequence of action in the film. cold. Work with variation in modification and I have my students try to unravel thethe relationship among sentence components and details from the film. 8Bang Head Go Bang Bang, directed byUsed together these exercises and media Michael Siporin, 9 minutes, is also available for rental (S9.00) or purchase ($75.00) from Grove materials provide both an interesting and Press Short Film Division. ordered frame for narrative experience.

I ..i. tij DAVID SIFF

Teaching Freshman Comp to New York Cops

IT Is ALMOST 200 tEARS since Blake trans- articulate adults w ho were willing to formed the clockwork of Newtonianspendhoursdoggedlypursuingthe thought into the toering death-symbolphantom of "education"inorderto of Urizen. Freud, Joyce, along with asomehow (miracle of miracles) improve hostof 20th-centuryphysicists,have their lives? presented to our century a picture of I, of course, did not then (or now) decisive forces beyond our reason whichfancy myself on the side of Newton. are intern% fined w ith our everyday lives.Yet, I was not quite as Blakean as I might In linguistics there is grow ing acceptancehave w ished. The w ay I transformed the of the idea that the structure of languageNew cunian approach to freshman comp itself is not imprinted on the tabula rasawas to sty itch textbooks. instead of the of a child's mind but is inherent. Itis Harbrace 7th Edition, I went for one surprising, therefore, that the teachingthat .asheavy on "relevant" writing of w riting has remained rooted in theand NIcLuhanish graphics but which was prejudices of the Enlightenment. if onelight on grammar and mechanics. follows the general procedure of a prop- Within the first month or so, as my- osition,paragraphdevelopment,etc.,students assimilated (grudgingly but with one ought to produce an acceptable nar-perfect respect for my authority) vari- rativei.e., one in w hich the writer'sous essays on the war, racism, women's ideas are rationally presented. liberation, gay liberation,it was clear Two yearsago,I beganteachingthat using examples, even negative ones, freshman composition to a class of Newhad little effect on their writing. The York cops at Brooklyn College. My- first compositions I gut w ere, predictably, social prejudices nom ithstanding("y aturgid, clumsy, and only partially literate. know, every cop is a criminal"RollingA month of suffering w ith such material Stones), my approach to teaching com-convinced me that the "new" approach, positionv, asasrootedintraditionalof feeling-tone unlicensed, w as in no way prejudices as possible. I had never taughtbetter than the old order of reason and composition beforeand, after all, givenrulesand in fact probably was worse. my own obvious lack of experience, whoDoing it the old w ay, the taste in your w asIto impose w hat w as then puremouth might be horrible, but the medi- confusion on a group of not particularly-cine might have some analgesic effect. Thus,forthe monthfollowing, we David Siff is assistant professor of English at worked out of a more traditional text, Brooklyn College (CUNY1. His teaching presently is divided between New York City cops drilling daily on the "simple mechanics" and Vietnam vets. of building a structured composition. But

Reprinted from College English, Vol. 36, No 5, January 1975. Teaching Freshman Comp to New York Cops 165

at the end of that time, the papers I goty ou first had to understand the ABCs were turgid, clumsy, and still only par-of form, the other asserting the reverse. tially literate. And where formerly thereAll that I perceived at the time, how- had been a bit more spontaneity (blindever, was that I had run out of reason- swinging, take your pick), now thereable approaches. It turned out that that was a more conscious employment ofawarenessor lack of itwas precisely "technique," so that various exercises,what led to what I now know was a such as in the use of metaphor, wouldbreakthrough. take on the murderous quality of un- I asked my students to write a short conscious parody. One paper I got, fornarrative through the eyes of those they example, likened George McGovern tofelt to be their "opposites" in society. I a chicken: suggested that they choose topics that had substance(i.e.controversy)and McGovern is a Chicken that they accord to their opposites the During this election campaign,I amsame degree of respect they had for bombarded daily with McGovern viewsthemselves. The rest was up to them. hrough the media, especially his carp-My motive, at the time, perhaps was ing that Nixon supporters are wiretap-personal (wouldn't it be interesting to ping,sabotaging, and using espionagesee what they would do in someone else's against democrats with Nixon's blessing. . .All this to cast doubt on Nixon'sshoes?) but I surely was free of peda- integrity or to ay oid other issues such asgogicalintent.Isimply didn't know defense spending foreign r:oicy- or wel-w hat I was doing. The results, though, fare reform. were amazing. The impression I got the other night watching McGovern speak, was that of a Not only did many of these students chicken walking around in a farm yard,have a feel for their opposites, they pos- pecking at the ground for seed.... sessed a kind of insight and imaginative A chicken eats and ultimately digestsawareness y ou would expect only from the food, discharging the waste throughan especially sensitive partisan perspec- its rectum. McGovern takes the issues, breaks them down to fit his image andtive. The time spent tampering with digests them. He passes it to the people"freedom," then logic, paragraph con- through his mouth. struction, use of metaphor, and all the other paraphernalia of mechanics either There is an irony in describing whatsuddenly connected or else meant noth- follow edbecauseitstronglyimpliesing at all. A white Italian cop, author planning and foreknow ledge. The realityof the McGovern-Chicken paper, proof the situation at the time NY as that Iduced an exquisitely sensitive first person reached a point w here I despaired of anynarrative through the eyes of a black reasonable solution to my problem.I ghetto youth. A real, four-square, bomb- had concluded that old way or new,them-back-into-the-stone-age flag waver, I w as locked into a situation I could dov. rote as a draft resister, as did several nothing about. I did not see at the timeothers in the class. One person wrote that the old way and the new werethrough the eyes of Fidel Castro, still calk- the samethat they both posed,another through the eyes of Bella Abzug. as a basic assumption, a split betweenThe quality of these papers really can- feeling and form, the one insisting thatnot be described. They can only speak before y ou got into the matter of feelingfor themselves. What follows are ex-

.x/ 166DAVID SIFF

cerpts from a few of these papers jux- dont put his hands on me I can live with taposed against immediately preceding some of the racial slurs. papers from the same students. Sample The cops really think they're cool but #1is they dont know shit about my neighbor- from our McGovern-Chicken hood. Most of them live in their lily- writer: white neighborhoods, withthefancy names like Bellemore, Seaford, Bethpaige Lament of a Young Ghetto Resident and Pearl River. . . .Shit, they must Yesterday, today and tomorrow was think we're fools. The kids know where the name of a film I saw recently on tele- the dope is being sold and they dont. vision, and as I walk along Fulton Street, Last week some dude was blown away I'm thinking about today. when he ripped off a junkie. They didn't Today I went for an interview about care, he was just one less nigger. One a job at the employment agency. I waited less piece of dirt or slime. Honkie bas- awhile and then filled out some forms. tards. The white interviewer gave me thesame Why isthat radio car stopping?I old jive about jobs$2.00-$2.85 per hour didn't do anything wrong. "Hey you," for car washing, department store clerk, one cop said, "come over here." My stock boy, janitor, floor cleaner or pump- name ain't hey you, so I just kept walking gas. "Considering you have no high ing and before I knew it I was pushed school diploma," he said, "some of those against the wall and frisked. "What's that jobs have great futures and starting at the in your back pocket, boy?"thefat bottom, you can still work up to a pretty dressed-blue pig had asked. He reached good salary." What shit, I had to get out in my pocket and took my bottle of of that place. Its the same old story all Twister wine. One didn't like my atti- my life. I wonder if they jerk off white tude, the other, my looks and clothes, guys like that. especially my tam, with the Angela Davis The thing that gets me isthe way button. They gave me a break this time white cops look at me. Riding by slowly and broke my bottle instead of my head. and leering at me with their chubby faces "No, he didn't fit the description," one and bull necks just waiting for me to do cop said. Get the fuck out of here, they something wrong so they can beatmy told me. I shuffled off like a good nigger, headin. Sometimes,Ican hea;their sating myself for not saying something in cute remarks about the way my people protest. We aint got no pride and these walk and comb their afros, theircom- pigs dont either. Bullies, with a badge for parisons of a brother to a gorilla or to a license, and a gun for hunting. Law and a Zu-Lu tribesman. As long as whitey order they call it.

SAMPLE #2 ,

Use of Metaphors Dear Morn, Viemamization is a school of govern- know you will find it strange that this ment. The United States has seen fit toletter comes from Sweden, but that's where introduce a system by which some of ourI am now....I am sorry to have to tell know how and experience can be taughtyou this in a letter and I hope you will to the people of South Vietnam. ... understand my position, if you cant then The attendance of these students to thisI will understand. To be blunt I deserted school has been very strict. Cutting classesfrom the Army, Idon't expect Dad to may end in death. Our teachers, trainedunderstand or perhaps ever furgive me, but and are training the South Vietnamese....it was something I had to do. I know that The leaders of the class are promoted toDad fought in World War II and was very supervisory positions.... proud to have served his country. If this In this school there are other subjectswas World Wa. II perhay.; could have Teaching Freshman Comp to New York Cops 167

taught for instance, economics to help buildhad the same feelings. However, it is not, a solid monetary system. We offer con-its an undeclared political war not some- struction to rebuild a country when theirthing which was detrimental to our coun- destiny is again in their hands. try. There was no one invading us, no The principal of this school is Presidentsneak attack, no one trying to change our Thieu of South Vietnam. Board of Educa-way of life. tion head at present is President Nixon. When I was drafted, although I did not The Dean of the Military studies section islike the idea, I felt it was my duty to go. General Creighton Abrams. The Dean ofI was trained and drilled with one thought the Political Science section is Henry Kis- drilled into me. we were at war and we singer.... must fight. I believed this until I arrived [The South Vietnamese] have lost somein South Vietnam. ... When I saw the ground, and perhaps do not fight as wellscope of the military equipment, the large as their instructors but they have distin-air bases, the amount of men sent here, and guished themselves as a fighting army. Itthought about the length of time this so- should also be remembered that they arecalled war had been going on, it seemed stillin training.Itwill be necessary tothat there were a lot more interests at stake watch the current developments . -in here than we knew about. This war is a order that we may see how well the S.oueogood money making business for a lot of Vietnamese have learned their lessons wit!,people. Its a good political issue for poli- regard to their economy and their politic,-ticians, they're not the ones being shot at. There are a lot of people both Americans and South Vietnamese who are getting killed here supposedly so we can stop the takeover of Communism in this little country. If and when it does end and the Amer- icans pull out it will probably go Com- munist anyway. For myself and I know a lot of other guys feel the same way, although maybe they wont take such a drastic step as I did;itdoesn't seem worthwhile to get killed for all the wrong reasons. I felt it was time to think and act for myself. After seeing a few friends and mine get killed and maimed for nothing I couldn't see myself sacrificing my lifefor things which I dont believe in.

SAMPLE #3 I was born and raised in a neighborhood You and I being, sensible Black brothers not quite ghetto yet.Ilearned how toand sisters, know how really lucky we are fight, curse, lie and steal.I can honestlyto be free and living in this wonderful, say those years were very enjoyable aswonderful country. Certainly we know it. hard as they were. The white man has told us so. And of However, after becoming a little learnethcourse like good Black folk, we've listened (or maybe I attribute it to my field ofcarefully to what the nice White man has work), I see an animalistic way of life now.said and then, with wide eyes and gentle Blacks have become so independent as tofaces, we've nodded our heads in agreement. ignore law and order, contrary totheAfter all, the White man knows best. White man's way of life and working Just think of all the wonderful freedoms feverishlytowardsgainingsuperioritywhich Black people have.... We have the over the whites. Semitic groups are en-freedom to sometimes get an education and couraging oppression against the govern--in spite of the inferior curriculum, and

1iJ 168 DAvin meat such as burning the flag, defiance ofoldbooks, and disinterestedteachersto law and abusing our freedoms. The Catho-qualify for a better paying, more prestigious lic Church has also leaned towards leftistposition and then, fully qualified, to apply attitudes. Students in their upper teens re-fur that position and be told by a smiling fuse to salute our wonderful flag, demandn lite face. "Sorry there are no openings." their own type of law and order, burnWe have the freedom to feel the pain of draft cards and provoke incidents 'whichdiscouragement and helplessness as we sec Cause so- called riots. the man in back of usthe White man in I summarize by saying what will becomeback of ushired for the same "no openof our great nation in the near future. Asings" job. And after we've tried again and of now it appears to be at Great Disaster. again and again with the same results, we have the freedom to be called "lazy" because we're not working. Yes, indeed, we really are free. Do you know that we can live in any slum we want to? We can be swindled and cheated and lied to and victimized by the White man. Its called "business initiative." But let a Black man forget to pay a billthat's called "stealing." Of course we always have the law to fall back on. That's a real comfort isn'tit? The nice White man wrote the law. He interprets it and he enforces it, too. But as tui. nice White man has told us the lawis"uniformly administered." Do you know what that paeans to a Black man? That means that if a White pig is driving by and sees a White man chasing a Black man, he stops his pigmobile, gets our, and clubs the Black man. But on the other hand, if he sees a Black man chasing a White man, he stops, goes over, and clubsthe Black man again. That's uni- formity! In additionto freedom, we have opportunity to do the chores too dirty for lily-white hands; opportunity to sweat our lives away so Whitey can live at his ease; opportunity to die in the same poverty in which we were born; opportunity to bear childrenfor Whitcy's usechildren who can look forward to being treatedlike mud, used like horses, then discarded like old shoes... Itell you brothers and sisters, the time has come when no more will Black people die a thousand deaths at Whitey's hands. Now if we die, we'll die only onceas we fight to take from Whitey what he has already taken from us. Now brothers and sisters, now is time for Black people to decide their own fate. Whitey must not treat our children as he has treated us. He must nor and he shallnot. Come nov. get your gun and follow me!

j.t Teaching Freshman Comp to New York Cops 169

It was simply staggering to me thatFidel. Ifeel that if at this time I were these students could have produced such to hold free elections the yankee im- papers. Barring the possibility of plagia- perialists would take this opportunity to sabotage my efforts, and the end results rism (which in one instance I did not would be a return to the days when entirely rule out), the cops had spoken Fulgencio Batista was in power. I be- through their opposites with more pas- lievefirstofallthat we must work sion,insight, w it,and command than together (the Cuban people) and learn they ever had for themselves. After sam- totrust ourselves before we hold so- called free elections.I have very little ple #2 had been read aloud in class, one faith in the so-called free elections, we of the cops turned to the writer and have seen how many of our neighboring said, "man, if y ou know that, how the friends have fallen into the yankee trap. hell can you believe anything different?" The CIA sets up the man they think can run the country and then they hold free The question could not have been put elections. The people in turn dont like more succinctly. The writerreplied, this and then you have arevolution. simply enough, "Well, I understand it Your government goes through alotta but I'm not for it because its against the trouble to destroy the well-being of our law." The other cop waved his band at brothers, this makes me very bitter. him in total, unbelieving disgust, a ges-Student.But dont you think the major- ture which ended the conversation with- ityof people should have aright to out settling the question. chose their own government and that For all my surprise, there was still no interference by anyone...is wrong. People everywhere want to be free, man real insight. My brain reeled under the was born to be free. We should allow weight of conflicting possibilities ("who him that god-given right. knows, maybe these Archie Bunkers have souls after all!""these people have theFidel:Everything with you people is god. Dont you believe in yourselves, why do potential of being the deadliest under- you have to use god as your scapegoat. cover agents'")but as far as perceiving People in Cuba are satisfied by the way anti of this in terms of writing, the matter this government is run. We dont need rested well below the surface of con- the yankee totell us how to run our sciousness. Feeling that I was a juggler internalaffairs. You sec the yankee is nothing but ahypocritical giant who keeping a good act going rather than a only cares for the almighty dollar not teacher probing more deeply into his the almighty. They could care less what subject,I next assigned a dialogue be- happens to the Cuban people... Time tween the opposites the stud-nts had and time again we have seen the false promises made by the american govern- written about and themselves. Again the ment and the american millionaire capi- results were startling. In case after case, talist, who exploits the poor people by the opposites carried the argumentand enslavi ng them so that he can profit. I w hat'smore,thestudentsthemselves can show you how the americans control knew it and talked about it openly. The most of the industrial interests in america latina, and how they live in fashionable following excerpt from a student's dia- villas whereas the poor peasants live in logue with Fidel Castro is illustrative: huts and work like dogs to make a living. The americans are no different than the Student,Fidel, you say the Cuban peo- spaniards. The spaniards used to enslave ple are free from tyranny. If they really our people IA hile they also lived in fash- are as free as you say, why not let them ionablevillas,andtothisday their exercise the right to choose a different wealthy- south american ancestors are do- leader if they so desire. ing the same thing.... 170 DAVID SIFF

Student:Dc you see the possibility in thepreliminary maneuvering, with an im- near future of resumed diplomatic rela-pression of conviction rather than of tionsbetween Cuba and theUnited States? And if so, what are your plans deviousness. for the future? That all of these papers should have shown such sensitivity to the rhetoric Fidel: At this time the possibility of re-of different socio-political typesisin suming diplomatic relations is not in our plans. There are too many' differences ofitself surprising givent!-.ealmost total opinion between our governments andabsence of rhetorical awareness in the anyway, your government has not madeearlier papers. But by far the greatest any efforts in this area. My plans forsurprise was discovering the degree to the future are to see that the Cuban peo-which these people could emotionally ple obtain what they have been denied for yearsself-respect and dignity. and intellectuallyidentify with types they themselves named as their opposites. As in the former pieces, it will be noted What did itall mean? The answer, that the writer seems to take wing inbeyond the boundaries of this paper, will the disguise of his opposite while plod-probably have to be drawn from psy- ding along when speaking for himself.chology. Some contemporary schools of Not only does he accord Fidel morepss chotherapy (Gestalt and Jungian for space but he builds his arguments withexample) see the traditional conscious/ more conviction, self-assurance, and ver-subconscious division of personality as a bal dexterity than he does his own. Thedialectical tension between opposite sides one point the writer wants to make forof the self. So I Ing as this tension of himself, he seems to lose as Fidel mountsopposites remains remote from aware- his rebuttal. The result is that the writerness, so long does it manifest itself nega- changes the subject rather than offeringtivelythrough unconscious projections, an argument for his own position thatprejudices, etc. But if ever contact with might have equal conviction and sub-"the other" can occur more consciously, stance. The one point in the dialoguethe results, far from being negative can (just after the "student" concludes "Wepoint the w ay towards emotional growth. should allow him that god-given right"),In the terms I aui describing, it is fairly where Fidel himself changes the subjectclear that my students, by means of an rather than answers directly, producesunwitting classroom device, came into an impression not necessarily of weak-contact with these "split-off" sides of ness and evasiveness but somehow oftheir ow n personalities and in so doing, strength. God, of course, had nothing totouchedpotentialitiesoffeelingand do with the point the student was mak-sympathy they did not know existed. ing. But Fidel picks up the phrase, turns Over the remaining part of the semes- itinside out,first making the ratherter (several weeks), the quality of the ingenious distinction between belief instudents'writingslippedparticularly God and failure to believe in yourself,w hen they returned to their own per- then driving home the familiar point ofsonae. But their last papers were still Yankee religious hypocrisy with a ra.herbetter than their first ones and, more effective turn of phrase. The stageis importantly, a number of students began then set for an attack on the historic openlyquestioningvalues andbeliefs role of capitalism in "america latina," anthat only weeks earlier had been steeped attack that is carried off, thanks to thein irrevocable anger, cynicism, and self-

I ) Teaching Freshman Comp to New York Cops 171 righteousness. For me, the key was thatnow he thought of himself as a student. my students were for the first time ask-The sense of irony and skepticism that ing questions rather than merely swal-the statement initially evoked for me lowing assignments. At lunch one day,was, of course, unirtended. What the a few members of the class were tryingstudent meant was that, for the first time to tell me what they had gotten out of thein a very hard life, he had come to value course. They jokingly complained that Ihis own mind. The rather earnest agree- had turned them into a bunch of liberals,ment amongst theothers onlylater then one of them said with surprisingmade me realize that something impor- seriousness, that the real change for himtant had indeed taken place during the was that in the beginning of the semesteryear. In a real sense, what had occurred he had thought of himself as a cop andwas, for me, a beginning.

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"t-"1. - t HARVEY S. WIENER

The Single Narrative Paragraph and College Remediation

A. Women's Liberation B. 'Women's Lib Wmen's liberation is good in one way, It is some people's belief that history but not in another way. Wen= should be repeats itself. This seems to be true in paid the same amount of moneyas a men, this generationconcerningwomen's in some field, for example. If wemen have rights. the knowlegde to becomenurse, doctor or Many people may want to know just any other field, wemen should be paid the what more do women want. They feel, sam amount of salary. If she doesn't have the since the early I900's, that women "have knowlegde for that particular field, then come a long way." Ithink you would she should not be paid the same salary. I has e to be in a women's place to know think that wemen should have the same exactly m hat they are looking for. Wom- rights as a man. Because if a lady doctor is en want more than just the right to vote. examining a patient, if she doesn't have the The) want to be able tot alk intoany knowlegde, the patient eighter will become field of employment and except to be very ill or die. There are some job's in treated as equally as men and paid on which wemen cann't work at, for ex-ample, the same level. sanatation department, plumer's ETC. There are many more rights women want but there is something else that is missing from women's freedom. That is the attitude of men. Men always seem to look down women regardless of her abil- ities. The women's liberation movementcan be helpful as far as making women's hopes come true. On the other hand it can be harmful. THE' TWO SNIPLFS A110%}, tell the sad results ofa t) pical expository theme assignment in a writing skills class in a communitN college at the start of thesemester. Although the mechanical errors remain intactto stress in passing the scope of the writing difficulties now confronting teachers of college Englishin the new wave of open admissions policies,' thispaper focuses instead upon problems in form and

Harvey S. Witmer is Assistant Professor of English and Coordinatorof thewriting programat LaGuardia Community College ICUNY's newest unit), and AdjunctAssistant Professor of English at Brooklyn College He is writing a compositiontext for McGraw-Hill based upon the principles in this essay.

11 hope too that the mechanicalerrors, especially in sample A, tell whata disservice it is (for the community college youngster) to hold with thoseinstructors who, facing better prepared freshmen, opt for benign neglect in language skills and frownupon any attention to correctness as"nice-nellyism" Although the graduate of therwo-y ear college will provide a variety of non-

Reprinted from CollegeEnglish,Vol. 33, No. 6, March 1972. The Single Narrative Paragraph and College Remediation 173 content facing theoungster with inadequacies in composition. The samples on w omen's libcratiuli assert death to me that the expository essay is the wrong place to begin for remedial students. Because exposition as it is defined and employ ed in Lollegc composition courses too often deals with social, literary, and philosophical concepts remotc from the student's sphere of operation, and because the essay Lk en the simple four-paragraph kind snub es structural complexities too large for the skills student to confront from the outset, I w ish to suggest as the core of remedial w riting instruction in the LuI1Lgi. Llassruum the single narra.ave paragraph that relates in vivid language a memorable experience in the student's The expusitura essay as a a% tiring exercise for the skills student contains built-in failure dea ices. Although we as teachers mac be excited beyond measure by the La cnts of our day (our changing times, ay omen's rights, new sexual freedom) and nay) find merit in constructing arguments for abstract essaas ("The Most Impor- tant Event in the Last Ten Years," "A roman's Role in a Man's World," "My Definition of Lone ", 2 students du not net ssarila define relevance as relevant events in the a% odd Eh,.. Ma students po, .ely yawn through iny ent "asm w ith the ideas behindoluntets armies and moon walks, new freedoms anu auto- mated societies. Those a% hu are interested in such abstract joa s of space exploration (On .!1in a sentenc,: ur two the full range of their delight, then drift into an aimless and elliptical orbit of repetition and inconsequence. Expository topicsso remote from the student's actual experience require a sophistication that many college freshmen man haa c but most remedial students dunot. the ability to use as supportia c detail materials they haa e read or heard in a wide range of literary and intellectual encounters. Must students with writing troubles read poorly too; AA if they ha% c linked learned about relevant cacnts through the television, radio, or newspaper, students must not only haa c understood the information presented bout a topic frequently marginal to theiron %ital concerns, but they must be able to recall the material as 'A LII and compose it in some kind of meanirigful prose, both read and cffectia c. All these difficulties are compounded when the student must :men- hc formalism of the essay with its often a% himsical paragraph shifts, its introductory statement, its sentence -lung transitions, its thesis statement, its elaborated conclusion. The essay un an abstract idea might be the end-point toward hich students siiuuld muy c. How caer, until more elemental skillsare mastered, instructors should pay little heed to the essay as the student's vehicle for written expression. The freshman theme as single narrative paragraphovercomes many of the intellectual services for the community, his employer wi I be seve-ely less liberal and more elitist about correctness (hal must professors. Spelling, f(,:. example, announces to most non- academics the degree literacy of the writer to such an extent that puor spellers are marked as low on brain power. Graduates of career programs in the world of business, health services, industry, or technology will Juuncr or later write a upon or memo that sonic superior on the job can use as a gauge for intellectual 1hermc, job/ ability. We with broader scopes know that spelling, punctuation, and sentence structure du not always reflect the quality of the mind beneath, but if only for those whv, disagree ,and who decide upon our students' promotions), each for correctness we must. 2These were topics used by several teachers at Quccnsbutuug i Community College in order to determine. whether or not a student should be placed in regular freshman composition or a writing skills class.

I 174HARVEY S. wiENER

problems that the expository essay presents. In the first place,attention to a well written paragraph of three-hundred words makes iteasier for the writer to deal with structural elements. A topicsentence and a closing sentence arc considerably easier to grasp and refine than introductory andconcluding paragraphs. By means of a focus on the paragraph the studentdirects his energies toward themore basic unit of the composition whichmay later serve efficiently as a conversion device for the essay itself,3 Secondly, thenarrative allows the student to employ information rooted in his own physical, emotional,and intellectual fiber. The obvious advantage here is that details,because of their indelibility, surface easily as the students write, with their own experiential realityas the core of the composition the Youngsters need recall nothingremote from their own worlds. And questions of arrangement of detail and othersophisticated organizational problems are, in the meantime, subordinated in the chronologicalframework of the narrative. \lore attention may turn, then,to the nature of supportive details themselves. Through the application ofsensory language to real experience successesin writing are often immediate students learn to tell logical, interestingstories of rea- ionable length and vividness. But theseMO narrative paragraphs written by the remedial students representedon the first page of this essay speak for themselves. Sample A-1 below was written by student A above;and sample B-1 came from the same student who wrote sample B:

A-1. Man Against Fish B-1. An Embarrassing Day The day I caught a king Cod fish, out IA Up to this moment, I'llnever forget Montauk Point, Iwill never forget the the drastic and embarrassing daymy moment I experienced that spring day out eighth grade teacher choppedmy locks of on the ocean. One bright and clear blue hair. As I strolled to school that morning, morning, my family and I droveto the end the bright sun shown down throughmy of the Island, to do some of the fishing that shaggy long bangs and ontomy face. was going on out in the Island. On t: e way Everything was fine; nothing couldgo to the Island, my family and I were talking ss rong. I had completed all 111V homework about the different kinds of fish thatwere for that day, and was prepared fornew running at that time. My father said, "Cod, lessons. When I arrived at my ordinary Flounders, and Flukes". So I said, "Let'sgo red brick school house, my friends in- fishing for Cod fish". My family agreedto formed me that today was inspection. This go Cod fishing, and we did. At six AM. meant el.eryone had to be in tip-top shape. we sped into the fishing dock area, and my Our hair had to be neat andour shoes father looked over the situation, and de- shining so that we were able to see the cided to go fishing on a large brown boat, reflection of our freshly cleaned uniforms. the Mary 11. When a fog horn honkedat We all marched into the classroom and six thirty the boat pulled out, and went for took our regular seats. Seeing my eight- a cruies of eighteen mile ride into the ocean. grade teacher curiousltlooking around Then at eight o'clock the boat arrivedat the the tense-strickened room with her stern fishing grounds, and Captain Ka llous looked face, I tried t' hide behind the huge bot over the side and shouted in a deep voice, in front of me. Vet it was to late; she "All lines down." The person next to me discos ered me vith my hair hanging in caught a fifteen pounder which foughton nm e es.Ijust sat there stunned trying the wooden deck. It smacked its white tail toss atch her angry face turnpurple. from side to side. Shortly after, I got hit Suddenk , she grabbed a pair of fresi.ly 3Sce Joseph D. Gallo and Henry W. Rink, Skaping CollegeWrumg (New York, 1968), pp. 125-135. The Single Narrative Paragraph and College Remediation175 with a bite. The pole started to bend, and sharpened sheers out of her draw, and I could feel the the weight of the cod fish slammeditclosed. The next thingI in the pole. It took me about twenty minutes knew, she was snipping away with those to reel up a fighting cod fish from the cold and ugly silver scissors. Now, there choppy blue water. As I was reeling up the Was nothing I could do except die a slow fish,it was man versus the elements. It death. When she was finished, she ex- takes a specai skill to reel up a large cod claimed, "There, now you can see!" As fish, because as the fish is hooked he will everyone glared their eyes at me, I felt tend to pull down. As the fish is pulling the warm tears roll down my cheeks. down, you do not reel up, because the fish- From that day on, I wore my bangs very ing line will have an excess of tension, and short. the line will break. By the line breaking you will lose your rig and the main thing, the fish. So I reel up a thirty five pounder, and I entered the fish into the pool. It took first place, and I won twenty six dollars and changes for the largest fish caught that day on the Mary IL It takes no mastery to see the shortcomings in these samples. But even the hardest-line advocate of expository essays cannot miss the remarkable improvement in over-all quality from theme A to A-1, from B to B-1. Whatever his individual potential, the student seems to work closer to that potential in the second sample than he does in the first. Furthermore, there is no mystery as to the elements of achievement and how they were attained. Drill on the topic sentence as the statement of paragraph purpose in the first lines revolves around two basic requirements. does the topic sentence mention the subject specifically and does it contain some assertion of the writer's attitude toward the topic he plans to develop in the paragraph. Further work on topic sentences involves expansion, students are asked to identify in the opening lines the place at which the event occurred and the season or month of the year. The complete and engrossing topic statements in A-1 and B-1 result from such instruction. Students are encouraged to write bits of exact details like "choppy blue waves," and "when a fog horn honked" by a series of exercises that explain and explore the meaning of concrete sensory language. One effective method of introduction to the language of the senses is to ask students to observe the classroom in which they sit, and to write sentences that tell sounds they hear, colors and actions they see, impressions of smell and touch they receive as they participate in the writing experience.' Later on, freshmen may be askedto expand an incomplete mention of place or person or thing by employingsensory language. After comparing the visual quality in these two groups of words

an old book an economics book with yellowed pages and a torn binding my pen my smooth per that clicks when I push chi silver tip abreeze a breeze smelling of earth and pushing the window shades with a clatter 4See Don M. Wolfe "Crucial First Assignment. Describing a Room," Elementary English, XLII !October, 1970), 784-786. 176HARVEY S. WIENER students can easily create concrete pictures for words like desk,sweater, pocketbook. If they are made au are that the narrative paragraph unfolds througha series of thought units, young writers can expand each unit of thoughtw ith such concrete imagery. In sentence structure, achies ementscome about through experimentation with coordination and subordination. Mans remedials oungsters do not know the difference between and and hut, nor are diesaware of the levels of mature writing that may be achieved through various subordinatingstructures. Samples A-1 and B-1 still show too many simple sentencepatterns, and there remain a number of technical errors, but at least there isa nexus of effectis e expression through which to work out mistakes in mechanics. To try correcting spelling andsentence construction errors in sample A is worthless because the wholepiece is of itself of little value. In A-1 on the other hand,to suggest correction is to introduce a mode of operation which will add respectabilityto an already effective written exercise. To stimulate those students who have difficulty infinding topics, I try to organize each theme activity aroundsome general experience ("Remembering Youth," "The Teacher," "The Car in My Life"). Discussionprior to writing is essential and may be facilitated by presentingto the student a list of incomplete sentences which reflect the general theme topic for the week. Each studentcom- pletes aloud one of the sentences. Fora theme about recalling schooltime experiences, for example, here are some sentences that evoked particularly lively completions:

1. When I played hooky, 1.... 2. We always got in trouble when.... 3. My teacher lost her temper when.... 4. My teacher understood when.... 5. I was embarrassed at school when.... The responses to these questions knowno cultural or ethnic bounds; all of my students are eager to talk about theevents in their lives and every life style finds some application to these questions. Aoungster N% ho completes the statement too briefly may be prodded gently las the teacherto fill in details of background, of time and place, of action, thus setting thestage for the coming activity in writing. And sentences like theones above may be used as the starting points for student paragraphs as well. Prior to each writing activit%, Itry to help students recall the specific skills they have learned in the, previous weeks, skills designedto add both liveliness and maturity of expression to their creations. Hereis a checklist of helps and pointers I distributed beforeone writing exercise:

1. Write a topic sentence to include anexact statement of your topic and some opinion you have about the topic. 2. Try to state the time and place of theevent in the first few lines of your paragraph. 1. Try to use several instances of sensory language in expandedpictures: a. mention at least three colors b. use at least three words thatname sounds c. use a word that appeals to the sense of smell The Single Narrative Paragraph and College Reinediation 177

d. use a word that indicates a sensation of touch 4. Mention people and places by name. 5 Use livch tcrbs that indicate actions. Shots people in the midst of activity when you mention their names. 6. Start at least three sentences Ns ith ttords on the list of subordinators you examined last week. 7. Start one or two sentences with a word that ends in -ing. S. Start one or two sentences with a word that ends in -1y. I do not think this is at all w hat Michael Kressv meant w hen he wrote about the community college youngster that "the student must not be clamped inan tin- t iclding grid of rigid, detailed tt riting assignments,"5 surely there is no stifling of indit iduality and ereatit c thrust in these prescriptivemeasures, because each student w orks from the most original of all subjects. hisown experiences. It further needs reminding that the remedial student,so long as he does have "the freedom to des clop his ON% n subject matter,"6 finds no insult in explicit statements on theme content and st% Ic. Rather, he feels a certain security in knowing exactly what the criteria for successful paragraphs Ire. The single narrative paragraph is not the end point of a solid program in writing for students w ith skills difficulties, but a number of assignments that encourage the student to explore his own life for materials of composition can teach him effectively that he does hate taluable information about which to w rite. Once confidence in his own materials is established in the writer, the in- tructor may experimentNt, ith more mature paragraph forms. Comparison- contrast, cause-effect, Bing several instances to support one topic in a paragraph, definition, ildssification. these too can be effectively developed through experiential subject matter. At some point in the semester statistics,cases, quoted material, and paraphase may be introducedas other types of effective paragraph detail. Ultimately, the student can approach the abstract expository essayon his own terms, a topic like "women's lib" may be developed successfully through instances in which the student has confronted prejudice because ofsex; has dealt with women in professions thought essentially formen, has been the child of a working mother and can call up feelings of lonelinessor neglect; or has read or heard the '..-.Pest from Betty Friedan, has view edon television a rally for women's rights, has been inspired b% the intriguing pages of Sexual Politics. But hisown experiential reality ought to be the place w here a student is encouragedto look first when he meets an abstract idea, especiallyas he learns the writer's craft in its early stages. "The Most Important Event in the Last Ten Years" could grow effectively from some occurrence that touched the y oungster's life closeup. To define love, hate, fear, courage, or loneliness, indtidual bouts with these feelings must serve as substantit e core for composition. And toward the successful execu- tion of the term paper in history, the psychology final, the sociology report (important goals all of most writing programs), we have not been derelict. the repeated stress on detail makes the student aware of the need for supportive material in any kind of written exercise, whether that supportive information 5"The Community College Student. A Lesson in Humility," College English, XXXII (April, 1971), 777. 6Ibid. 178HARVEY S. WIENER

be statistical, illustrative of cases, paraphrases of booksor articles or teacher lectures. As the course of instructionprogresses, therefore, the student develops a vision of the available areas to which hemay tarn in order to support any topic he is asked to consider in writing. Before they beginto write any theme, I encourage my students to ask themselves these important questions (and for "in-class" compositions I have these questionson the blackboard): 1. What have I experienced in my own life that Ican recall vividly enough to help me support with details some aspect of the topic? 2. What have I read lately (or can read easily and quickly) thatwill help me support with details some aspect of the topic? 3. What have I seen or heard on television, in the movies,on the radio, or from my friends, relatives, or teachers that will help me support with detailssome aspect of the topic? If the student has an answer to questionone, he knows that the substance of his paragraph must rely uponsensory detail for concreteness. he might even develop a narrative paragraph to advance his positionon an abstract idea. If question two inspires thought, the student knows hisconcrete details must be paraphrase or quotation with some reference tosource of information. Details selected in response to question three may be developed with an eyeto bothor eitherthe sensory or the supportive material available through paraphrasingor quoting statements, examples, statistics, or cases. When the student moves tomore abstract regions of argument, then, he is armed with a variety of approachesto detail. With the nature of detail clearly in mind, young writersmay confront more easily the prc.blems of form. The theme below is the result ofan exercise in a more complex form of exposition than the straight narrative 1. 'ragraph,one introduced much later in the term. Here students were specifically requestedto use several examples or instances to argue about some aspect of the automobile in today'sworld. I find this theme particularly exciting in spite of its limitations for severalreasons. its subtopics are so clearly stated; it attempts to employ more thanone type of detail, and it puts into practice quite nicely the intent of the questions Isuggest students consider before they write.

Safer Cars Although automobiles are still very dangerous, theyare becoming more safer as time goes by. Safty idems are being pacedon the outside of the passenger area to prevent or to help lighten the effects of a collision. Plans for the Motor Vehical Safty Standers by the National Highway Safty Bureau havealready started. Strengthing the fuel tank of a car, whichan explode during a collision, and the use of an air bag to prevent the impact of the vehicals aretwo of the safety plans. Commercials on television said special steel guards will be placed on the side ofcars, besides the metal tip tires which will let thecare ride safer on ice. Also, some of the safety devices will be placed inside the car to prevent injuryto the driver and passengers by themselves. While the car won't start until the driverpasses a mechanical test to prove he is sober, it also won't start unless the seat belts are buckled. Since the special lights on and in the car will flash when thecar is moving faster than the legal speed limit, the driver will know when he is speeding andso will other people. Another

1 The Single Narrative Paragraph and College Re-mediation 179

safty device inside the passenger area is the gauge which will show how much air is in the tires. Signals, signs and fixing of roads are also making driving alot safer. ' henever I am am cling in my old Pontiac I almost always pass some road improvement operation. Just at the New York City-Nassau line on the Grand Central Parkway crews of men without shirts work behind large white road dividers and build new lanes. I saw a new type of traffic light on the Van Wyck Expressway which allows cars to enter the road more evenly and safely. Because of a red and green light system, only one car at a time may pull off the ramp and onto the highway. As long as cars are around they w ill always be dangerous, but death, injury and damage will drop with the development of new safety standards and devices. There we have details draw n from life and from the media that are significant sources of informatkn for the student. After class discussion of the sort I mentioned earlier, a student in another class limited the abstract topic of w omen's liberation to consider the children of working mothers. There w ere no specific directions as to w hat kinds of details should be used (just the usual review of the variety of details available). But for this oung ladycertainly more sophisticated in composition skills than the other students I hate quotedthe narrative paragraph rooted in experience and rich in sensory language becomes the means through which to argue her point.

Deprived Children The children of working mothers are often deprived of the security of a healthy and loving env ironment because their mothers are not always around w hen they are needed. As a young child IA ith a w urking mother I felt her absence deeply. One of the many incidents that explains inattitude is as follows. On my first day in third grade, there w as a v iolent storm. Jubilant at the prospect of a new teacher and new friends, the class was in a state of excitement because of the violent storm. However, this happy enthusiasm soon wore off w hen streets flooded and winds soaked to sixty miles per hour. All the classes w ere assembled in the basement and the principal announced that no one would lease unless accompanied by a parent. Nervously hugging my new notebook to my thin jacket, I pray ed that somehow my mother would get to me. A slow procession of mothers holding raint.oats, umbrellas and books trudged in to pick up their fidgety children as I concentrated on a speck on the floor. The hours unfolded gradually and soon I stood in the middle of the huge gray basement, alone except for my faithful teacher. The fear of going out in the hurricane was lost in the agony of shame that I felt by not having a mother at home like everyone else. This incident is not an isolated onechildren of working mothers always feel a sense of loss and shame.

Several more vivid picturesof the principal, perhaps, or the faithful teacheras she waits with the studentA% ould add length and vividness to the paragraph, it is true, but in "Deprived Children" the w ricer herself has bridged the gap between abstract and concrete. After the% have grasped soundly both detail and paragraph form, student and teacher may move to the expository essay of four or five paragraphs. The topic sentence is expanded to the introductory paragraph, sub-topic sentences serve as opening sentences for body paragraphs, larger transitional elementslike sub- ordinating structures that refer back to the substance of a previous paragraph are introduced, the dosing sentence becomes the conclusion, a paragraph that tries to set the whole topic in a new perspective. But at the heart of all these con- 180 HARVEY S. WIVNER

corns with form lies the essence of content re% caled through detail. Here, it seems to me, is a very acceptable four-paragraph exposition froma skills student in response to a theme assignment "Machines. For Man or Against Him":

Machines Can Be Against Man As Well As For Him In today's w orid, machines play an important role. Todaymore than e% er before machines are used for manufacturing, transportation and niedicene. These mechanical devises have helped us a great deal to ad%ante for % aryl. But as every thing else, just as machines can be used for man; they can be used against him, too. As one looks around him, he can see the w onderful advances made by machines. In transportation, w e now hay e automobiles, jets,steam ships and trains. For instance, a trip that use to take six day s by ship can now be reached in six hours by jet. Myaunt suffered all the way to London ona French Line ship for a y% hole week; today she might step into a silt cry jet before breakfast andstep off into the bright yellow sun of the same day. This new airplane industryhas also gi% en jobs to hundreds of thousands of people all 0% er the world. Each daynew impro% ements are being made. I read in Life magazine that in 1975, the United States is goingto have the Boeing SST which w ill go up to a speed of 1,000 milesor so an hum making the time betty eon places even shorter. Besides the jet ad% ancements, there's the automobile. This% ecle is the one most often used for transportation. It has ad% anted froma so called horseless carriage to a gas engine mo% ingeicic. In todayworld this machine is no longer a luxury but a necessity. People now depend on it for goingto work as well as for pleasure rides in the country. Because the -,.9rldis nio% ing so rapidly , these machines are working for man in an important way. Although these machines ha% c helped nun, machines used todayarc also killing lum. The automobile is one of the iireatest killers. The National Safety Councilreports that 56,400 deaths resulted in car accidents in 1970. I watchedone example first-hand. One afternoon last December a small boy ona new red bike rode carefully across Stu °:t in Queens as he normally doese% cry afternoon. Only this time a sports car zoomed around the corner at a high speed. The boy not expecting thiswent right through the w indshield w ith a crash of broken glass. I hadto close my cy es when I heard the boy scream. f lc died thenext day. This is just one of the accidents that occur each y ear. Automobiles don't onlykill man by accidents, but also poison him by polluting the air. The New York Times Almanac shows how much of today's pollution is caused by the great number of automobiles inuse, and how pollution causes a number of deaths for people with lung diseases and for old age people. \lachines may have their bad side, but the good they dois of greater quantity . What would we do without these machines like the automobile:How could we advance in medicine, transportation and manufacturing: What wouldour lives be like? Although I personally find the single narrative eventa much more exciting type of written assignment, the student hasy% orked reasonably well m ith the paragraph that uses more than one instance tosupport a position. The design of the essay itself as a simple comparison- contrast employs substantial details of the sort the students work with all semester long. And the form showssome mastery: the proposal is stated at the end of the first paragraph, each body paragraph makes a clear statement of intent in the first sentence, the transition hem cell paragraph two and throe is effective, and the conclusion does attemptalbeit unsurely to conclude. The stress on writing from experience has many advantages, butone of the most '.-nportant is that such a stress allows the student to come to terms with his own existence. By sifting through his singular confrontations with life and The Single Narrative Paragraph and College Remedintion 181

time and employ ing these in a \\ ritten composition, theriter develops a sense of his om, n responses, a %%a\ of thinking about his muti atiuns and impressions. This sense is often blinded in the rigorous attention to the abstractessay that forms the basis of most fieshman su I frequently assign theme topics that insist upon the experiential e% cut and its exposition through sensory language. To me the narratioc is not a form alien to expositor\ %%thing nor excluded from its ranks. Ind the coming to terms rr ith his u \% n life that narration frequently demands is the indispensible seri, ice fur the student that the good compositionprogram performs. In no other college classrooms (except perhaps in creative writing electives) is the student the subject matter of the course, for that reason Iam a staunch proponent still of required \%riting in the freshman's plan of study. Those who urge its demise har e missed the extraordinary opportunity to act as guide for intellectual and emotional growth, to provide a comfortable and impartial setting for the exploration of timely e and beha%ior, of response and action, of feeling and thought. Tu the string of benefits properly enumerated by a recent spokesman for required courses in communication skills"mental discipline, increasing sens;,i \ itsto the subtleties of language, and basic \\ thing skills "' must certainly be added the advantage of self-exploration. Putting one's o\rn experiences in the frames ork of abstract concepts is a notable method of thinking and makes access to the community of ideas a much more concrete process.

'George L. Groman, "Freshman English at Rutgers-in-Newark;' The CEA Forum, I (Febru- ary, 1971), 8.

sl , RICHARD J. BASGALL

On Teaching Relationships

WHILE reActuNG a course in freshman particularlsimpressed by the rows of composition I had a class session that Ipalm trees there. I asked him to explain think v as particularly good in teachingfurther m hat had impressed him, and he the importance of relationships or seeingsaid that the trees N% crc all in a row and things in terms of other things. I wantw crc su tall and beautiful and close to- first to describe the events that occurredgether. in that class and then draw some con- I then dress some "palm trees" on the clusions about the benefits that I thinkboard: can he derived from assignments and classes similar to this one. The course required the students to write a short essay on an assignment for U each class.I read each essay and then selected one for classdiscussion. The particular assignment we were working on was the following: "Describe a visit to a city about which you had sonic pre- Vhen I asked him 'Whether that was conceptions. What new things did youthe ss as then looked, he answered, "No, learn 'Jsvisiting it? What preconcep-the\ were closer together." So I mea- tions did s uu revise and how did y uu dosured the distance bens een ms "trees" itAs you Were doing this, what wason the board and exclaimed in mock happening to the city itself?" surprise. "You mean they were closer To start the class discussion, I selectedthan six inches apart?" the following sentence from one stu- After the laughter died doss n, the boy dent'spaper."I began changing theinsistedthe eren'tcloserthansix thoughts and images in ms mind of theinches apart but that the stillwere cits as compared to ss hat I saw standing"closer together" than mine were. This, before me." I selected the phrase "stand-of course, brought up the question. Why ing before mc" and asked one studentss mild he say his trees w ere "closer toss hat he sass standing before him in thegether" than mine ss hen mine ssCre 0111V city he had visited. He answered "palmsix inches apart? What dues "closer to- trees." I asked him to elaborate un thatgether" mean here and how does one a little and it turned out that he had beendetermine it? to Long Beach, California, and had been We didn't ansss er these questions right away but instead went on to other prob- Richard J. Basgall is a free-lance writer wholems of seeing and judging. We talked is working toward a Ph.D. from Kansas Uni- versity. He is also teaching at Dodge City Com- about the height and width of my trees munity College. and the student insisted that histrees

Reprinted from College. English, Vol. 36, No. 5, Jantiar197i. 183 On Teaching Relationships 183

were taller and thinner. Again the samebut had left with a sense of the beauty question came up: What do "tall" andof the place...": the "tall" palm trees "thin" mean and how does one come toand white beaches and the large, well- these judgements? kept homes and lawns in the northern After some discussion of these prob-residential section of town. I then asked lems, I added a little man to my drawing. him NI, hether his cousin had thought of the city as a nice place and he said "no, his cousin didn't but he did." When I asked him who was "right,"he said "both, I guessit depends on how you look at it." When I asked him if he really lydieved that, he thought a moment and then said "noI think I'm right," which is what I had really expected. Most of my students give lip service to this idea I asked whether that was as tall as theof "it depends on how you look at it" real trees were, and the boy said that hebut very few actually believe it or un- thought it was. So then I asked whetherderstandNI, hatit means to believeit. thetrees had changed and everyoneRather, they tend to hold on to the idea agreed that they had not. The questionthat a thing is a thing with certain dis- of "tallness" then came up, and, aftertinctive qualities and attributes inherent much discussion, most of the studentsin it to be defined permanently in the saw that one's impressions of tallness,dictionary ur in their heads by a name shortness, thickness, thinness, and prac-or a "label." tically all other "qualities" that we tend This assignment, however, madeit to attribute to a thing in writing andclear to some of the students that itis speaking are not attributes of that thingordinarilymisleading to say something at all but are simply relationships thatlike the "city itself" because there is no we make between things and which wesuch thing. There is only the city as then,unfortunately,attributetothe seen by someone through an individual, things themselves. chosen perspective. We can only talk From this we w ent back to the matteror think about a thing in terms of some of preconceptions, and I asked the stu-sy stem of thought or relationships, such dent what kind of preconceptions he hadas sociology, economics, politics, physics, formed and w here they had come from.chemistry,religion,psychology,etc., He said he had a cousin NI, ho had beenand even w ithin these systems of thought stationed in Long Beach while in the e have a w ide variety of perspectives Navy who had told him about the city.to choose from. But whatever perspec- I asked what his impression of the city tiveNI, e choose, itisstilla perspective had been from this discussion with hisor a way of looking at a thing. The cousin, and he said he had thought ofthing itself always eludes us. Long Beach as nothing but docks, ships, The importance of developingthis oil wells, bars, and smelly fish. Then Iawareness in a freshman college student asked him if that was the way he nowis tw ofold. First is the fact that most felt about Long Beach and he said "no,beginning college students come from he had gone there NI, ith that impressioncultural backgrounds where they are 184 RICHARD J. RASCAL!. taught to think in terms of absolutesso to speak, to the new perspectives that or, worse, in terms of cliches, regionalhe will encounter in various disciplines folklore,myth, rumor, and expectedalong the way, while at the same time trains of thought which are customarilybringing him to realize that these are but taken as absolutes. Consequently, theirsystematized perspectives, some of which essays are filled with either borrowedare more fruitful and useful than others, ideas that have not been thought throughbut none of which are final absolutes. and made their own or they reflect atti-This freedom, of course, will be some- tudes and thinking habits that are rigidwhat frightening at first, and there will and unreceptive to new and possiblybe a tendency for the student to with- more useful ways of seeing the worlddraw intothesafeand comfortable and responding to it. It seems to me thatworld of his childhood and adolescent one of the goals of freshman compositionpatterns of thought, but until he learns is to free the student from these restric-totake thisstep towards intellectual tive habits of thinking early in his col-freedom, verylittlelearning,critical lege career and thereby open himup, thinking, maturity of behavior, or creative expression will occur. Secondly, our languageitselfisso structured(and taught)that we habitually think about the world of things around us in terms of the structure of the language that we use to describe it. A tree is a tree and that's it. An eraser is an eraser, although at present it may be serving as a doorstop, a paperweight, or a missile. In other words, the student tends to become bound by the sense of identity that our language structure sets up between words and things, and he finds ;:, difficult to break away from this customary, established identity and call things by new names, as he :rust do if he is to progress in his thinking, and especially if he is to be creative in his own personal expression.

; KEN MACRORIE

The Circle of Implication

EVERYTHING WE 1% REM JUDGES. NO mat- (Popular Library, 1963) he wrote: ter how objective we try to be. If we Vito Genovese was a top-ranking hood- describe clinicallythe corollaof the lum when he appeared; he stillis, even blue monkey flower at the edge of the though heis behind prison bars. He pond and keep our opinion and our- looked the part, and even his smoked selves our of the paragraph, we still glasses could not conceal the hard, cold judge, because we confer on the monkey eyes. His studied arrogance and deliber- flowerthetributeofourattention. ate malevolence seemed to have more Whatever we write draws acircle of effect upon committee members and staff implication around the objects or per- than most of these criminals could pro- sons we Write of. It says "This flower duce ... (p. 119) is valuable," or "This institution is inhu- mane," or "This man is w rong." WeSenator McClellan himself practices a judge with integrityonlyif we placedeliberate and malevolent violence on the also w ithin that circle our (A% n 1101% US, sanctity of the private person. His ques- our own institutions, ourselves. tions speak a sadism as destructive of The best judges sit high on a benchmen's selvesasthebrainwashingof but see themselv es walking on the court- allegedforeignspies by Chineseor room floor to the witness stand. They So% ict Communists. At hearings he has judge all men as judges and all judgessaid: as men. "You did wrong, and I point to 1 the experience in law books to show why Senator McClellan to Vito Genovese: that wrong injures others as wellas Do you operate on that.. . basis of yourself. ButImight have done the killing ev erything that gets in your way? same wrong had I been in your place." Genovese: I respectfully decline ... A great judge remembers how hard (citing the Fifth Amendment) it is to be good. Senator John L. McClel- Senator: Can you give an answer to lan forgot this as Chairman of the Senate any question at all w ithout incriminating Select Committee on Improper Activities yourself? in the Labor or Management Field and Genovese:Iwill havetohear the as chairman of the Senate Permanent question first. SubcommitteeonInvestigations(the Senator: All right, I will ask you. Did titles read like names from George Or- you ever do any decent thing in your well's novel 1984). He became obsessed life? (p. 120)

with locating evil and exulting in it, like 2 a censor who loves to read dirty books. Senator McClellan to Joey Glimco: In his book Crime Without Punishment Would you employ a known criminal, a known burglar to write and publish such Mr. Macrorie is Professor of English at West- articles as that? ern Michigan University and is the author of Glimco: I respectfullydeclineto numerous articles on writing and the teaching answer ... of writing. "The Circle of Implication"is reprinted by permission of response, Western Senator: Don't you think anyone who Michigan University, (c) 1966. would do such a thing and then refuse

Reprinted from College English, Vol. 28, No. 6, March 1967. 186KEN AlACRORIE

to acknowledge itisa moral cowa.J?out blame. I have a large nose and an (p. 153) overworried forehead; I hope they will 3 not count against me on Judgment Day. Senator McClellan to George Barker: In Crime and Punishment, Dostoyev- When you can hide behind the privilege,sky showsusRaskolnikovlivinga you are perfectly willing to be a witnesspunishment by conscience outside the against others. Isn't that correct? law. Anyone who reads that book for Barker:I assert my privilege... ten pages knows that Dostoyevsky must Senator:When you do that don't youhave injured others and committed out- think that you arekind of a moralrages against humanity and himself or coward, w hen you go out and publish ahe would not hate understood Raskol- statement like that and not hal, e the guts nikot, so well. Dostoyevsky always wrote walk in like a man and admit it andwithin the circle, as did Chaucer, Shake- say why you did it? (p. 153) speare, and Chekhov. A thin line wavers between Senator Like all Grand Inquisitors, the SenatorMcClellan's judging and the judging of conducts his Inquisition from a positioncritics like William Hazlitt or Edmund of immunity. He cannot be sued or heldWilson, but it is a crucial line. In The liable for what he says as chairman of aSpirit of the Age, Hazlitt excoriates his Senatorial committee. Yet in his lifetime,contemporaries yet he also praises them. SenatorMcClellanhasdemonstratedMr. McClellan could learn much from courage. During the Army-McCarthyHazlitt's observations on Lord Eldon's hearings he refused to let Senator Mc-physiognomy: Carthy ride without opposition and he often spoke with humor and compassion. Lord Eldon has one of the best-natured But he grows ever more righteous about faces in the world; it is pleasant to meet corruption. It is "insidiously gnawing." him in the street, plodding along with an He has looked "into the faces of thou- umbrella under his arm, without one sands of witnesses, many of them crimi- trace of pride, of spleen, or discon- nals and listened to their voices: many tent. .. There has been no stretch of of them arrogant, sullen, mendacious, power attempted in his time that he has boastful, unrepentant, and unremorse- not seconded: no existing abuse so odious ful." He found James Hoffa to be a or so absurd, that he has not sanctioned "chunky man" with "powerful, lumpy it,... When the heavy artillery of in- face" and "thick forearms and heavy, terest, power, and prejudice is brought blunt hands." Writing of his beloved into the field, the paper pellets of the subject, crime, he speaks of "twining brain go for nothing: his labyrinth of tentacles," "sneaking corruption," "slack-. nice,lady-like doubts explodes like a ening morality," "insidious ways," "ma- mine of gunpowder. lignancy." I am not asking the Senator to quitThis is not Mr. Hazlitt's exclusive per- judging men but to judge himself whileversenessoroveractiveimagination. he judges others, to put himself in theLord Eldon struck Mr. Shelley similarly same circle. For then what he secs will(in "The Mask of Anarchy"): change. It may remain evil, but it will have been tested against human stan- Next came Fraud, and he had on, dards. A look in the mirror should tell Like Eldon, an ermined gown, Mr. McClellan his mouth is hard, tight, His big tears, for he wept well, pinching. I grant him that mouth with- Turned to millstones as they fell. The Circle of Implication 187

And the little children, who way? Am I trying to throw him in the Round his feet played to and fro, faceoftheconservativereadersof Thinking every tear a gem, America and in so doing overestimating Had their brains knocked out by them.him?" Ralph Emerson was hard on all of us. Mr. Huila raged against hypocrisy,He spoke of how small we scale our pretension, cruelty, and stupidity in menlives. Yet he drew himself inside the who governed and who wrote but hecircle of implication so that when he allowedthemtheirhumanity,theircame upon a man who had done some- frailty. thing Emerson knew he couldn't do him- Any good writer must feel strongly,self, he let loose his joy and said to him think deeply, and not fear to praise orat once: blame. And he must remember to place himself in the circle of his own implica- I greet you at the beginning of a great tions. Bernard Shaw despised the artifi- Career. ciality of the leading actor of his day, Sir Henry Irving, but he saluted theHe was right to say this to Walt Whit- skill with which Irving commanded hisman. The largest men first recognize own style. In our day, Edmund Wilsonlarge men. has been solidly fair to writers. When I think of a ridiculous and instructive Ernest Hemingway's short stories firstfailure to implicate oneself in the circle. appeared, Mr. Wilson wrote: Asked to write in a college course an essay growing out of her experience, His bull-fight sketches have the drya young woman produced a paper in sharpness and elegance of the bull-fightwhichshespokeagainstliars.She lithographs of Goya. And, like Goya, hethought them unforgivable, she despised is concerned first of all with making aliars. It was an incredible paper, as self- finepicture. Too proud an artisttorighteous and empty as Senator McClel- simplify in the interests of conventional lan generalizing on the immorality of pretenses, he is showing you what lifeAmerican criminals. is like. ... "Why did you write that?" I said Yet Mr. Wilson was not carried away. to the girl. He held Hemingway to thehighest "Well, because I feel very strongly standards: about liars," she said after a moment It is only in the paleness, the thinness of silent shock. of some of his effects that Mr. Heming- "Why did you write it? What led way sometimes fails. I am thinking espe- you to write that paper and read it cially of the story called Up in Michigan, to us?" I asked. which should have been a masterpiece, A light broke in her eye and she but has the curious defect of dealing began to think about the question. with rude and primitive people yet leav- "I guess," she said, "I guess because ing them rather shadowy. this last weekend I was lied to in a way I will never forget." These critics are trying to useall their powers for finding the truth in the There lay her story. She had not told world out there and in themselves. Oftenit. She had been cut deeply by one the two truths intersect for them. Mr.man's lie. She had jumped to an attack Wilson had to ask. "What do I reallyon all liars and ended up putting no liar believe about this new writer Heming-at all in her circle. So far she had to go

4 i I10-/ti 188 KEN JIACRORIE

before she could write that paper. Firstlike N1thing. You must get fierce joy she had to put that young man in herfrom doing a good job and being com- story, in her circle, and herself and herplimented." The next day I received an reaction, and thenin a move that hadangrik crossed-out and marked-up letter not even crossed her mindshe had tofrom her saving I had failed her as a think of herselfasaliar,at manyteacher. She thought I had some sensi- moments, large and small. Only thenbilityand nos knew she had been could she put the lie down forNshat itmistaken.I had insulted her, failed to was to her, not simply as an injured,sense her purposes. I knew she was hurt. disappointed lover but as a member ofI had thought she could stand that much the human race. truth in front of four classmates or I In the same writing class, A forty-wouldn't have been so direct. Just barely five-year-old Nsoman Who had alma& she got that experience and recovered sold an article to a magazine for $400,to u rite better than before. But I had wrote down her supposedh honest feel-apparentl\ miscalculated how she would ing about the act of xs thing. She saidfeel in the circle, I had forgotten to put writing was pure agony for her. Shemyself in the circle and see that as a couldn't sleep. Up and turn on the light professional V*riterIlike herwould to rewrite at two in the morning. Shehire been unready for a public exposure got headaches until she had completed of In%professional blunders. I should the work. As a writer she said she stewedhave talked to her alone. in a pot G: indecision and self-recrimina- Drays ing the magic circle of implication. That was what writing was. "Don'ttion around oneself as well as around kid yourself," she said to the four youngothers protects one from makin& a fool students in her critique group, "Its hell."of oneself. And once that circle is drawn, Isaid, "I don't believe you. You'reeverything and everyone in it is illumi- not being honest. At times you mustnaLed like a baseball diamond at night.

194 ELAINE CHAIKA

Who Can Be Taught?

ELICITING VERBIAGE and refining styleStudents of mine who have been told are the principal concerns of the Englishthis frequently complain to me that it comp teacher. Infact,J. Ross Win-is very aggravating advice. No matter terowd specificallydisclaimsthe En-how theytry,thewrittensentence glishteacher's responsibility for moredoesn't come out like talking. And no basic problems.' Certainly, being able towonder. Talking and writing are sep- explain thoughts fully and in an effec-arateskillsactually governed by dif- tive fashion aren't trivial, concerns, butferent networks inthebrain. Studies they are second order problems for thewith aphasics have shown that damage truly non-proficient writer, the one whoto one skill does not necessarily imply habituallyproduces deviantsentencesdamage to the other. Furthermore, tell- [See (1)-(6) below], or who can't saying students to "talk on paper" misleads what he means [See (7) -1- (8) below].them. It falsely implies that writing is Group composing asespousedby aseasy and naturalastalking,and, JohnMcNamarain"Teachingthepatently,itisnot. Moreover,ifthe Process of Writing" may seem to be astudent is led to believe that he should viable method for teaching the very un-be able to write just because he can talk, skilled? However, itviolates one im-and he fails, he can feel pretty stupid. portant principle of language acquisi-Itis far better if,at the outset, he is tion, and learning to write is, to a greatmade aware of the nature of the task extent,alanguagelearning problem.before him. In my experience, students This is readily seen when advice suchare grateful to know what it is they have as Lou Kelley's, to "tat on paper," isto learn: a new skill. Furthermore, they examined.3 What are the actual ramifi-are stimulated to try to learn when they cations of such advice, which isalso realize that their failure to write doesn't rather commonly given in the formimply lack of intelligence, merely lack "Just write it the way you'd say it"?of a skill. All the information imparted by tone, stress,tempo,intonation,clarityof Elaine Chaika earned her PhD in Linguistics at enunciation,andavarietyof other Brown University. She is currently an assistant is, professor of Linguistics at Providence College,phonological gambits obviously, Providence, R. I. missing from writing. Instead, there is 1W. Ross Wintcrowd, " 'Topics' and Levels increased complexity of lexical choice in the Composing Process," College English,and sentence structure. Indeed, it may Feb. 1973, pp. 701-09. 2 John McNamara, "Teaching the Process of well be that certain combinations of Writing," College English, Feb. 1973, pp. 661-65. structures belong entirely to the written 3 Lou Kelley, "Toward Competence and Cre-language. At any rate, even the most ativity in an Open Class," College English, Feb. 1973, pp. 644-60. non-proficient students have no diffi-

Reprinted from College English, Vol. 35, No. 5, February 1974. 190ELAINE CHAIKA

cult' bringing in samples of written En- thisway, newspapers printscare glish not likely to be spoken, such as: headlines. By that I mean to suggest that the selec- (5)As opposedtostandardEnglish tion of a location formulation requires speech where the 's is used to show of a speaker (and will exhibit for a possessive, the non-standard dialect hearer) an analysis of his own location use a formation of words in a sen- and the location of his co-conversational- tence to show it. ist(s), and of the objects whose location (6) The use of plurals also showsup a is being formulated (if that object is not greatdealin non-standard Negro one of the co-conversationalists).4 English. While the economy rule does not pre- clude the use of combinations of member- These last two sentences appearedon shipcategoriesforsinglepopulationan essay exam. Later conference with Members, its presence does mean that thethe student revealed that he certainly task of being socialized to doing adequate was aware that standard English uses reference does not involve having to learn "a formation of words" to indicatepos- combinatorial possibilities for each pair, triplicate, etc. of categories as a prerequi- session, and that using plurals "agreat site to doing adequate references.5 deal" is a feature of all English dialects. He meant, and said spontaneously, that Regardless of how one judges such se- black English, omitting the redundant lections, it is incontrovertible that they genitive marker, often relies on placing represent one style of written language, nouns next to each other to show pos- but not of spoken. session, and that black English does The following are examples of not non-always mark plurals as standard English proficient writers' attempts to explain does. either their thoughts or their knowl- Sentences (1)-(4) above were picked edge: at random from my voluminous file of (1)The need to find out who he is,is deviant sentences produced by freshman something every freshman wishes he comp students in classrooms asfree, could make. friendly, and open as I could possibly (2) The basic question is not the color of create. All of the creators of these sen- the prisoners to determine the gov-tences speak normally, or at least not ernment's action but to put down the recognizably oddly. They just write rebellion. strangely. Asking such students to "(re- (3) He will see how convenience and state Isentencesthatarenotclear" gain ay.: no substitute for a true love (Kelley, 1973:653) or seeing that "he of the way one uses his life for real adds some concretedetailsor visual accomplishmentaccordingtoan earlier period of human spirit. images...." (Kelley, p. 653) is almost beside the point at this state of their (4) Even though they make their moneyart. For, many of the students who fail 4 Emanuel Schegloff, "Notes on a Conversa-to achieve proficiency in English comp tional Practice: Formulating Place," in Studies actually do not know the syntax of the in Social Interaction, ed. David Sudnow (New York: The Free Press, 1972), p. 83. written language. Perhaps it ismore ac- s Haney Sacks, "An Initial Investigation ofcurate to say that they have gaps ..1 their the Usability of Conversational Data for Doingknowledge. The implication of thisis Sociology," in Studies in Social Interaction, ed. David Sudnow (New York: The Free Press, that learning to write is a language learn- 1972), p. 35. ing task, much as learning French is. It is

1 :1 o Who Can Be Taught? 191 not just a problem of developing style. 7b) Pollution loses them their liver. What, then, can be done with (orSuch intricateand, yes, arbitrary re- should it be to or for?) such students? strictions on the positions a noun may First, there is the very real question oftake relative to a verb are extremely whether they can be taught at all. Win- important in English syntax. [See (10)- terowd says: (16) below for further explanation.] If the student... is incapable of generat-Sentence (8)is another example. This ing these core sentences [George kissesshould have been: MaryMary is kissed by George] there is obviously some dysfunction that is be- (8a) Since American support is being yond the reach of pedagogy. (p. 707) gradually depleted Actually, I have never come across anyHere, the passive should have been used. adolescent who could not create a pas-Does such an error, comparable to say- sive sentence with the verb kiss, or, foring "Mary kissed George" if George that matter, make, cook, or cut, to men-was the agent, indicate some sort of tion a few common verbs. But consider:pathology? Or, did the author of (8) (7) pollution loses lives. know that diminish does not require the (8) Since American support is graduallypassive: depleting (8b) American support is gradually di- The errors evinced here are akin to not minishing being able to passivize correctly. ThatSince diminish and deplete share seman- is,in many sentences, more than onetic features, the unwary might well as- noun may be a subject. If an object is sume that they appearinthesame chosen to be subject, then a passive sen- relationship to nouns in sentences. As it tence results. In (7) the deviance washappens, deplete requires an overt ob- caused by incorrectly making pollutionject in a sentence. This can be signalled the subject. This should read: either by using the passive, as in (8a), ('a) lives are lost because of pollution.or by placing a noun in direct object Does this writer have a "dysfunctionposition. Diminish does not require an beyond the reach of pedagogy"? Or isobject. The errors in (7) and (8) do he lware of alternations like: result in a failure to generate core sentences correctly. Winterowd seems to (9a ) Cowardliness loses wars. reflect the attitude of the profession ac- (9b) Wars are lost because of cowardli-curately when he assumes that teaching ness. such basic sentence relations is not the Thus, he might assume that lose allowsfunction of the English teacher. If this is a noun denoting cause to be subjecttrue, then the function of the English when, at this stage of English syntax,teacher is merely to refine style. This it does so only if the noun derives fromis, to be sure, the basic assumption be- an adjective plus the suffix -ness, or ifhind every article in the February 1973 a noun denoting Beneficiary is stated asissue of College English, an issue devoted in the informal:6 to composition, as well as, I might add,

°Speakers do not seem to categorize in this rules and categories is well-known, but precisely fashion on a conscious level. That speakers use how these are used is not. 192 ELAINE CHAIKA

behind virtually every rhetoric text onfinds that he can't make any connection the market. Even the Christensen andbetween his sentence and whatever the Mellon works which Winterowd jus-handbookisdescribing.Analysis and tifiably praises are addressed to complexcomparison of syntax is a sophisticated sentence formation, not core or kernel skillwell beyond theabilityofthe relations(p. 707). If,indeed, the in-uninitiated, especially if the sample sen- ability to produce simple sentences weretence in the handbook bears no surface necessarilypathological,thenEnglish resemblance to the sentence in the essay teachers could say, "Whew! get rid ofwhich the writer has to correct, a rather those kids. They're not college material,common occurrence.Itis now well and English 101 is not for them." How- know n to linguists, at least, that children ever, it is apparent that errors in simplelearn to speak by checking theirut- sentences,likethoseincomplex sen-terances against those they hear. Thus tences, may result fromnot knowing athey extrapolate rules of language which ruleor from applyingitincorrectly.they constantly refine until they speak Neither of these conditions necessarilyin an adult fashion. They might likewise derives from a "dysfunction beyond thelearn to write if they were urged to reach of pedagogy." By rules, of course,w rite and if their writing were restruc- I don't mean shibboleths like when totured for them, but few teachers have use like, or other inventions of 19ththe will or the time or the whatever to century grammarians. Rather, I refer todo this. the rules which produce sentences ac- It can now be seen why NIcNamara's ceptedasnon-anomalous English bNgroup composing fails as an effective educated readers. teaching device for the non-proficient. Ifno pathological conditionistheIt gives too little opportunity for every cause of sentences(1)-(8), whatis? student to create entire sentences which Earlier in this article, I pointed out thatexpress what he wishes. In any event, learning to write is a language learningthe consequence of inexperience in writ- problem. It takes a child years and yearsing is the number of college freshmen of constantly using language and listen who are grossly deficient in writing. At ing to it to get the rules down pat. IfProvidence College,for instance,this anywhere near a proportionate amountnumber is approximately two hundred, of time were spent on learning writingusually about one-fourth of the entering there would be far fewer proficiency class. problems. As it now stands, however, Experimenting with seven classes of many schoolchildren do not get a regu-these freshmen, I have found that the lar chance to writeentiresentences,teaching of core sentences which Win- much less compositions. Instead,they terowd so summarily dismisses is actual- underline correct answers in workbook lyahighlyeffective,many-pronged fillin the blanks, or circlethe righttool. The very fact that one can start number. Even if they are occasionallywith relations that even the most fright- asked to write an essay it is frequentlyened and defeated students can recog- not corrected thoroughly, or,ifitis, nize and discuss is of great importance. all too often the teacher has done soThe simplicity of the earlyexercises using the handbook numbers game. Theshows them that they need not be afraid pupil dutifully looks up the numbers and to notice and to make judgments. Since Who Can Be Taught?193 their attention is first focused on struc- (10) Max planted corn in the garden. tures they can understand, their curios- (11) Tony gave Dave a sock in the nose ity about language and its manipulation (12) Gwen poured Fred a cup of coffee. (13) Irate citizens swamped the post of- isstimulated. Thus, they become in- fice with mail. creasingly sensitive to written language, (14) Max cut the meat with a cleaver. noticing more and more about their own (15) The flag fluttered in the breeze. and their classmates'asthe semester (16) The breeze ripped the flag. progresses. This, of course, is essential for continuing progress in writing. If First students are asked to change the awareness can be aroused, the studentpositions of the nouns in (10) or what- will continue to develop after leavingever sentence I start with. They readily freshman comp. come up with: But sensitivityisnot enough. One must be able to play with sentences, and (102) Corn was planted in the garden by Max. to evaluate the effect of rearranging (10b) The garden was planted with corn words in the sentence. Consideration of by Max. the basic relations of the nouns to the (10c) Max planted the garden with corn. verb, asin sentences (10)-(16) gives ample opportunity for developing bothTwo lines of discussion are opened by skills. Furthermore, itis impossible tothese. First, that (lob) and (10c) imply ignore matters of discourse when deal-that the entire garden was planted with ing with such sentences, for which nouncorn, whereas (10) and (10a) are am- in a sentence may become subject is asbiguous in this respect. These may be much a matter of focus, style, or con-used whether or not other items were text as it is of syntax. planted. Although implication governs Finally, and crucially, presentation ofwhether or notgardenwill be placed so core sentences quickly convinces stu-that it may appear without its preposi- dents that language is rule ,verned be-tion, other considerations govern wheth- havior; thus one's being able to under-er or not the agent, Max, is to be subject. stand a sentence is no guarantee that itThis brings us to another discussion. is not deviant. Then when the teacherAlthoughstudentsconsistentlyand corrects their sentences, students don'treadily supply the [by -I- agent] at the feel that he or she is capricious or mere-end of a passive, they just as readily agree ly trying to impose his or her ownit sounds funny. I tell them to substitute: preferences (assuming, of course, that"the tall,dirty freckle-faced kid with teachers confine themselves to correct-blue overall?' (or a similarly lengthy ing deviance and style, not the mes-noun phrase) for "Max." The consensus, sage!). And, of course, students canpredictably, is that the heavily modified then better understand what is at stakeagent phrase seems more natural in a in learning to write, what sorts of thingspassive sentence than in an active, and they must pay attention to and learn. conversely that the single word agent Best ofall,theselessonsare notis better in an active. The principle that learned by lectures. They are learnedlengthy phrases and clauses tend to be from the students' own analyses. Forzapped to the end of an English sentence instance, sentences such as these are pre-is thus established. sented to the class: Someone usually manages to comment 194ELAINE CHAIKA

that "by Max" need not be mentioned atis over, most conceivable facets of writ- all, whereupon I point out that avoidinging do get mentioned, eitherinthe mention,of "who done it" is a commongrammarlessonsorwhilediscussing reason for using the passive. This leadsthemes. For homework the class is given to the subject of using the passive as asets of sentences to paraphrase and/or to device for getting rid of a superabun-write contexts for. dance of I. Several I sentences can be A similar format is used for the other thrown at the class so that it may pas-sentences. A brief rundown on lessons sivize them for practice. Keeping a col-to be drawn from (11)-(16) might ex- lection from old themes helps in suchplain further, especially for those un- an exercise. versed in current linguistics. Note, how- Next we discuss when it would beever,thatateacher need not bea permissible to use "by Max." The verylinguist to use this method. Itis not fact that itis not usual makes it whatnecessary to use the jargon of trans- linguistscalla marked construction.formational or case grammar, touse Therefore it is used if special focus is tolabels like agent, range, dative, or to be made on Max. Often I ask the classdraw complex trees. In fact, insisting to write contexts for the sentences underthat students learnlabels or snowing discussion. For instance, for (10a) some-them with jargon puts a damper on the one might produce: whole discovery process. It is vital, if students are to learn, that they do the (10d) The garden was planted with corn discussing and the analyzing, and that by Max, not Alec. (10e) Although you'd never believe it,they make the points. The teachercan the garden was planted with cornprod, can ask questions, can suggest by Max. activities, but, except for occasional rescue work, should refrain from lecturing. At the very start, when they firstpara-With this digression aside, on to (11)- phrase (10), many students express sur-(16). prisethat they automatically supplied Both(11)and(12)reinforcethe certain prepositions; if not, I ask themprinciple that long phrases normally find "Where didthewit.i.,(or by) cometheir way to the end of a sentence. Sub- from? How did you know whichtostituting money for sock in the nose, use)" This starts our discussion ofsyn-and beer for cup of coffee, allows to tactic rules, deep structures, andtrans-Dave and for bed to appear at the ends formations. So one sentence like(10)of their respective sentences with no introduces several important rhetoricalspecial Tocus. Similarly, substituting the principles. rules of syntax, implications,obnoxious kid with the broken hand for criteriafornaturalness,markedness,Dave or Fred forces their removal from focus, context. If (10e) or the likeis indirect object position. Another point elicited,thenpresuppositioncanbeeasily raised by sentences like (11) and added to the list at this time, for students(12) is that the positions which can be readily note that this can be used onlyfilled in a sentence, such as indirect ob- if Max was not likely to plantcorn. Asject, are highly dependent on the par- far as possible I allow ideas likepresup-ticularverb. Although they can be position to arise naturally from the classreadily understood, (17) and (18) are discussion. Somehow before the semesterrejected by most students: Who Can Be Taught? 195

(17) Wash Mary the dishes. (19a) The building was hit with a rock. (18) Drift John the log. (19b) The building was hit by a rock. That even direct object position cannotSentences (15) and (16) again point up always be filled even if the meaning ofthe primacy of the verb as sentence the verb doesn't prevent it is shown by:shaper, for although flag can be subject in(16), breeze cannot be in(15), at (19) The magician disappeared the rab-least for the majority of my students. bit. Some, however, do insist that The periphrasis "made the rabbit disappear" must be used. Knowing the raw (15a) The breeze fluttered the flag, meaning, so to speak, of a word is not isfine and some, not necessarily the enough. One must also learn its permis-same, that sible contexts. Both (13) and (14) contain instrument phrases [with or by + (16a) The flag ripped in the breeze, noun]. When asked to make post officeis not. Those that reject (16a), however, or meat subject, students rapidly supplyaccept the passive, but when asked to make (16b) The flag ripped because of the mail theyare or acleaver subject breeze. stopped short. Of course, they get After allthisdiscussion of the rule- (132) Mail swamped the post office. governed nature of language, the un- (14a) The cleaver cut the meat. initiated might be chagrined by this But w hat happened to irate citizens andbusiness of "some accept" and "some ,lfax? Again, thearbitrary nature ofreject," but this is a natural result of the syntax is revealed. If the instrument isfact that people learn language by ex- subject, the agent can't be mentionedtrapolating rules from what they hear in the same simple sentence. Using theabout them. Everyone doesn't learn all instrument as subject is,then, anotherthe rules the same. Regional and social way' of avoiding mention of who did thedialect differences exist;so do differ- action. Also, (14), but not I think (13),ences between generations,and even allows a paraphrase of the type "usebetween individuals. Language is always something to do something," as in: changing, always in the process of becoming, and English teachers must be (14b) Max used the cleaver to cut thealert to this. Fortunately most structures meat. elicit wide agreement. For those which Whether or not this type is freely inter-don't, a discussion of the variations in changeablewiththatrepresentedin rules can be fruitful. Also, whether a (14), "do something with something,"certain form is permissible in informal can bring on a debate. The implicationsbut not formal speech may be a perti- of intentional versus nonintentional ac-nent question. Sometimes, when a stu- tion may govern which is used. That is,dentinsistsupon the correctness of the class usually agrees that (14b)is something which sounds un-English to markedtomeandeliberateaction,most of the rest of the class, he can be whereas (14) is not. A similar markingasked to see if he can find it in print can be achieved with the alternation ofsomewhere. The students and I have all by and with as in: been given a few jolts from such assign-

G i.,1, 196 ELAINE CIIAIKA ments.7 The important thing, however,ous theories can be given to classes to is that the controversial sentence reallychew on.Ifind Robin Lakoff's and makes students notice.It sends themSandra Babcock's presentations very use- delving into print. It makes them arguefulfor suchpurposes,forinstance. about language and think about whatThere is no reason why grammar classes they do with it. That everything isn'tcan't be discovery times for teachers as laid out one hundred percent sure andwellasstudents. Of coursestudent proper is what makes language interest-themes are a great source of grammar ing. material, and, as often as possible, should Of course only a tiny sampling of abe used to illustrate points. As I cor- semester's work can be described here.rect themes,I always keep filecards A partial list will give an idea of thehandy. Sometimes figuring out what rest: went wrong can be a real teaser for everyone. Amazingly, however, as the A. Causatives (for which (15) and (16) semester rolls along, the students always may also be used!: make + verb; haveseem to come up with reasonable solu- + verb;because, from, of noun, etc.). tions. The important thing is that they learn to recognize and correct deviant or B. Pronominalization(whatdoeshis odd phrasing. mean in "His creditors bankrupted John" and "His brothers hate each of Needless to say, grammar lessons are Mary's sons," etc.). only an adjunct to the main business: writing and correcting writing. Each C. Verb tense and aspect (Forget the oldclass selects its own weekly topic, often saws. This cries for new solutions. For instance, "I have taught in junior high,a controversial one. Then, usually, they but never again" versus "I taught indebate the issues in class. I rarely ask junior high, but no more"). students to read what a professional has D. Co-ordination (So why can't you saywritten, as emulation of the artist, re- "John made the bed and the coffee")?porter, or scholar isfar beyond their capacity. It takes a good deal of lin- E. Sentence embedding (Not :just combining, but "I hate loud singing" vs. "Iguistic sophisticationto pulloff that hate singing loudly." What is the sub-feat. It's enough at the start to get them ject of singing in each?). to say what they want so others can understand it and not be offended by it. Even those who have never had a course Basing an English teaching method on in modern syntax can find paradigmsthe latest psycholinguistic and syntactic and other data to present in class bytheory usually assuresits efficacy, but leafing through linguistic journals. I'mmany. a good theory has a funny thing notadvocatingthatanyone actuallyhappen to it on the way to the classread the articles on syntax. Most areroom. Not this one! The students them- far removed from the concerns of En- selves,on anonymousquestionnaires, glishteachers, but the sentences andaffirm that the grammar lessons helped other paradigms used as proofs of vari-teach them to write, gave them insights into language, and, wonder of wonders, 7As linguists have long known, people are were interesting. Some even complained not always aware of how they really talk, e.g., what structures they use, much less what others that there wasn't enough grammar. Less use. than ten percent overall found the gram- (Continued on page 2041 PHYLLIS BROOKS

Mimesis: Grammar and the Echoing Voice

IF ENGLISH TEACHERS at the universitynecessarily go on to the further idea that level are supposed to be adding some newhe may not only be able to write as cor- element, some sophistication, some ele-rectly as any other student but may even gance to the prose of their students, andbe able to write as stylishly. not just making up for real or imagined Style is a vague concept, bin. sonic writ- deficiencies in teaching in high schools,ers do have an individual style, or an they must continually seek new methodseffective style, or a curious style that sets and resurrect into a more glorious lifethem apart from all other writers. It is some old ones. Teachers at the "remedial"an indefinable quality that everyone can level are all too frequently inclined torecognize. I do not want to get into a regard such an effort as icing on the cake,deep discussion of the nature of style, but as a luxury that can be indulged in onlywould rather concentrate on a few tech- at the lofty level of "regular" freshmannical details that can contribute to some- composition courses, or even in advancedthing recognizable as "good" style, and courses in creative writing or stylistics.how these can be encouraged and nur- The remedial course, tacked onto the bot-tured in a course that has as its first pur- tom of the English department or other-pose the correcting of grammatical and wise shunted into some sub-academicorganizational errors. In fact, I should like campus position, is the place for tire-to claim that the conscious encourage- patching and bringing the truth about thement of variety, elegance, and individual dangling modifier to an unbelieving massvoice in writing may prove to be a useful of ignoramuses. The idea that the studenttool in impressing students with the value ina "remedial" course may be thereof precision and accuracy in syntax and through no fault of his own and that heword choicemajor aims of the remedial may be as intelligent, or even more intel-course as well as of the regular freshman ligent than his brother who has escapedcomposition course. the indignity of such a course has only One way to encourage the variety and recentlybeenchallenged, by Sabinaelegance lacking in the prose of freshman Thorne Johnson in her article "Remedialstudents is the archaic technique of para- English:theAnglocentricAlbatross"phrase, but a form of paraphrase revived (College English, 33[ 1972 ], 670-685).and reconsidered with specific purposes Once we accept this premise we mustin mind. During the past few years the members of the Subject A departments at Phyllis Brooks is Lecturer and Supervisor of the the University of California at Berkeley Subject A Department, University of California, hive been teaching droves of students Berkeley. She is working on a Wady of Tev/ik Fikret, 20th century Turkish poet. ranging from the children of Chinese-

Reprinted from College English, Vol. 35, No. 2, November 1973. 198PHYLLIS BROOKS

American households where English is aShakespeare knew very well what he shallowly acquired lingua franca to themeant, and the average high school or Chicano from the pachuco-speaking bar-university student is well aware of the rio of Los Angeles to the dialect-wieldingpresumption and futility involved in try- black from the East Oakland ghetto toing to turn the sonnet into modern En- the middle-class white who has connedglish prose. Sometimes, more profitably, his way through his high school Englishthe material presented for paraphrase is classes but really has no notion of how toin prose and so more amenable totrans- make a statement, or how important it islation into an idiom readily understand- to be able to make that statement. Weable to the common reader. The transla- have adopted the somewhat unorthodoxtion paraphrase tests the student's ability techniques described by Mrs. Johnson into read, and to write an acceptable form her article: give the student something toof standard English, but it doesnot add say, make him aware of an audience thatanything to his repertoire of skills. he must try to reach, and demand that it On the other hand, carefully selected be his voice that comes through the writ-persona paraphrases can help the student ing, not some depersonalized character-towards an awareness of the variety of less spirit. It is true that the urgent desireexpression possible in the language and to get his opinion across and to make hiscan add to his stock of usable sentence point of view on a question very clearstructures. In fact, I firmly believe that will drive the student to refine his gram-the persona paraphrase can be used to mar and vocabulary, especially with agood effect in teaching everything from certain amount of peer criticism to eggthe use of the verb "to be" to the selec- him on. But the student seekin'g to expresstion of the apposite structure to suita his own personal voice needs further helpparticular pattern of thought. I hope that beyond the correction of his errors andthe following selections may bolster my the encouragement to speak for himself.argument and encourage others to try Successful writers, whether sincerelymore daring and possibly more fruitful or not, often make the statement that theyparaphrase exercises. learned to write by copying other writ- In planning and assigning a persona ers. I still have to wrestle mightily withparaphrase the instructor hopes to get the effects of an early infatuation withfrom his students a valuable imitation of Carlyle combined with translation, sen-the voice and sentence patterns of a par- tence by sentence, of large chunks ofticular writer. The novice writer is un- Cicero. All influence from writers of thesure of himself. He doubts his own abili- past is not necessarily good. But how areties, especially hi dealing with a sentence we to get our students to imitate desirableincluding such complications as apposi- models) Are we simply to hand them ation, parallel structure, or parenthetical piece of prose by a famous writer withexpressions. If we give a certain number the instruction that they are to preparea of workbook exercises in detecting errors paraphrase) If students have heard ofin parallel structures and correcting them, paraphrasing at all, they are likely to havew e still have no assurance that the stu- seen it only in the form of what we pre-dent will actually go out and try touse fer to call the "translation" paraphrase.the structure he has been laboring over. "Take this sonnet '1,7 Shakespeare and re-In fact, he may come away from his write it, showing what 1.,e really meant."workbook more overawed than ever by Mimesis: Grammar and the Echoing Voice 199 the complexities that lurk in the depthsmuch more clearly than can further dis- of such sentences.If, however, he iscussion. handed a passage from a writer whose name he may recognize, and is then told Parenthetical expression to imitate her sentence structures, there is a chance that by building up his own When a student starts to modify his sentences on this model he will gain thestatements, he is inclined first of all to confidence to experiment further withadopt a Christensenian style and tack all the arcane skill he has proved he canmodification onto the end of his sen- handle. tences. The next step is to put some of We have found that students are easilythe modification at the beginning of the discouraged by this kind of assignment;sentence. It is the rare brave soul who they have to be led into it. Rather thantries to add a parenthetical modification demandthatthestudents"writeain some position other than those two. paragraph in Norman Mailer's style"James Baldwin is a writer who, on almost after having read a passage by Mailer, weevery page, provides beautifully articu- present them with a more carefully com-lated examples of parenthetical modifica- posed exercise. We select a specific pass-tion. Here is a complex model for paren- age, illustrating a particular kind of struc-thetical style, from Baldwin's Notes of a ture, and require that the student copyNative Son: its structure, phrase by phrase, sentence When I was around nine or ten I wrote a by sentence, but substitute a completely play which was directed by a young, different subject matter. Each instructor white schoolteacher, a woman, who then who has used this particular tool ap- took an interest in me, and gave me books proaches it in a slightly different way, to read, and, in order to corroborate my but in general we proceed as follows: theatrical bent, decided to take me to see what she somewhat tactlessly referred to The students are given a paragraph as "real" plays. Theaterring was forb4I- rarely more than twenty typewritten den in our house, but, with the really cruel linesdouble spaced on a sheet of paper. intuitiveness of a child, I suspected that The instructor reads the passage, empha- the color of this woman's skin would sizing the pattern of the passage, the carry the day for me. When, at school, she suggested taking me to the theater, I natural breaks in sentences, the switches did not, as I might have done if she had in tone. The class is then guided into been a Negro, find a way of discouraging some discussionof how thepassage her, but agreed that she could pick me up works. What are the main features of the at my house one evening. I then, very prose and where does the writer reach cleverly, left all the rest to my mother, who suggested to my father, as I knew she his point? Are there any confusing syn- would, that it would not be very nice to tactical structures? Any particular little let such a kind woman make the trip for tricks that make the passage effective? nothing. Also, sinceit was a school- From there on the student is on his own. teacher, I imagine that my mother coun- We tell him to try out several possible tered the idea of sin with the idea of topics, writing in pencil above the actual "education" which word, even with my father, carried a kind of bitter weight. words on the page, until he finds one that is amenable to expression within theInstructions to the student included the structure there on the page in front offollowing specific pointers, good for all him. But an example can show the methodpersona paraphrases: 200 PHYLLIS BROOKS

Start by substituting words and building to his children, my father and mother, a new atmosphere in the passage; you may that I was a grown boy with a wife and find that you have to move to whole that the only fir thing to do would be phrases,replacing,forinstance,"with to let me mo:e out. Also, since I was cruel intuitiveness" by "in a scarlet rage," about to turn forty, it would be a nice in order to make your new version idea to celebrate at my new residence my of the paragraph understandable. Play birthday, which word, even with my around with the words and phrases, but father, hit a soft spot in his heart. try to keep them in the same order, and Kevin Axe lrad the paragraph in the same shape. The structure of the paraphrase, rather But not only does the student have thethan limiting student imagination, pro- structural model of Baldwin's sentencesvides the crutch that makes it possible before him, he also has to select a subjectfor him to give his imagination free rein, matter that fits the structure, another setwithout the worry about how to finish of "emotions recalled in tranquillity," asa sentence he has once started. The para- one of our colleagues described the con-phrase, since it is such a close copy struc- tent of this passage. He has to try, andturallyofapolishedoriginal,rarely reject,severalpossibilitiesbeforehe shows any mechanical errors. The stu- reaches one that will not be distorted bydent used togetting back anessay the structure he is bound by. Any oldcovered with markings often looks at his thought pattern cannot be imposed on afirst persona paraphrase with an expres- paragraph. The student comes to realizesion of complete disbelief. He has pro- very rapidly that the shape of an idea isduced a piece of writing he can be proud necessary, not whimsical, that there isof. And it ishis. Although he hac: a some purpose to our criticisms of the wayskeleton to build on, the flesh is all his he expresses himself. own. Almost inevitably the next formal 'What kind of thoughts can a freshmanessay he writes will contain some turn of student pour into the Baldwin mold? Thephrase, some sentence structure that he variety is amazing. Here is an amusinghas "learned" from his model. An unso- example: licited student criticism of one teacher's course as a whole provided this comment When I was approaching the age of fortyon paraphrasing: "The topics which al- I got married to a young girl who waslowed for the most creativity and imagi- stillin her teens and although I was twenty years her elder, she was quite in-nation produced the best results. The fatuated with me, thinking that I made aparaphrases were exceptionally good be- great substitute for her father. The mar-cause they let us w.:te on a variety of riage would not have met with my father'sideas. I honestly liked writing the para- approval, but, with an astuteness that hadphrases for they allowed me to express come with age, I suspected that my wife'sideas of mine in styles which were pleas- smallfortune of threemilliondollars would meet with everyone's approval.ing to read." When, during our first week together, she suggested that we move out of my parents' house, I did not, as I might haveApposition and Modification done if she had been my mistress, find a There need be no consistency of style way of discouraging her, but agreed that we should talk to Mother and Fatheramong the models chosen. To give stu- about it. I then, very cleverly, left thedents a notion of the possible complexi- details to my Grandpa Joe, who suggestedtiesof apposition, the restatement or

2, . ) Mimesis: Granmlar and the Echoing Voice201 amplification of an idea without the use that are vacant and drooping fences, sit- of subordination or coordination, I have ting so quietly among tall mountains, gazing upon wilderness, nature, and un- used with great success a highly man- disturbed lands; silent, solemn, holding nered passage by Rose Macaulay, a richly )ast memories within its decayed walls, textured description of the city of Is- gold discoveries and finds, the absence of tanbul that ends: new inventions lnd the industry of a modern world, Bo-lie has death in her Once the capital of imperial Rome; later future, the death of a useless land; to view the greatest city in Christendom, the rich- her boarded windows and dusty streets est city in the world, the spiritual head of is to visualize her glowing past, broken by long, uninterrupted, deplorable solitude. the eastern Church, the treasure house of Leslie Froisland culture and art; then the opulent capital of Islam; this sprawl of mosques, domes, minarets, ruined palaces, and crumblingObviously the appositions work, despite walls, rising so superbly above three seas,the complexity of the model. looking towards Europe, Asia, and ocean, oriental,occidental, brooding on past magnificence, ancient rivalries and feuds,Parallelism plus Reference modern cultures and the spoils of the modern world, Constantinople has ruin in Parallel structure is one of the trickiest her soul, the ruin of a deep division; toideas to explain and to teach. Errors in look on her shining domes and teemingcoordination, errors in apposition often streetsisto see aglittering, ruinous,have their roots in some misunderstand- façade, girdled by great, broken, expugn- able walls. ing of the balance of a sentence. Students The Pleasure of Ruinscan :augh at sentences like "He went to the white House in trepidation and a Instead of wondering that anyone wouldtuxedr (semantic parallelism abused) have the temerity to offer such a sentenceand casee dimly that something is to a freshman for imitation, look at somewrong with "He likes swimming and to of the results. The students were told torow small boats" (structural parallelism replace Istanbul with any city they wereabused), but go on producing comparable familiar with that had a layering of differ-bastards in their own prose. As a result, enthistorical periods. Particular stressany kind of balanced period of the John was placed on the care with which RoseHenry Newman type"The true gentle- Macaulay selected her wordsall the ad-man is never mean or little in his disputes, jectives work hard in her description.never takes unfair advantage, never mis- There is no vagueness, despite the finaltakes personalities or sharp sayings for generalization, because of the concretearguments, or insinuates evil which he quality of the Images streets, façade anddare not say out"is a very rare bird in walls. a freshman paper. Yet with a little conscious effort the student can prove to [Iodic, California] First an assemblage ofhimself that complex parallelisms are pos- mining claims; later the largest gold campsible and usable. in the north, the social hub of all the A paraphrase that has proved useful in miners, the place where that shining veindemonstrating balanced sentences gov- of gold rose up to the earth's surface, theerned by careful parallelism of structure gathering of men in search of fortunes; nexttheprosperouscommunity,theand ideas is the following passage from spread of general stores, town halls, homesMark Twain, a description of the Sphinx.

6' 202 PHYLLIS BROOKS

At the same time it is a valuable exercisedents found themselves earnestly con- in controlling the reference of pronounssidering the structure of the passage and (thus the surprising bracketing of thesethe progression of thought. From a con- two items in the subhead). The passagecrete image Twain moves farther and is generously sprinkled with its. As thefarther into realms of abstractionthe student begins to construct his picturethoughts suggested by the material object within the Twain frame, he .has to con-and its meaning for the observer. Only sider the reference of each pronoun inby trying to construct a new paragraph turn. There are no structural itr in theon Twain's model can the beginning stu- paragraph; each it functions as a true pro-dent of language become completely noun: aware of and involved in this process. After years of waiting, it was before meHere is a student's effort: atlast. The great face was so sad, so earnest, so longing, so patient. There was a dignity not of earth in its mien, and in [A College Dorm] After a lifetime of its countenance a benignity such as never anticipation, it loomed before me. The anything human wore. It was stone, but it tall structure was so cold, so bleak, so seemed sentient. If ever image of stone lonesome, so much without any person- thought, it was thinking. It was looking ality or character of its own. There was toward the verge of the landscape, yet nothing unique in itat all, and inside looking at nothingnothing but distance on the tile floor were heel marks of all and vacancy. It was looking over and the students who had been there before. beyond everything of the present, and The building wasn't human, but it wanted far into the past. It was gazing out over to speak. If the appearance of a building the ocean of Timeover lines.of century- was ever trying to give a warning, then waves which, further and further reced- it was this building that was philosophiz- ing, closed nearer and nearer together, and ing. It was talking to me, yet also to blended at last into one unbroken tide, othersothers who would soon enter its away toward the horizon of remote an- halls. It was thinking of all that it had tiquity. It was thinking of the wars of seen from the present to the past. It was departed ages; of the empires it had seen fascinated by the movie of its memories created and destroyed; of the nations of allthe single frames and incidents whose birth it had witnessed, whose pro- which, one by one, quickly add up till gress it had watched, whose annihilation they produce a moving image. It was it had noted; of the joy and sorrow, the thinking of all the people who had come life and death, the grandeur and decay, of in wanting to make the world better; of five thousand slow revolving years. It was all the idealism and romanticism that had the type of an attribute of manof a once flourished; of the individuals with faculty of his heart and brain. It was such questioning minds, whose regression memoryretrospectionwrought into visit had watched, whose decay was ob- ible, tangible form. All who knew what served; of the beginning and the end, pathos there is in memories of days that hope and death. the illusions and reality, are accomplished and faces that have of all the people who had ended up as vanishedalbeit only a trifling score of they did not originally want to. It was years gone bywill have some apprecia- a lesson to Manof the meaning of hy- tion of the pathos that dwells in these pocrisy.ItWas MEMORYKNOWLEDGE grave eyes that look so steadfastly back brought into reality. All those who have upon the things they knew before History a conception of lifewho can easily realize was born. what messageisbeing conveyedwill The Innocents Abroad realize what the warning isfor experience has told this college dorm that peo- In this paraphrase, as in most others, stu- ple who enter with young and optimistic z 4i Mimesis: Grammar and the Echoing Voice203

ideas leave with old and rational realiza-like "to be," the dislocation (an error in dons. a predication) can be examined closely Craig Weintraubthrough persona paraphrase exercises devoted to that structure specifically. Here Statement and Predication poetry can be used as a rich source for materials. Any teacher must be prepared to tackle Since poetry is metaphor, the most both semantic (conceptual) and struc-radical violation of the rules of predica- tural (grammatical) errors in statementtion, students can learn from looking at and predication as well as inparallelit why the logic of prose, if it is to ex- structure. This double analysis of errorsplain rather than transform, must con- in the building of a sentence (semanticform to a rather rigid system of etiquette. and structural) is useful when trying toThe poems of Emily Dickinson, in their convince a student that he needs to over-blunt wrenching of the conventions nor- come sloppiness or inaccuracy in expres-mally' governing the union of subject and sionas wen asoutright grammaticalobject, are splendid places to confront errors. Students do not revolt at beingstudents with outrageous comparison, and reminded that the structure of Englishto instruct them in the absolute equality, is such that plural nouns are followed bythe identifying nature of the verb "to the word "are" while singular nouns arebe." For example, the lyric "Hope is the followed by "is." Grammar has rules.Thing with Feathers" says exactly that But conceptual errors are harder to pin-Hope is the thing. We all know that hope, point and explain, the reader sometimesAN hile it may be an emotion, an abstrac- has to patiently extricate the fundamentaltion, a commendable virtue, is certainly core of the sentence from a mass of dis-not a thing, especially a thing with' feath- tracting verbiage in order to point outers. But then, of course, it is after all, for semantic errors in predication and state-the thing "that perches in the soul" is the ment. Statement errors, errors in whichbird thattraditionallysymbolizes the there is a serious dislocation of meaninglonging for God. So, by yoking with a between subject and verb, or verb andstark is that which both is and is not at object, are rife in student papers, espe-the same time, the poet has pushed us to cially those treating abstract subjects. Atthe point of contradiction which is the its most obvious, the fault is the familiarillumination of poetry. mixed metaphor. we have all seen "spirals Students can be invited to imitate her of inflation" that two lines further onaudacity by being asked to write four or manage somehow "to slam the door ineight lines of "Despair is the thing that the face of prosperity." More subtle are ..." and encouraged to shock the reader misstatements like "Expressions were saidby breaking the rule as hard as they can. differently by different classes." It is hardThe instructor can at the same time cite to convince a student that one says aexamples of such misbehavior from their word but uses an expression. own essay's, with the comment that while Any written exercise must be markedsuch violations may be the beginnings of with a constant watch for the fitting to-fine poems, they' cannot function as con- gether of subject and verb, verb and ob-veyers of logical thought since they ject. When the verb involved is the verbnegate the process of reason. Here is one "to be," or any of the verbs that patternof the results that delighted the students.

4 , 3 204 PHYLLIS BROOKS

Despair is the iron window, ticular spark of ingenuity or originality, The lock slung closed, but even after setting high standards I Receding footsteps hollow, slow, The chilly absence of repose. was forced to put aside with regret many that were equally as good. Even the least successful student paraphrases almost in- Conclusion evitably have good sentences;I have These exercises are only a few of thenever had to hand back a paraphrase paraphrases that we have used with greatwithout at least one positive comment. success over the past two or three years. We intend to continue to use persona Admittedly I have selected some of thoseparaphrasing as a crucialtool inthe that worked besta paraphrase is a de-developing of variety in student style, ceptive creature:those that you haveand we hope to refine further its use in high hopes for sometimes misfire, whiletheteachingofspecificgrammatical others that you present with great mis-points. All we need now is the patience givings (like the Rose Macaulay extract) to comb piles of writing for suitable texts, catch the students' imagination and leadand the luck to find what we need.' to glittering results. But I must stress that this is only a small sampling of the paraphrases we have found useful. 1The members of the Subject A Department have contributed greatly to the writing of this The same process of selection wentarticle. Ruth Nybakken tried out specific para- on in the choosing of student samples tophrases in her class, while Frank Cebulski and accompany each paraphrase. I did choose Nell Altizer made large and invaluable contri- butions to the final form of some of the ideas those that caught my eye for some par- expressed here.

Who Can Be Taught?

(Continued from page 196) mar lessonsnothelpfulinteachingdence of deviant sentences drops sharply writing or not interesting. Surely an-as the semester progresses. If I wish data other measure of the success of thefor my files, it must be collected in the method outlined here is that the inci-first part of the semester.

4 'j MARY VAIANA TAYLOR

The Folklore of Usage

DESPITE THE NUMEROUS STUDIES which have appeared in the decades since the Leonard survey in 1932 and the courses in teacher training institutions which have attempted to deal with usage from a responsible point of view, the fact remains that little impact has been made on the teaching of usage in our schools. The reasons for the negligible effect are complex, but we might glance at what typically happens in teacher training courses as an indication of the nature of the problem. Prospective teachers are introduced to the studies and the surveys, lectured on the concept of "levels of usage," and advised of ways in which to treat usage in their classrooms. Unfortunately, the subsequent performance of these students as teachers clearly indicates that there has been no change in their basic attitudes toward language use. I suggest that our treatment of usage has been inadequate because it has been factual and unemotional, permitting the students to assume a passive role and, ...ore crucially, implying that usage is not an emotional topic. Is there an alternative presentation of the facts about usage which would not permit passivity or ignore the emotional factor? I would like to describe briefly a method of presenting the usage issue to prospective secondary school teachers which has been successful in treating the central questions, demands the active involvement of the students, and by so doing, focuses on the nature and source of the emotional reactions to the usage controversy. The chief component of this approach was a questionnaire, but I prefaced the actual examination of usage with a brief consideration of some basic principles of linguistic change, illustrated with examples from the history of English. Deriva- tional processes (for example, the formation of verbs from nouns and adjectives as in terrorize and finalize), multiple developments in some changes (for example, which form is chosen in the collapse of the past participle and the preterit of strong verbs in Middle English), analogy (for example, the application of the regular past tense inflection ed to verbs originally belonging to the strong verb category as in OE smakan, preterit niztac, NE smoke, preterit smoked), and typological change (for example, our language's change from synthetic to analyticthat is, from a case language to one w hich relies on N% ord order), received particular emphasis.' I initiated the discussion of usage by distributing a questionnaire containing a

'In the classical generative framework, the traditional term "analogy" is subsumed under the term "generalization"-see Robert King, Historical Linguistics and Generative Granmurr (Ness Jersey. Prentice-Hall, 1969), pp. 127-134. For our purposes, the distinction is irrelevant. Mary Vaiana Taylor teaches English Language and Linguistics at the University of Utah. She recently did a year's research in Scotland on dialectology and sociolinguistics.

Reprinted from College English, Vol. 35, No. 7, April 1974. 1. 206 MARY VAIANA TAYLOR

number of the typical usage shibboleths. split infinitives, sentence-final prepositions, omitted relatives, who for whom, can formay, will for shall, further-farther, between-among, proven-proved, etc. The studentswere asked to judge the appropriateness of these usages (1) in writing ofa formality equivalent to their own class assignments (2) in speech, also of the kind used in a classroom. Having made these judgments, they were asked to indicate whether they themselves used such constructions in written or oral assignments. The results of these questionnaires revealed a consistent discrepancy between what the students judgedac- ceptable and what actually occurred in their work; this discrepancywas more striking in the oral category. The initial reaction of the majority of students to this discrepancy is best described as guilt. These prospective teachers felt that their language skillswere inadequate or sloppy, and most admitted to a long-standingsense of apprehension about the imperfection of their linguistic performance, especially since,as English teachers, they would be expected to speak and write perfect English. Somestu- dents indicated that, although they knew what the handbooks prescribed, they felt that certain constructions sounded too formal, especially in speech. These reactions invited discussion of the difference between written and spoken standards and the historical sources of standards. The studentswere asked to look up the constructions in question in standard references such as the Oxiiird English Dic- tionary, Bryant's Current American Usage, and Jespersen's Modern English. Gram- mar and to note the number and kinds of authors cited as using them. We also examined some of the items in the light of the principles of linguistic change which we had discussedfor example, the relationship of the case of a pronoun to its placement respectively before and after the main verb insentences like "Who were you talking toz." and "It's me" and the way in which the relationship of a pronoun to the verb is interpreted in an analytic language. We read some of the material from the Webster's Third debate and compared the quasi-moralconnota- tions of the language used by those lamenting the decline ofusage standards to the students' own feelings of guilt about their grammatical "lapses." Since the main concern in this process w as simply to make the studentsconscious of the multiplicity of factors involved in judgments aboutusage, we covered these topics rather rapidly. The students w ere then askedto construct their own usage questionnaire, consisting of three parts.2 The first sectionw as to investigate sources of usage, where one might look up a disputed point ofusage, w hat kinds of people spoke "good English," whether English teachers spoke "good English," and what a simple definition of "good English" might be. The second section was to contain fifteen to twenty items of disputed usage, to be drawn fromany standard handbook, from the sample questionnaire in Postman and Weingartner's Lin- guistics: A Revolution in Teaching (Neu York. Dell, 1966),or from the Marck- wardt and Walcott study Facts About Current English Usage (New York. Apple- ton-Century-Crofts, 1938). I suggested that the response to these items should be

2This use of a questionnaire was suggested to me by Diana Major, who has used the technique for several semesters with excellent results. I lure discussedmany of the ideas in this article with her and bare profited in many ways from her experience. I am also gratefulto Ken Eble and William Slager for many helpful suggestions. The Folklore of Usage 207 acceptable or not acceptable, and that a distinction should be made between speech and writing. The third section was to examine the correlation between the responses given in the second section and the informants' actual linguistic performance and to determine what the informants felt were the best reasons for learning "good English." The questionnaires were to be given in written and/or oral form to at least ten people. The actual questionnaires varied a good deal depending, of course, on the zeal and imagination of the individual students, but the following questionnaire is typical.

Usage Survey (reproduced with the permission of Fred Peterson) I. Please indicate the degree of acceptability of each of the usages below by writing the appropriate letter in the space provided to the left of the sentence: A = always acceptable B = acceptable formal usage C = acceptable informal usage D = questionable usage E = not acceptable If a usage is not always acceptable, please write an acceptable version in the space provided below the sentence. 1. Your viewpoint is different than his. 2.Bill went to bed without scrubbing his teeth. 3.Bryce Canyon is quite unique. 4.It's like that, you know. 5.I am older than him. 6. She says I am, but I ain't. 7. Houses are built to live in, not to look at. 8. Max decided to really try hard. 9. Who did you see yesterday? 10. This throng of people was gathered to pay their tribute to the heroes. 11.It's me. 12. Someone forgot to wash their hands. 13. Neither you nor she is tall. 14.Let's keep this between you and I. 15. Winstons taste good like a cigarette should. 16. Each of these students are going on the field trip. 17. You don't have no claims on me. 18.I haven't got any. Please indicate those usages which appear in your writing and,'or conversation (whether acceptable or not) by placing a circle around the number of the corresponding sentence above. Examplenot acceptable, but used anyway: E 0 She invited John and myself.

She invited John and me.

II.Please answer the following questions. 1. What is good grammar (or good English)? 2. Who uses good grammar? 3. Where do you look, or whom do you ask, to find out which usage is correct? 4. Do you use correct grammar? 5. What usage errors do you consider to be the most objectionable? 6. What reasons are there for using good grammar? 7.Should teachers always use correct grammar? 208 MARY VAIANA TAYLOR

8.If you could improve your grammar, would you? Why? 9. Do English teachers, or other teachers in the humanities, need to be more careful of their grammar than do science, technical, or P.E. teachers? 10. Where, when, and in what way did you first learn grammar? 11. Should different usages be employed to suit different purposes or audiences, or is it better to use correct standard English in all situations? 12. Should a teacher employ the same usages as his students? 13. Should use of informal English be encouraged in the classroom? In written assignments? 14. What should a teacher do when students use bad grammar? 15. How should acceptable usage be taught?

About fifty percent of the questionnaires were distributed to university students, but other groups, including factory workers, secretaries, secondary schoolstu- dents, university professors, and elementary school teachers were also investigated. The twenty-seven students in my class administered 222 questionnaires. On the day scheduled for discussion of the questionnaires, the studentswere excited about their individual findings and even more impressed by the dcgreeto which the general findings of the class coincided. The observations which resulted from discussion and comparison fall into seven major categories. 1. There is wide-spread discrepancy on almost every educational level between what people claim is acceptable or unacceptable usage and what they admit they actually use. 2. Most informants were very concerned about answering the questionnaire the way the questioner wanted. Typical student remarks were. "Most people were more concerned about what I would think if they did not answer questions 'correctly' than whether or not the questions were actually correct. Therefore, some of their responses were not totally honest." "The most striking response to this survey was, in my opinion, the anxiety that people displayed as they completed the questionnaire." 3.Students who were able to administer some questionnaires orally remarkedon the difference between the results of the oral and the written questionnaires, and noted that those who responded orally were far less anxious about thecorrectness of their answers. 4. On the basis of sociolinguistic studies such as that of William Labov in New York City, we would predict that social bias would playan important role in linguistic judgment; responses to the question "Whouses good grammar?" consistently betrayed such a bias.3 Typical anwers were that "educated"or "upper class" persons spoke good English while "uneducated"or "lower class" persons spoke poor English. This equation of education and high social rank is also reflected in theobservation made by several students that informants.3, ith less formal education seemed far more apprehensive about completing the questionnaire and farlesslenient in their judgments of acceptability. Sometimes answers to this question reflected cultural bias thus "the British' or "not Texans" use good English. 5. This correlation of linguistic and social judgmentswas apparent in the reasons given for speaking or studying "good English." Typical answers were "to seem educated," "to improve myself," "to get a better job." Significantly, "toget a better job," the only clearly pragmatic reason, was least mentioned. 6.Informants almost unanimously chose the dictionaryor a grammar book as the ultimate source of authority in matters of disputedusage. English teachers were less frequently cited. (I will have more to say about these authorities in Section II.)

aWilliam Labov,The Social Stratification of English in New York City(Washington. Cen- ter for Applied Linguistics, 1966). The Folklore of Usage209

7.Despite a variety of judgments about the acceptability of any given usage item, the list of "most objectionable usage errors" was surprisingly small and surprisingly consistent. Since only a small set of pronunciation differences from a non-prestige dialect are socially stigmatized by the members of the speech community, we might expect the same kind of selective marking to be characteristic of grammatical differences.4 In the class list of most. objectionable errors, ain't led by a wide margin; one student remarked that for her informants, it apparently epitomized "bad grammar." Double negatives, the improper case for pronouns (including who and whom), the improper preterit or participle for irregular verbs, split infinitives, and sentence-final prepositions all received frequent mention. Particular items of usage cited were different than, everyone-their, finalize, and between-among. No other constructions or particular items received more than an isolated citation although several informants found "swear words" or "huh" very objectionable.

How significant are these results? The students who administered the questionnaires were not trained field-workers, and their questionnaires are not the questionnaires of professionals. Their informants were sometimes friends, sometimes complete strangers. Informants were asked to use labels such as "acceptable" or "good." Clearly, such labels are quite vague, and even if a student defined these terms for each of his informants, there is no guarantee that his definition would be consistent with the definitions used by the rest of the students in the class. Nevertheless, the results are a valid indication of the basic connotations which a large number of people of various levels of education attach to the concepts "good English" and "bad grammar." They are also a very informative sampling of the kinds of "errors" which, in the minds of many people, mark language as belonging to the latter category. Therefore, as long as the inherent limitations of the data are kept clearly in mind, we may examine here, as I did in subsequent class discussion with my students, the implications of these results. Every English teacher who has admitted his occupation to a traveling companion has witnessed a manifestation of Questionnaire Neurosis. The inevitable reaction to "I'm an English teacher" is some variation of "Oh .I'd better watch my grammar." While the predictability of this response can be a momentary source of amusement, it should also be a cause for serious reflection. There is no way to escape the conclusion that we, as teachers, have done an extremely effective job of conditioning human beings to respond with feelings of inadequacy to a situation which, in their opinion, demands that they be discriminating in their selection of linguistic forms. What are the steps in our conditioning program? First, we separate judgments of acceptaLility from actual usage, second, we emphasize that usage never changes standards, which are, by definition, absolute, third, we reinforce the sense of the divine and unchanging nature of standards by our methods of teaching and correcting. The success of this conditioning program is amply attested by the high percentage of responses in w hich an informant marked a usage as "acceptable" but said he never used it, or marked it as "unacceptable" but said he did use it. We ask students to "fill in the blank w ith the correct form" without providing a linguistic or social context in which the choice is to be made, thereby implying that there is 4For example, r-lessness is highly marked as a non-prestige item in the New York City speech community. See Labov, especially pp. 63-89. 210 MARY VMANA TAYLOR

one correct form which is always correct. Since every student knows by the time he is seven that "Whom did you see" may be correcton his English quiz but will get him into trouble on the playground, he quickly draws the conclusion that there is no inherent relationship between the nature of the ;anguage being examined on that quiz and the nature of the language by which he survives. It is logical, therefore, that these languages be judged by different criteria. The standards of the former are absolute, and are identified and protected by teachers; the standards of the latter are relative and are identified and protected by the immediate favor- able or unfavorable social response. Every student practices constantly with the languagef survival, his experience with classroom language is more limited, less personal, and generally less successful. Small .,ionder that, studentor traveling companion, confronted with the absolute standard in the form ofa written assignment or an English teacher, assumes that his performance will be inadequate. The reactions of my students and of their informantsto the oral-written distinction also support the hypothesis that the standards for the language of the classroom have been established as absolute and inflexible. The informantsto whom the questionnaire was given orally did not display acute Questionnaire Neurosis and were willing to give their opinions about the appropriateness of varioususages; they were also far less prescriptive in their judgments. It is apparent that spoken language was not, in the view of these informants, subject to classroom standards; therefore, an oral questionnaire w as not cause for terror. Evenmore striking was the surprise my students expressed at the discrepancy between the oral and written results. This surprise suggests that these students certainly did not recognize that oral and written standards ofusage should vary, if they had been exposed to the distinction at some time in their formal education, they hadno confirmed commitment to it. Clearly, the distinction wouldnever have been made subsequently in their own classrooms. Chemistry teachers are not loath to add another element to their charts, and physics teachers do not resent acknow 'edgingan alternative theory about the structure of matter. What is it about a changing language and changing tastes in language that English teachers generally findso threatening? I suggest that English teachers establish and protect absolute standards for linguistic performance because in so doing they are establishing and protecting their own prestige, and they feel it is necessary to establish and protect it because theyare themselves linguistically insecure. There is evidence to support this claim. The relevance of the conditioningpro- cess described above is obvious. We should also note the clear social bias in linguistic judgment displayed not only byour students' informants, but also by informants in controlled sociolinguistic investigations suchas the New York City study (Labov, pp. 405-504). The absence of the stigmatized itemswhetherpro- nunciations or usages was alw ay-s associated with the "educated"or "upper class", the presence of the itemswas associated with the "uneducated" or "lower class." The fact that the traditional role of the English teacher in the UnitedStates has been to identify and dispense standards of linguistic performance would,in itself, be sufficient motive for teachers,as a body, to resist the pressure for change exerted by "common speech"pressure which is also, therefore,I challenge to 216 The Folklore of Usage211 their social rank associated with "correct English."' However, there is the additional factor that all speakers tend to be unaware of their own actual performance, attributing to themselves instead the forms which are for them the prestige forms. There is ample documentation of this tendency in the Labov study (Labov, pp. 455 ff.). Although Labov's study was a phonological one, there is no reason to believe that the patterns of lexical usage would differ in any significant way.. One portion of Labov's discussion is particularly relevant. Having noted that all classes in the New York sample manifest the tendency toward linguistic insecurity, Labov states that the middle class, especially the low er middle class, is the most profoundly affected.

The hypercorrect tendency of the lower middle class seems to be rooted in a profound linguistic insecurity. This insecurity is perhaps an inevitable accompaniment of social mobility and the development of upward social aspirations in terms of the socio-economic hierarchy.... The tendency tospelling pronunciations such as [3ftin] for often, or [palm] for palm is another expression of the same process [of hypercorrection]. The development of linguistic insecurity has accompanied the development of the doctrine of correctness.... social mobility ... created a need for a doctrine of correctness, and led to the elevation of the schoolmaster and the dictionary as authorities for speech in both England and America. (p. 475)

Labov also observes that "on every count, women show much greater linguistic insecurity than men" (p. 495). It is unnecessary to stress that a very large percentage of elementary and secondary school teachers in this country come from a middle class background and are female; it should also be unnecessary to stress that my concern in making this point is merely to suggest that the majority of public school teachers, by virtue of their class, sex, occupation, and two hundred and fifty years of a particular pattern of social forces, are likely to be prescriptive about linguistic standards and attribute these standards to their own linguistic performance even though this performance may not in fact reflect these standards.6 It is this situation which I mean to describe by asserting that English teachers are linguistically insecure. To summarize the hypotheses about the characteristic linguistic environment in our schools:

1. There is no functional distinction made between oral and written standards. 2. The standards of the classroom have no relationship to the language of survival and do not reflect the need for situational variation. 3. The standards of the classroom do not constitute 2 comprehensive approach to writing or speaking "good English", instead the focus of attention is a small number of highly stigmatized items, review ed y ear after y ear. As Gleason notes, this practice denies the systematic nature of language, and the continual repetition of 2 very

5H.A. Gleason, Jr., Linguistics and English Grammar (New York. Holt, Rinehart, and Win- ston, 1965), pp. 3-27 and Sterling Leonard, The Doctrine of Correctness in English Usage, 1700-1800, Univ. of 'Wisconsin Studies in Language and Literature, No. 25 (Madison. Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 1929. Two students noted in their summaries that in the course of the interview, their informants used constructions or items which they had earlier judged unacceptable and sai,; they never used. These observations are indicative of the tendency described. 2 12 NIARY VAIANA TAYLOR

limited set of proscribed items aggravates the classroom situation by"adding boredom to vacuity." 4. Perhaps most crucial of all, there is every reasonto expect that the actual linguistic performance of the teacher in the classroom doesnot reflect the teacher's standardscertainly not consistentlyalthor gh the teacher demandsthat the students consistently adhere to them. In this regard, Icannot improve on the observation of one of my students who commented that "'Standard English' is non-existent, but psychologically real."

What did we accomplish in the three weeksire spent gathering and interpreting data and examining ourown linguistic motives and the possible motives of former teachers and future colleagues? We did not find definite answers to the classicusage questions. Should usage be taught) How does one teach usage? W'hat should be the standardsfor oral work? Should English teachers require higher standards of linguistic performancethan teachers of other subjects? How much influence should the languageof survival have on "Standard English"? In fact, it is probablyaccurate to say that there was more immediate confusion about these points after the usage unit than therew,..4 before we began it. I suggest that this isa desirable result, confusion about complex issues is infinitely preferable to the confidence of ignorance. There are a number of areas, however, in which the students undeniablybene- fited from this unit.

1. The principles of linguistic change with whichwe had begun our discussion were now viewed from an entirely different perspective. From Old English times, analogy has worked to remove verbs from thestrong class and add them to the weak or "regular" class. This is a fact about the history of English, and a particular example of the operation of a very general principle of natural languages.However, the results of this natural linguistic process are often held in thegreatest contempt by persons who know little about the nature of languages, aud unfortunately,many of these persons are teachers o' English. I think it is likely that my students willnow attempt to temper linguini,; judgment with linguistic knowledge. 2. The students have a specific idea about the complexnature and sources of potential emotional reactions to linguistic variation ofevery kind. Therefore, they are equipped to deal with the manifestations of these reactions in their students. Some of my students had already observed Questionnaire Neurosis inthe reactions of secondary school students to written assignments, the reactionswere most acute in the Me of minority students.8 The clear establishment of different standards for oral and written work, the deliniation of a sliding scale of standards for differentaudiences and situations, the use of tape recorders and journalsnot subject to "grading," and many other techniques were discussed and evaluated in terms of their appropriateness for coping with what can only be accurately describedas linguistic fear. None of these techniques is revolutionary, what will make them particularlyeffective is that they will be used in the context of a broad understanding of whatthe problem really is.

iLinguisties and English Grammar p. 15. Labov describes thesame kind of selective teaching emphasis with regard to pronunciation (Labov, p. 493). sNlinority students at Indiana University, enrolled ina summer program to improve their language skills, repeatedly stated that they knew their language "hadalways been bad"; one student said he only spoke "slang." For these students, committing languageto paper was a significant threat. The Folklore of Usage213

3.Corollary to this understanding is the strong sense these students have of the necessity of specifically teaching the facts of variation and encouraging a tolerant attitude towards then . Acknowledgment and appreciation of a broad spectrum of written and spoken styles is, of course, requis::e both for attentive reading of literature and for confident self-expression. But acknowledgment of geographical and social variation is even more crucial since social judgments based on these variations deeply affect personal relations in the classroom and, subsequently, in jobs and in the com- munty. The study of some of the major non-standard dialects and the linguistic acceptance of the groups who speak them is an important aspect of this acknowledgment. In my own class, I origivally- treated geographical dialects after situational and social dialects, but geographical variation is probably the most promising starting point for an examination of linguistic variation. The concept of "a different kind of language in a different place" seems to be a more readily acceptable form of linguistic variation for most speakers than the often threatening concept of "a different kind of language in the place w here I live." A number of questionnaires designed for classroom study of geographical dialects are available .9 The discussion of variation across space leads quite naturally to the consideration of variation across class and, subsequently, across situations. Thus a unit on dialect geography becomes not merely a pleasant change of pace in the secondary classroom but a viable introduction to the multi-faceted study of the interaction of language and culture. 4.Surely the most important thing my students learned from this particular treatment of usage is the absolute necessity of their being linguistically secure individuals before they attempt to be teachers. Being linguistically secure foes not mean pretending to have answers to all, or even some, of the questions raised here. Nor does it mean never making a social judgment on the basis of linguistic performance. It does mean, however, having sufficient knowledge of the way in which language and social interaction change, to confront a variety of standards and performances without feeling threatened. It does mean immediately tempering social judgment with awareness of the sociolinguistic forces from which ..o one, not even a professional linguist, is exempt. The comments of one of my students exemplify the kind of awareness which I feel has value far beyond the narrow issue of whether one should write who or whom. In class discussion before the questionnaires were distributed, she stated that one of the minor crosses in her life was listening to a salesperson in a bakery talking about the "real fresh pies." After class examination of the questionnaire results had begun, she admitted privately in an office conference that she felt very guilty about her resentment of this usage and about her linguistic snobbery, however, she despaired of ever being able to prevent such a reaction. By the end of the unit, the student explained both of her previous states to her classmates with a good deal of humor, commenting that her hackles still rose at "real fresh," but that she saw her reaction simply as another example of the validity of the sociolinguistic principles which we had been discussing. Students like this one are in a position to break the tradition of usage folklore in our schools.

A Lengthy Footnote Which Is Too Important To Be One If I have given the impression in the preceding Section that linguistic insecurity is found only in elementary and secondary school :eachers, thefollowing data should dispel it. In the course of the analysis of the questionnaires, the class asked what the 9Hugh Agee, "The Analysis of Student Talk. Classroom Possibilities for Dialect Study," English Journal (Sept. 1972), pp. 878-881, Roger Shuy, Discovering American Dialecu (NCTE, 2967). 4i 214 MARY VAIANA TAYLOR

attitudes of the Teaching Associates in the EnglishDepartment were about usage. In order to answer the quest:on, I deviseda brief usage questionnaire. Informants were asked to designate whether a usage was acceptableor unacceptable (1) in written work in classes which they taught,(2) in oral work in classes which they taught, (3) in written work for classes inwhich they themselves were students, (4) in oral work for classes in which theythemselves were students. The informants were to underline the offending itemor items in sentences which they had judged unrcceptable for anyslassification.The classes which the Teaching Associ- ates regularly taught were Freshman Composition anda variety of introductory literature courses; I asked the informantsto indicate the number of quarters in which they had taught thesecourses. The questionnaire was distributed in written form to eighty-five Teaching Associates; onlytwenty-one were returned. The items on the questionnairewere drawn directly from the items listed in Marckwardt and Walcott's Facts About CurrentEnglish Usage.° In their discussion, first published in 1938, Marckwardt andWalcott reviewed the earlier study Current English Usage by Sterling Leonard (Chicago.Inland Press, 1932), which sought to gather information aboutusage by securing the "consensus of expert opinion" from a group of 229 judges composed oflinguists, editors, authors, businessmen, and teachers of English and speech."Usages were labeled "established," "disputable," or "illiterate"; however,the "disputable" ranking meant only that the judges couldnot agree about the particular item. The Marckwardt and Walcott study examined the items in eachof these categories, comparing the opinions of the Leonard judges with the linguistictestimony and citations available in the Oxford English Dictionary and itsSupplement, Webster's New Inter- national Dictionary (second edition), Horwill'sModern American Usage, Hall's English Usage, and thegrammars of Jespersen and Curme. The questionnaire contained twelveitems identified as "established"usage according to t:ie Leonard Survey, andseven items identified as "disputable" usage. The comparison of the judgments ofthe twenty-one Teaching Associates with the judgments of dictionaries andgrammar books is most interesting. In the following table, the item being examined isitalicized. Figures represent theper- centage of the informants who found the item unacceptable inthe relevant category. When an informant found the sentence unacceptable,but circled an item other than the one being studied, hisresponse was eliminated from the percentage; in a few cases, no answer was given foran item in a particular category, and these instances were also eliminated in figuring thepercentages.

°There were minor changes in orderto make some of the sentences more likely ina college classroom, The original sentences and their alteredversions are, respectively: 1) Thiswas the reason why he went home. Thiswas the reason why he left the university. 2) We willtry and get it. We will try and get the bookas soon as possible. 3) We can expect the commission to at least protect our interests. We can expect the committeeto at least protect our interests. 4) If it wasn't for football, school life wouldbe dull. If it wasn't for examinations, school life would be more pleasant. 5) He stopped to price some flowers. Harold stopped to pricesome flowers. 6) Invite whoever you liketo the party. Invite whoever you like to my wedding. 7) I wish I was wonderful. I wish Iwas intelligent. "The actual division of thegroup of 229 judges was. thirty linguistic specialists, thirty editors, twenty-two authors, nineteen businessmen,and about 130 English teachers. The Folklore of Usage215

Written work in classes Written work which T.A.'s in T.A.'s taught Oral own classes Oral

CATEGORY I: "ESTABLISHED" This is a man ... I used to know (omitted relative). 43% 5% 67% 20% This is the chapter whose contents caused most discussion. 67% 26% 72% 53% He did not do as well as we expected 9% 0% 24% 5% This was the reason why he left the university. 70% 20% 84% 21% We can expect the committee to at least protect our interests. 55% 15% 70% 40% I don't know if I can. 20% 5% 37% 5% If it wasn't for examinations, school life would be more pleasant. 81% 43% 95% 76% Harold stopped to price some flowers. 20% 5% 33% 14% You had to have property to vote, in the eighteenth century. 42% 0% 70% 5% I felt I could walk no further. 29% 9% 43% 28% I'd like to make a correction. 9% 0% 19% 0% Galileo discovered that the earth moved. 45% 25% 50% 35% CATEGORY II: "DISPUTABLE" None of them are here. 60% 32% 65% 50% We will try and get the book as soon as possible. 86% 28% 90% 62% We only had one left. 43% 9% 67% 19% A treaty was concluded between the four powers. 70% 43% 85% 62% Invite whoever you like to my wedding. 70% 10% 80% 26% I wish I was intelligent. 62% 33% 90% 52% My contention has been proven many times. 60% 30% 90% 37%

Obviously, the most important observation to be made about these data is that in fifteen out of nineteen instances, more than twenty -five percent of these gradu- 216 AIARY VAIANA TAYLOR ate students find unacceptable in written work for introductory composition and literature classes usages which occur in the works of major figures ofevery kind of literature, sometimes from the beginnings of written English records. In the Marckwardt and Walcott study, all of these usages were placed in the Literary English category. The authors' definition of Literary English is. "If the expression was recorded without a limiting label in the collections of usage consulted, and if there was at least one citation from the nineteenth century, the expressionwas considered Literary English (p. 18). The authors note thateven the OED found it necessary to limit the citations to one per century in many cases, and none of the items labeled Literary English relies on a single citation. The following citation is typical: I had rather go at once. The OED cites uses from 1450-1875. Jespersen cites Defoe, Thackeray, Shaw, Wells, Hall names thirty-two authors whouse it. Put more bluntly, these students will later fill PMLA with scholarly articles on Austen, James, Hardy, and Meredith, but they find the language of these authors unacceptable from college freshmen. Some other points should be briefly noted:

1. The comparison of the evidence from the dictionaries and grammar books with the judgments of these Teaching Associates clearly supports the earlier hypothesis that the shibboleths of usage are protected and propagated by oral tradition, certainly they are not based on the usage exemplified by literature of acknowledged value. 2. One might suggest that any individual may choose to be as prescriptive as he wishes about his own linguistic performance and, therefore, that the percentages of unacceptability relating to the graduate students' own work are irrelevant to this discussion. However, it should be noted that in every case, a high percentage of unacceptability for written graduate work corresponds to a high percentage for written introductory work, it often corresponds to a significant percentage for oral work as well. Unfortunately, there was no way to check these ratings against the actual written and oral usage of the graduate students although, on principle, one would be very suspicious of the high percentages, especially in the oral category. 3. The Leonard Survey suggests that a teacher "will certainly, in marking themes, accept from the average student any usage classed in this study as established or disputable..." (quoted in Marckwardt and Walcott, p. 15), and Marckwardt and Walcott remark in their discussion that the Leonard classifications werevery conservative. Yet, in this survey, eight of the twelve items rankedas established usages in the Leonard Survey have a high unacceptability rating. In the disputable category, every one of the seven items has a high rating. It is interesting to note that all of the latter items except the last one received an "established" rating from the linguists in Leonard's panel and a "disputable" rating from thegroup as a whole (for the last item, the ratings were reversed). It is perhaps predictable, but unfortunate, that the judgment of at least this particular group of professional teachers of writing almost never coincides with the judgment of professional students of language. 4. The items which have extremely high percentages of unacceptability for both kinds of written work are, predictably. improper "case" for a pronoun, the lack of the subjunctive, the proper form of the participle, the between-among distinction, and certain bound phrasesreason why, try and get. These are the kinds of items which received frequent mention by my students' informants and whichseem to constitute a lexical parallel to the small number of marked pronunciation features in a non-prestige dialect. 5. There was no correlation between the number of quarters a Teaching Associate had taught and the prescriptiveness of his linguistic judgment. It should be noted that one graduate studentbut only oneremarked at the bottom of the question- /Continued on page 219)

2,)..., ENNO KLAMMER

Cassettes in the Classroom

WHAT STARTED AS AN EXPERIMENT several theme, cassette, and folderon the years ago has turned out to save time indate due. I then put his cassette into my correcting freshman composition themes.recording machine (supplied by the col- If I can believe my students, it has alsolege) and read his theme, recording my helped them learn to write better. Andcomments as I go along. Ifirst record that's w hat it's really all about. Briefly,the student's name and the date the paper the "experiment" consists of using cas-was due. This is a safety measure, in case settecartridgestocorrectfreshmanthe paper and the cartridge get separated papers. The following is a sketch of thefrom each other. As I read the paper, I method with some comments about theplace numbers in the margin which cor- results. respond to the number of the comment I will be recording at the time. Istill Each student in my composition sec-use a red pencil for the sake of visibility. tions is required to buy a cassette catridgeAfter I have read the paper through and in addition to the other required mate-have assigned a grade, I return it with the rials. If he buys it from our college audio-cartridge, announcing a date for the visual department, he may get a partialrewritten version to be handed in. refund when he turns it in at the end of Once the student gets his paper back, the quarter. What it amounts to, then, ishe goes to the library, checks out a tape that he is renting the cartridge for aboutplayer, and listens to my comments as ten cents per week. The audio-visualhe reads through his own paper. He may department has a number of cartridgeindeed heisencouraged tomake playback machines available for studentwhatever revisions or corrections he feels use in its listening room. This kind ofnecessary. He may even rewrite the en- machine is familiar to and popular withtire paper while he is listening to the students. They have many available totape. If there is a particular point which them in the dormitories. he has not understood, he can replay that The student writes his assigned essay,part of the tape until he understands it. places it into his folder, places the cas- The kinds of comments I make are sette in the folder, and hands. in all threevaried as to type and importance. Some deal purely with grammatical or structural mattersfor example, how to cor- Enno Klammer teaches English and Linguistics at Eastern Oregon College, La Grande, Oregon. rectasentence fragment by adding He has in progress The Forms of Writing, a(usually) the verb or by attaching the Freshman Composition text which uses T-Gfragment to another sentence. Some deal grammar to move from the concept of the organization of sentences to the organization ofmerely with the mechanics of writing paragraphs and essays. spelling, punctuation, manuscript form,

Reprinted from College English, Vol. 35, No. 2, Novemberlj 1973. 218 ENNO KLANIMER

and the like. The student might have to A final disadvantage lies in thematter be reminded, for example, that he failedof timing. When can one schedule the to double-space, and that the instructorrewrite of a paper so that it will give the is suffering from strained eyeballs asa student enough time to hear thecom- result of his forgetfulness. I usually doments, correct the paper, and learn some- not spell words for students; instead Ithing in time to avoid making thosesame send them to the dictionary by drawingmistakes on the next paper he hands in? attention to their errors. Often it seemsHowever, if one considers that writing best to try to give reasons for particularskills are cumulative, it may not beas big forms of punctuation rather than toa problem as it at first seems. One possible merely list the correct mark: the studentsolution might be to require the student generally profits more from an explana-to buy two cartridges. tion of why we use commas to set off The advantages of the method,on the nonrestrictive clauses and why we doothu hand, seem clearly to outweigh not use them for restrictive clauses thanthe disadvantages. The instructorcan he does from the simple comment, "Yousay much more and can sayit more need commas here " Items that particu-clearly. I estimate that a personcan speak larly benefit from being recorded haveat least five times faster than he can write, to do with such things as paragraph de-which means that he can convey five velopment and the organization of thetimes as much information in thesame whole essay. amount of time. The fact that the in- From the instructor's point of viewstructor can say so much more helps him this method has advantages and disadvan-to anticipate certain questions which any tages. To begin with, the very nature ofteacher of composition knows will be the machinery makes the job cumber-forthcoming from students who try to some at times. The instructor has to carrydecipher the traditional hieroglyphics of a large box back and forth to class onthe margin. This, in turn, may mean that those days when he is collecting or dis-the student no longer feels the needto tributing papers and cartridges. Becausecorner his teacher for so many personal the machine is necessary to carry out theexplanations of trivial matters, thereby project means that the work of correct-saving everybody's time for more im- ing papers must be done in the office. Aportant things. disadvantage which may occur when one On the last full day of classes for the is first trying out the method has to doquarter my students were asked to write with difficulty in dictating into a mikean unsigned, ungraded comment about "on the run," so to speak, or in thetheir own reactions to the method. Forty- presence of those colleagues who sharefive of the forty-eight who survived the office. It also takes time to learn howresponded. Onty one was severelynega- to make an accurate and thorough cri-tive in his response. All the others liked tique during a once-through reading ofthe method and its results. The mostcom- a paper. Indeed, the whole method ismon complaint concerned the difficulty time-consuming. There is no doubt about of scheduling listening time in the library. that. To correct a paper in this way takesIn addition, the fact that the students had at least half again as much time as theto go to the library to listen to the tapes "old" method of writing a few crypticwas in itself an inconvenience for some. comments and hieroglyphic symbols. Now, three years and some 450 stu- Cassettes in the Classroom219 dents later, I am still using the method.as I wanted to say to help the struggling During one quarter I abandoned it, butstudent. And the last of these 450 stu- I came back to it quickly. I felt ham-dents still agree that the method is, if not strung by my inability to write as muchexciting, at least interesting and helpful.

The Folklore of Usage

(Continued from page 216)

naire that "any of these could be acceptable or unacceptable depending on purpose and style of writing." It is not surprising that the percentages of unacceptability were very low on this questionnaire.

Twenty-one individuals is a small number on which to base any firm conclusions, and these results are presented as suggestive rather than definitive. But one wonders whether the small number of returned questionnaires is another manifestation of Questionnaire Neurosis. Would the returns have been equally small if I had asked about political affiliation or abortion laws? It may also be argued that the results have been distorted by a tendency on the part of the informants to mark an item unacceptable simply because it appeared on the questionnaire. If this is so, I would like to ask what it is about writing that does not occur between the covers of the latest Norton anthology that makes it eminently suspect. And might this tendency also apply to all usages which happen to appear in student writing? In either case, it seems that fear of seeming permissive in linguistic matters can only come from fear of seeming inadequate in linguistic matters. I leave the last word to one of my students. "It's pathetic to think that our system of teaching language and our concern with rules can make a native speaker of English feel so inadequate about his own language." FRANCINE HARDAWAY

What Students Can Do to Take the Burden Off You

THERE HAS BEEN A LOT OFDISCUSSION organization. Perhaps some modelessays about student-centered techniques lately,from an anthology could be useful here, and research generally concludes thator even some student essays. From the students learn at least as much froma discussions, a mimeographed form could "teacherless" class as from a traditionalbe evolved. A copy of the form would class, provided they write a great deal.'be attached to every paper the student Student-centered techniques, then, wouldturns in(see appendix). On the form be perfect for beginning teachers. Suchappear the criteria for acceptable papers, techniques are completely betweenstu-accompanied by several sentences of de- dent and teacher, require no radicalre-scription. Below thecriteriaare four visionofexistingEnglishprograms,empty boxesinwhich four student emphasizeindividualinstruction,andreaders will evaluate the attached theme make room for more actualwritingaccording to the written criteria. Each practice. At the same time, they takestudent evaluator must assigna grade some of the burden off the new teacher.and justify it as a teacher would. He One obvious device to minimize themust sign his name to his evaluations, so effect of a teacher's inexperience andthe author may question him further if maximize learning is peer group evalua-necessary. Mere mechanical errors need tion. Because this method lets studentsnot be taken up in the boxes provided read other's papers, pointing out bothfor evaluation, they are indicated right errors in mechanics and problems of con-on the paper. tent and organization, it saves agonizing Arriving at the criteria for a good hours spent in correcting student themespaper would probably be useful for the by beginning teachers anxiousto be fairbeginning teacher as for his students; it and complete. would give him some time to thinkout A new instructor who wished tousewhat he wanted from his students, mak- peer evaluation could spend class time ating it unnecessary for him to fall back the beginning of the semester to arriveon assignments that bored him and would at some mutually acceptable standardscatapult new generations to tedium. for mechanical competence and good After the student has had his paper evaluated by four members of the class in the light of the new criteria, he has Francine Hardaway teaches English at Scotts- daleCollege, Arizona and reviews film foranother task: he must revise hispaper The New Times. She is the author of a com- in accordance with his classmates' criti- position text to be published by Prentice-Hall. 'Terry Grabar, et al. "Measuring Writingcisms. If he disagrees, he must call his Progress. An Experiment," College English, 35 critics together and discuss thepaper (January 1974), 484-5. with themperhaps they have misun-

Reprinted from College English, Vol. 36, No. 5, January 1975 2-:; What Students Can Do to Take the Burden Off You 221 derstood, or perhaps they can make clearinstruction, individual conferences are a orally w hat they couldn't tell him on the necessity . Held t'ice during the semes- evaluation sheet. At this point the teacherter, they enable the instructor to meet can enter the discussion again, but still%%ith "low-profile" students to find out only as a resourcenot as a fount ofif they are actually doing any work. At specious authority. the first conference a student must pre- All the actual work, then, is done bysent all his written work to date, all the the students. This division of labor ispeer-evaluation sheets, and evidence that effective for many reasons. First, it re-he has done some revision to meet his moves from the new teacher the responsi- classmates' criticism. Once again the stu- bility of handing down standards by fiatdent bears the responsibility:he must (and of possibly being wrong). Second,keep all his written work and produce it it involves the student in the evaluativeon demand. Why should the teacher act process, which ceases to be a mysteryas file clerk by keeping papers? And why looked on with hostility. Having to findshould the student discard a paper some- the mistakes of others makes the studentone has carefully read and annotated more conscious of his own errors, and itfor him? teaches him the notion of an audience. Fifteen minutes is ample time to read For once he isn't writing only for theall of a student's work if it has already teacher, he must engage the attention ofbeen read by the class. The majority his peers, w ho aren't being paid for theirof students require no further attention kindness. Third, it frees the teacher from amere corroborationoftheclass's dealing v. ith the obvious errors that areopinion satisfies them. They now have made over and over by students untohad five opinions. But if, when reading eternity and can be found by anyonethe papers, the instructor sees a special reading a student theme. The teacherproblemanything from missing work then presumably has time and energy totolack of revisionto problems not tackle more complicated writing prob-pointed out by student evaluatorshe lems such as logical fallacies, immaturecan arrange another conference. sty le,and sentence monotony, which The first conference ought to be held often get pushed to the background bybefore mid-semester, so it can help the less esoteric and more prominent incon-student improve. At the final conference, sistencies. held just before the semester's end, the The principlebehindtheapparentteacher can give a last evaluation of the disappearance of professional authoritystudent's work, looking both for im- in the classroom is another irony.in provrment and for ability. But most stu- teaching, sometimes lessismore. Thedents can tell with great accuracy what teacher seems to teach less, and be lessgrade they deserve, because they have involved, but more frequent writing as-had at least four times as much criticism signments actually mean that the studentas the teacher alone could have provided. learnsmore.And the teacher does haveDifficultcases requireafinal writing some "free" time for more sophisticated assignment. writing problems, which involve him in Lest the busy instructor shy away more than a superficial evaluation of afrom spending cAtra time on conferences, student's difficulties. let me suggest that these meetings be As a check or balance on peer-groupheld mostly during class time.I have

22 222 FRANCINE HARDAWAY

found it beneficial to vary the classroombe improved before the evaluation sheets routine twice during the semester byare affixed and the sometimes cruel eyes calling off the full class for two weekof the peer evaluators are cast on the periodsonce at midterm and once be-fledgling efforts. fore finals. During this time, students The great value of prewriting and come in groups of four or five a day forediting is thus preventive. In addition, it conferences. Those who don't have afocuses the attention of the class on writ- conference that day are free to work ating. Writingislikeexercise.talking home on a writing assignment that is dueabout it doesn't produce the same results when the class reconvenes as a whole.as doing it. Even the best lecturer can't The four or five students scheduled forteach Nk ritillg if the students never write. conferencescometotheclassroom. And one of the biggest problems about While waitingfortheirconferences,freshman composition is the staggering students can revisetheir own papers,number of themes freshmen haveto evaluate papers for the other four stu-w rite if they are going to learn anything dents in the room, discuss differences ofat all about the process of composition. opinion about previous work, or beginMust composition teachers have unwield- prewriting thenext assignment. Thisly classes and too many themes to grade. little "lab" isa welcome break aroundPrewriting, editing, and peer evaluation mid-semester, anditgives everyone amake it possible to teach a large class chance to catch up. After all, there iswith reasonable efficiency, shortchanging nothing sacred about having all of theno one. people in the classroom all of the time, So these methods have something else some people think the classroomisa in common besides their ability to exist lousy place to write. without major curriculum and philo- But the last method I suggest involvessophical changes. they generate a good the classroom directlyinthe writingdeal of writing practice w ith very little process: it is the prewriting and editinghomework on anybody's part. They use session. In the prewriting session, stu-ever% minute of the available class time dents divide into groups to try out theses,in v riting, evaluating, or con ferencing. help each other with outlines, and readNo time is wasted on days when the in- opening paragraphs to one another. Instructor is unprepared, because the course the editing session, students writein is not purely the responsibility of the class and then discuss their w, ork in prog-instructor. And no time-draining discus- ress. The best way to accomplish this issions of peripheral issues occur. Almost informally. The instructor could askaal ay sthe students' own writing be- student to read his unfinished work aloudcomes the course's text. during an in-class writing session. Or the With these few readjustments in the class could once again divide itself intodirection of student-centered teaching, small groups to discuss work in progress.it ought to be possible for even the most In some casesitiseffective to walkinexperienced teacher to run a mutually around the room and read over students'profitable composition class. And for the shoulders when they write. The objectjunior college teacher who must deal of editing sessions, no matter how they la ith man% composition sections, the as- are held, is to deal with compositionssumption of some burdens by the student before they are finished so that they may NA, ould certainh be a welcome relief.

22E What Students Can Do to Take the Burden Off You223

APPENDIX

NAME OF AUTHOR

"Criticizing a story in class is a way of publishing it, everybody reads it.... The .vriter gets a real contact with the real world, not his wife, not his girl friend, not his mother. The student learns what the problem of communication is. He may have expressed his deepest feelings, but if people haven't gotten them, he has mis.,M." Herbert Gold in Writer's Digest (9-20-72, p. 30)

Consider the following items when assessing each paper: Thesis stated clearly or identifiably. Subject matter clearly developed. Respect for audience demonstrated by tone and consistent point of view. Organization apparent in first paragraph; thesis and divisions developed in the middle paragraphs; transitions used; last paragraph concludes. Sentence patterns made interesting through figurative language, examples, details. Appropriate word choice. Mechanics used for clear commu&cation. Acci.ptin.i. GRADE_ Mechanically competent, demonstrating original, creative, and clear use of language. Paper has a consistent tone and point of view. Thesis and organization are apparent. Subject matter within the scope of the assignment. T. NALCEPTABLL GRADE- Little detail, inconsistencies of tone and point of view, stylis- tically dull, poorly organized, more "telling" than "showing," problems of mechanics and word choice, poor transition, no thesis.

Name of Evaluator: Name of Evaluator:

Strengths: Strengths: Weaknesses: Weaknesses: How to improve: How to improve: Grade: Grade:

Name of Evaluator: Name of Evaluator:

Strengths: Strengths: Weaknesses: Weaknesses: How to improve: How to improve: Grade: Grade:

4 2 Li BARRETT JOHN MANDEL

Teaching Without Judging

AT THE MEETING of the National NCTE embodies no monolithic "Method." But Ad Hoc Committee on Grading, Miss itdoes work on the assumption that Jean Andersonof Burlingame Highjudgment in the form of grades and School in California turned to the groupmeasurement (against "standards") does and asked, "How can one teach withoutmore to prevent education than to en- evaluating or judging?" As a first-ratecourage it. This assumption is, fortunate- teacher, Jean could see, of course, howly, shared by a great many professors of to judge gently and kindly, but sheliterature today. But many of them have wondered whether in the teaching ofnot found satisfying ways of translating literature it was possible to substitute fortheir assumptions into classroom prac- the judging of student work an entirelytice. My own practice may afford a few different pedagogical strategy. suggestions which others may find useful. Many college teachers of literature To Jean Anderson's questionCan have recently been struggling with thisone teach without judging?I have come problem. I would like to set forth a fairlyto feel that, for me at least, I cannot detailed account of my own approach,teach and judge as the same person. As not in the least as an example of Truth,a teacher I attempt to follow the follow- potent for all professors at all institu-ing summarized rules of behavior, sug- tions, but as one approach, which hasgested to me not only by my own borne results for me and which mayintuition and that of very talented col- provide helpful hints for some readersleagues, but also by my readings in of College English. third-force psychology, phenomenolog- My teaching uses no gimmicks andical psychology, and hermaneutics. How- ever vague in listed form, these rules of Barrett John Mandel is author of Literaturethumb become powerfully practical for and the English Department. He teaches atme in the literature class: Douglass College (Rutgers) and is a Director of the College. English Association. 1.I listen until I hear.

Reprinted from College English, Vol. 34, No. 5, February1973. 4 3,, Teaching ,without Judging225

2.I look until I see. coffee in a restaurant, or at a party, in an 3.I psychologically support and encour-intense bull session, or in a work session age any signs of intellectual and emo-among equals. The teacher has no lecture tional energy. 4.I encourage interaction among stu-notes, no hidden agenda. Many teachers dents. have commented to me that they hate 5.I advise, but never force or require. giving(and preparing)lectures,that 6.Itry to be intellectually and emo-theyfindlecturingego-buildingfor tionally honest and accessible. themselves but not educationally valu- Of course Ineversucceed at all of theseable for students. Some of them have said at one time (though I occasionally failthat they do not want to direct Socratic at all of them), but they represent a goaldiscussions, but that if they give up this which I keep before me constantly. prerogative, they feel at a loss and do I will attempt to flesh out this skeletonnot know what their role should (or now, but before I do, perhaps I shouldcould) be. point out also in outline form, a few of A teacher in an "open discussion" has the pedagogical devices I never useformany ways of behaving. I mention some reasons which I hope will become clearof them only to demonstrate practical below. steps a teacher who wishes to encourage open discussion can follow. It is reason- I. Never call on anybody who has notable and not inconsistent with the aims volunteered. of open discussion to assume that the 2. Never correct an interpretation. teacher will make sure that there is some- 3. Never berate studentsforlack of knowledge, understanding,orhardthing to discussa focal point of atten- work. tionthoughthisassumption by no 4. Never use lecture asthe dominantmeans implies that he or she has to de- approach. termine"whatthe focal point should be. 5. Never requirespecificprojectsat specific times. The teacher may conceive of his or her role as making sure that students meet in

For literature more than perhaps many 1%orkshops early in the term for the pur- others areas of human study a discussionpose of designing a syllabus or develop- format seems desirable. I am well awareing a set of issues. For some courses, stu- that many lecturers and quest ion- posersdents arrive with very fixed ideas about get high ratings in student evaluations ofNI, hat works they would like to study. teachers and for good reasons, but IAt such times, the teacher can act essen- have come to believe that class discussiontially as a secretary, making sure that cannot be overdonenot ifitisfreethe books are in print, available, etc. A and open. Many students and teachersclass is certainly off to a dazzling start have simply never participatedin anwhen a sizeable number of students know open discussion in a classroom and definewhat they have come to learn about. as "open," a rigidly controlled environ-Much more commonly, naturally, stu- n ant. dents have very few ideas about the pos- By "open discussion" I mean just that. siblereadings for acourse, and the The impetus,direction,style,depth,teacher may have to provide the appro- coverage, energy of thetalkallare priate titles. In either or any case,. the allowed to happen in the classroom as"open discussion" format (for me, at they would elsewhere, whether overleast) implies that there will always be

h.,''I i 226BARRE= JOHN MANDEL

something to discuss, but that the discus-may ask some questions, providing they sionitselfwill not be controlled orare genuine questions, or may express directed. A rootless course with no fixedan opinion as to the meaning or value of expectations would make me very tensethe work of literature at hand ormay and would drive me, because of my sensesimply confess confusion about the lit- of the void, into the worst kind of ponti-erature. I have found that the "starter" fication. Pure, undirected rap. (obviouslynearlyalways takes this responsibility valuable in its own right and occasionallyseriously. Never reminded after the first what occurs in my classes)flourishesclass day, the starter always showsup, most positively when it is spontaneous.always starts, and almost always learns A class is not spontaneous. In my classesfrom the experience. "Today I was the I choose to establish a context in whichstarter for Stop-time," writes one fresh- a work of literature is always the po-man woman in her journal. "Our class tential focus of attention. If my studentswas very exciting. I learned the greatest choose on occasion to pursue their edu-amount from this class. ..." cation by talking about something other Often, especially at the very beginning than literature, it is not because there isof a term, if I find that the class is inno common reading to discuss. hibited, I run some fast freeing-upexer- The teacher has to do whatevercan cises. There can be no open discussion, be done to make the classroom experi- Ifind, when the potential participants ence conducive to discussion and dis-are up-tight, full of self-doubt, suspi;:ious, covery. Superficial measures often help:or bored. Often I do not need "freeing" having the class arranged so thatevery-exercises, but when I do, they always one sits facing everyone else, as in life,take the form of short answers (three or allowing the discussion to take whateverfour sentences), written anonymously, shape it wants to on the assumption thatto questions I pose concerning the stu- what is meaningless for oneperson (per-dents' inner reactions to what has been haps the teacher) may be educative forhappening in the class. I might ask, "List another, that no one lecture or series ofone responsedoubt, question, disagree- questions is likely to be as valuable forment, confusionyou had to the starter's individual students as the questions andopinion." Or, "If you had started what points they make in a natural, free-asso-what would youhavesaid?" Or ciational discussion about the play,poem,simply. "What are you waiting for?" or issue at hand, if that sort of discussionNaturally students who think that they can be generated. are thinking "nothing," discover that Each class daywe often meet atmythey are "not thinking nothing," but home or a student apartmentor on thethat, as Duchess Alice says in Witkie- campus lawnone student,eachofwicz's The Muer Hen, "Apparently you whom volunteers for arbitrary dateson had to forget everything else." I collect the first day of the term, actsas the dis-the anonymous responses, shuffle them, cussion starter. This student does nothingand read them in a warm and supportive more or less than that: he or she starts.way. (I would only do such an exercise It is not a report and it is nota project. ifI was feeling warm and supportive, The student gets no "credit"at all, be-aware of the students' fears and self- yond whatever pleasure theremay be indoubts. I pause after each one and ask triggering a lively discussion. Heor shefor comments. Such an exercise seldom

1. 4 343 Teaching without Judging227 fails to trigger a lively discussion, and,acterized my early teaching, that the more important, a pattern of lively dis-remark was "good" or "bad" (that is, cussion. The written statements are al-near to or far from my perceptionor most always psychologically validatingRobert Brustrin'sof the truth), I now for most of the students. Each one findsthinksomethinglikethefollowing: that her or his own confusion and self-"From her point of view that's the way doubt are reflected darkly behind thethe things looks." Or: "For reasons of her bland masks all around the room. Thisown, she has chosen to present herself term I asked a freshman class the ques-in that light." Now if no other student tion, "What are you waiting for?"responds or there is reason to assume Twenty-one of twenty-twostudentsthat I should respo, .d myself, I can say, wrote some variety of "I have no ideas"Uh-lunm," or "Would you say, also, of my own; I am waiting for somebodythat there are no morally upright charac- else to stimulate my ideas." Just hearingters in the play?" or "I never thought of how insecure all of the others were freedit from that point of view; can you think many students immediately for their firstof some specific examples?" The par- genuine participation in an open discus-ticular palavar is not nearly so important sion. as the teacher's frame of mind. The stu- Whether or not written exercises aredent is an adult with an opinion which used, the class often stumbles along pain-he or she has a right to expect will be fully at first, tentatively groping for ataken seriously. More often than not, direction. 'What is the teacher's role dur-the teacher does not have to say anything ingallofthisapparentaimlessness? because some other student may catch Again, I speak only about my own teach-fire from what has been said and add a ing which I offer as one way of definingnew dimension or deepen the perception. one's responsibilities. As Rogers has discovered inclinical During this initial groping and seemingtherapy, I have found in teaching that chaos, I do not undts any circumstancesthe more a student feels that the environ- take over the class and start "teaching." rit is safe for personal thinking and Having been greatly influenced by thefeeling, the less tentative become the m,rittngs of Carl Rogers, I basically runcontributions, the more accelerated the a student-centered class. This has beenmomentum, the profounder the insights parodied the "uh -hmm!" school ofandself-satisfaction.This uh-hmming pedagogy, in which the student says (asapproachis very hard on a teacher, one recently did), "What hit me themolded, as I was, into an authoritarian. most about The Quare Fellow was theOne must work hard against mind rap- idea that everyone at the prison wasing, against saying, however subtly, "You equally responsible for the injustice andare wrong, my dear. Now listen to the inhumanity which took place there,"truth." Teachers who have "tried this and the teacher says, "Uh -hmm!" That'sapproach" and have found the students a parody, but likeall good parody itclosing up like provincial post offices at strikes close to the truth. lunchtime have, I fear, never fully con- When rstudent makes a tentativevinced their students that this class is a comment during the early moments ofreally safe place. From my own experi- a class, instead of my thought fallingence I know that there is much a teacher into the pattern which exclusively char-can do to drain off the unproductive

) 228BARRETT JOHN Nt ANDEL

anxiety and occasional peer aggression. dents feel that they have been under- Idothis uh-hmming or whateverstood, really heard, they intuitat once psychologically supportive activity Icanthat there is litle reason torepeat or de- (though I never start to "teach") untilfend or flee in fear from what hasnow the natural rhythms of the sessionarebeen heard and accepted. Theypara- established. In other words, when thedoxically find themselves readyto form majority of the students have beguntonew thoughts because they are there sound and look confident, I feel freetoand safe with the one they'vegot. They participate fully in three ways: 1) If Iare in a mental posture of openness and have an idea I have never had before andwillingness to move on tonew ideas. The which occurs to me as a result of thesame holds true for all of us. If these class discussion, I tell it (if Ican get awords I am writing conformto your word in edgewise); 2) If I havea realown thoughts, thereby helping to legiti- questionone for which I do not havea mize yours, you will feel relatively hap- secret answer tucked awayI ask it; 3)py, open, and eager to share thoughts. If, If a student asks for factual informationthough, from your point of view Iam about history, biography, bibliography,dishing out hogwash and am not thereby literary conventions, genres, and the like,helping to legitimize your views,you Iprovide what Icalla mini-lecture,will probably feel yourself hardening which may take from twenty secondstoagainst me, tensing for a fightto defend fifteen minutes, but which, hopefully,your view. seldom goes beyond what the student If what I have been saying about hear- apparently wishes to know. I trynever toing as a way of stimulating intellectual cut a student off, to take sides in anopenness sounds like overly tender treat- argument, or to dominate discussion. Butment of fragile student psyches, it may most importantly, I try never to judgesuggest how far we have allowed our- negatively and ameven stingy withselves, in our roles as defenders of the positive judgments. When I hearsome-Sacred Flame and molders of youth,to thing I like, I occasionallysay so, usu-stray from reasonable human interaction ally admitting only to the indisputablewith the men and women whoare largely fact that I like it and less oftento theforced through sociologicalpressure to more dubious assertion that it is "right"put up with us. I do not like to be molly- or "good." More often than not, I saycoddled, and I do not like totreat others something like, "If I understandyou,patronizingly. Really what this descrip- you are saying that thus-and-such is thetion of non-judgmental teaching calls for case." I always trust the classto makeis nothing more or less than polite,re- their own value judgmentson ideas andspectful dealings with human beings who interpretations. are made free by God or Nature to think As I understand the teacher's function,what they want to think,even about it is to listen until he hears. Whenstu-literature. And though wemay presently dents sense that they havenot truly beenhave the power to require certain obei- heard (that is to say, understood), theysances from them, I do not think we like their teachers orany other peopleshould honor the wielding of it by call- either harden into a strident dogmatisming it education. None of what I have or shrink inse :urely away from the fire:been saying is meant to suggest thatI I mean they cease to learn. But whenstu-think any real learningcan take place Teaching without Judging229 without discipline. But I favor self-disci- Much of what I have been saying ap- pline in myself and abhor its absenceplies to class discussion and conference when I am lazy. I likewise favor allowinginteraction, but it applies just as well others their own discipline and their ownto the written work students may do for guilt. As I see it, it is their business, nota course. I have found that since I have mine. Mine isto meet them where,stopped grading the written work of my when, and how they are ready to learn.students, the papers I have received are I am, of course, speaking here of emo-more interesting to read than before, tional time and space, "lived time" inmore personally worth my while, more Minkowski's usefulphrase.Itol-rateinformed with the kind of human pres- student laziness because I know too wellence I can respond to. my own; I "don't see" evasiveness and I am not going to argue here against many forms of student dishonesty be-the validity of grades as a psychologically cause I remember too vividly myself as avalid pedagogical device. The mountain student. I know that behind the lazinessof psychological and sociolot;":41 evi- is energy, behind the lassitude, interest,dence on the subject and the various behind the evasion, commitment. A stu-commissionreportsspeakfor them- dent of mine who sees herself as phoney,selves. The point of this essay is to share shallow, and lazy recently wrote, "I'mpedagogical experience of the kind that not doing what I deeply want to do!helps to make possible teaching without I'm not at all satisfied with my life be-judging. Grades are fixed judgments. So cause I am so fake! I'm unreal! I am anaturally I do what I can, in an institu- different character for each differenttion dreadfully out of date on this issue group of people. I give most adults theand repressive to teachers who monkey answers they want to hear, not the an-around withthe grading system,to swers I truly feel." Now, of course, shesatisfy the Registrar's demand for grades is fake and dishonest. Who doesn't ac-without sacrificing what I hope are my cept her judgment as valid? What pointsense of human decency and my knowl- would there be in calling this statementedge of the ways in which people learn. of hers a lie and self-deception, but toMy present grading compromiseI have validate her own self-judgment?But,hitherto tried and rejected blanket A's, at the same time, who could failtostudentself-grading,various"in-put "hear" in this energetic self-depreciationgrading" procedures (a combined grade a desire to build, grow, achieve, andbased on student self-evaluation, teacher learn? As a teacher, especially of litera-evaluation, outside, objective judgment) ture, I feel that it is our business to tellis to grade entirely, though flexibly, on students, through our support and emo-a quantitative basis, rather than a quali- tional availability, that we "hear" them.tative one. Specifically, if students attend It does not make me a psychoanalystthe class reasonably often and do one (that tired attack) or less of a professorproject, they get at least a "C"; if they of literature if I free a student to grappledo a "C"-level and a "B"-level project, with Donne by saying, in one way or an-they get a "B"; if they wish an "A" in other, "Sure you're lazy! Who isn'tthe course, they hand in a "C", "B", and lazy? I'm lazy. Donne was lazy too!an "A" level project. The "C" level pro- Now let's talk about what else we areject often involves group participation: energetic, creative, and educable." a prepared scene from a play, a presenta- 230BARRETT JOHN MANDEL

tion of seventeenth century musicor art, subject of your own major studies. (In or the like. Each person in the group re- what way is the modernity ofrecent ceives a "C" for participating,no mat- drama comparable to the modernity of ter how little or much she or he does. recent sociology or home economicsor The "B" and "A" level projects chemistry or music?) Dueany time. can each one of your own, but must be cleared be selected from lists which I provide. with the instructor. Here are the options fora. B" in my present Modem Drama course; the stu- An "A" student inmy Modern Drama dent need only do one of these foraclass may, then, have fulfilled the fol- "B" in the course: lowing, typical "contracts":reasonable attendance; participation ina presenta- an intellectualjournalcovering the course readings and the class itself. Duetion of a scene from A Doll's House;a twice: mid-term and end of theterm. paper on the influence of Artaud and "customized" exam (in-school?take-Brecht on contemporary drama;a sum- home? oral? on what? when?) Duemary and review of Brustein's The The- any time after the second-third of theater of Revolt and Blau's The Impossible term. Theatre. paper on the influence of Artaud or Brecht on contemporary theatre. Due The point is that the studentgets the any time. grade the moment he or she hands inthe original play in the style ofone modernproject, regardless of its quality. Now, playwright: Due any time. contract grading calls for an acteven close analysis of one play (if the analysis differs from that which evolves in classa leapof faith in students. For me this discussion). Due any time.. faith comes easy. For others, itmay be non-verbal project. Due by last classdifficult or impossible. I will, theoreti- day of term. cally, accept trash submitted foran "A". one of your own, but must be clearedBut I believe that in a non-judgmental, with the instructor. unpunitive, encouragingcontext,stu- The student who wishesto receivedents will want to work toward achiev- an "A" in the course would workon aing self-styled and oftenvery challenging "C"-level project, hand inone of thegoals. While nothing in the format ofthe above "B"-level projects, and would addcourse coerces a student to do anything one of the following "A"-level contracts:which reason, energetic teaching,and the student's native curiosity donot in- research paper on one of the authorsspire, I, needless tosay, constantly en- discussed this term. Due any time. courage self-discipline and self-respecting take-home exam on the complete theat-work. rical works of one of the authors dis- No human system is perfect. Ofcourse cussed this term. Due any time. I occasionally receive rushed objective exam on all introductoryma- or careless terial in all the texts. Dueany time. junk. But my approachto teaching is detailed summary and review oftwogeared to those who can andwant to books on the background reading list.learn, no to those who, forreasons they Due any time. are entitled to, cannot avail themselves research paper on the existential background of modern drama. Dueany time. Hostile pressure from the Douglass Deanery has been so relentless that I have been forcedto paper on the relationship of modernmodify this grading approach. I donot have drama to the "modern" phase of thethe guts to martyr myself for thiscause.

2 Teaching without Judging231 of the opportunities to learn. I stronglysame in either case. feel that if my goal is to liberate .ninds In a non-judgmental context, a great through the liberal arts,I can only domany' of our old pedagogical approaches it as a liberal role model and in a liberalfind renewed vigor. For example, if a environment. I remember too vividly thestudent knows that he will receive the student journal published inthefirstgrade he wants in a course and that no issue of Change magazine in which theparticular responses to exam questions student, Kate, lambasted her left-wingor no failure of paragraph development professors for shooting off their mouthsin an essay will affect the grade he has about liberal, human values, and teach-contracted for, he begins to see that hc ing in an atmosphere of stuffy, conserva-may be able to take an exam or two, or tive self-deception. Her stance was. putwrite a paper, or give a report in a frame up, or shut up. Don't espouse one lifeofmindconducivetointellectual style and live another. Don't speak ofgrowth.Igive customized exams for the liberation of the subjugated and thenthose w ho want them. The students may lower my grade becauseIhand ina choose the areas or material in which paper late. they wish to be examined. They may re- I believe that students want to learnquest in-school exams, oral or written, and are willing to work hard. But theyor take-home exams. They are free to have a right to know what a teacherask to be examined even on bite-sized expects. Some teachers say that they ex-amounts of reading, but they almost pect a fifteen page research paper, withalways choose the whole term's reading twenty footnotes. And they mean it.I or large swatches of itthis in the spirit say that I expect self-respecting, person-of "I may as well see how I do with ally designed work. And I mean it. Ineverything since I can't get shot' down both cases a teacher can help the studentif I bomb." Of course, having prepared achieve the desired ends. for an exam they have designed so per- I may report that the work which Isonally, very few students bomb at all. receiveis enormously superior to theI don't know how many times I have work I used to receive. It is better, really,heard students say after handing in an by most criteria one could use. it is moreexam or paper, "Not having to worry imaginative, better written or organized,about the grade really freed me to de- and often longer,itreflects a caringvelop my thoughts during that exam. sensibility andis therefore interesting;I really learned a lot." it is more courageous in what it attempts. As teachers we always say that an At the same time, without fear of a lowexam is or should be primarily a learning grade, a student can learn from an un-experience. In reality, though, how often finished project ("work in progress")does the exam experience teach the stu- or from one which fails to fulfill itself.dent any thing bey ond. I must have said Some of the most productive educationalthe right things (or wrong) because I insights in my classes have been the re-got a good grade (or bad)? Too many sult of a studfmt's discovery of bounda-students learn from exam taking only ries, limitationsthe results of projectshow to take an exam. That was certainly too heavy to float. I u ould want my stu-true for me in college. What real learn- dents to learn as much from failure asing I did occurred quite regularly out from success. Naturally the grade is theof the school or course context. 232BARRETT JOHN NI ANDEL

Since the grade I give to written workto the writer, he will not be able to un- does not reflect the worth or value ofderstand the teacher when the teacher the project in relation to peer group orwrites "unclear" in the margin. From professional or absolute "standards,"itthe student's point of view,itis the communicates nothing to me (beyondteacher w ho is unclear. But if the teacher the fact that the student did a certainstruggles to see what the student means project) when I look up my records forand then, say, comments on the passage letters of recommendation. What I do isby restating and perhaps agreeing with very simple. I keep a folder with carbonit, the student Neill be likely to become, copies of all my comments on studentin Cleaver's term, permeable to a new work. When I read the paperon Artaudidea. If I write in the margin the judg- that Charlene Brown has submitted,Iment "weak" or "awkward" very little slip a piece of legal-pad paper andcar-of educational value is communicated to bon paper behind the lastpage, and asthe student. The student will have no I record for her my responses to herway of knowing why the passage is weak work (about which responses I will haveor au kw and and will either think I am more to say), I make for my own recordsarbitrary and mean or somehow privy to a copy of the response. On the top of thesecret knowledge unattainable to the un- legal-pad sheet, I write: initiated. In contrast, let's suppose the teacher Brown, Charlene "Artaud's influence on Modern Drama"writes in the margin, "If I understand 7 pp.original. you, you are implying that Josie's ma- ternal love of Tyrone is productive and And then, after the carbon copy ofmyfulfilling. I had never thought that that comment to Charlene, I may add certainwas a possible reading, though now it observations for my own future refer-leads me to suspect.. ." Such a comment ence about the growth and developmentbegins by admitting that the student has of her literary sensibility, the differencebefuddled you somewhat and thatit between what Iexpected and what Imay be partly your fault. It then re- received,someobservationsonherstates the student's proposition in an classroom performance, etc.whateveralternate syntax which may strike the striks me as likely to be valuable ifI student as an improvement. The teacher expect to h7e her in another class or ifgoes on to take the idea seriously, thus I think I will be called uponoutsidesignalling thatit may be worth the of the educational context (i.e., after thewriter's effort ifitgains such warm term) to judge the student ina lettersupport. The teacher concludes by add- of recommendation. If Icannot recom-ing to the proposition and further legiti- mend a student, I tell himor her so. mizing the student's effort. Perhaps I should devote a few remarks In the teaching of writing as in all to the way I approach the written workother teaching, I feel we must play to the of my students. As with hearing in thestrengths of the students. The style is classroom, I try to look at the writtenthe man; to attack the writing is to at- work until Isee. I guess we all knowtack the writer. To give a "C" toa paper how nearly pointless it is to tella stu-is too often to say to the student, "You dent, for example, that the sentence heare a mediocre person." And that I be- or she has written is unclear. If it is clearlieve is just about the cruellest judgment

G,-I` Teaching without Judging233 one. can make. Few things inhibit affec-literature still lack the faith that it re- tive and intellectual growth more.Iquires and continue to manipulate in certainly "correct" psychologically neu-rather gross ways. If teachers remove tral mistakes in spelling, puncuation, andthe grade pressure, encourage interac- factual information. But Ibelieve whattion, try to deal humanly with students we probably all believethat syntax andand, instead of learning, they go away metaphor reflect a writer's world viewin great numbers (and I don't know a in powerful, however unconscious, ways.teacher who hasn't had this awe-inspir- If we lay claim to such belief, we musting experience), it would seem to suggest be careful where we tread. To say thatnot merely that the students are unmoti- one's writing is bad is to say that one'svateda classification too absolute in its world is wrong or false. Who wouldn'timplications to mean much, however become resistant or defensive in such aoften we use itbut also perhaps that painful plight? the reading is meaningless to them or I hope it is clear that I am not describ-that the teacher is somehow inadequate ing a phoney and empty power of posi-for this group: listless, unprepared, dull, tive thinking, but a genuine and alwayssilly, defensive,ignorant, pompous, honest interaction with students in termsvague or any of the other blights that that will be of benefit to them withoutcan afflict a teacher along with the rest falsifying one's own sense of how openof humanity, including the assumption and decent human beings sharing anthat what is important to him or her is experience should relate to each other. IMPORTANT. Some will say they have tried this way This teaching approachisradically of teaching and found that it didn't workdifferentfrom my earlier,graduate- or that "students weren't motivated" orschool notion of the way teaching and that "some force is necessary or 'they'learning take place. And some readers won't learn." My suspicion is that manyof College English would no doubt find of these people never overcame someit difficult. If it sounds like hard work central obstacles. For example, Ihaveit is. I am forever conferring with stu- heard this lament from teachers whodents,making up customized exams, spoke of trust but kept secret grades.reading papers of different types which Nothing violates the spirit of sharingcome in throughout the whole term, and good faith faster than a teacher'sresponding to journals which occasion- reluctance to share the judgment he orally run to 140 pages. But on the other shehas made of the students. Otherhand, I never make up a lecture or "pre- teachers have removed grades altogether,pare" teacher's "notes" for a Socratic but have pressured the studentsintodiscussion. I need seldom be bored by "covering," as we say, certain points,reading twenty or seventy exams on one instead of trust;ng the students to discusssubject at one time. Since I can send what is of interest to them. One approachfinal grades to the Registrar before I is not "better" than another; differentread the papers carefully, I can take my students will respond to different meth-time with the work, reading at leisure ods. But all students need psychologicaland in the right frame of mind; I can consistency and clarity. Some teacherstake the time to think of educative com- who theoretically believe in the new,ments, and personalized comments, so "open" discussion for the teaching ofthat my energy and time will not be 234BARRETT JOHN NIANDEL totally in vain. My colleagues rush ina achievements, itis also true that not frenzy to mark final exams, putting mini-every teacher will be first-rate (though, mal and admittedly rather pointlesscom-of course, we can all do a better job than ments on the bluebooks, in order to getwe have been). Perhaps the best idea grades in to the Registrar before the endwould be to let students and teachers of the term. I ask my studentsto handseek each other out as need dictates,so in, with their final submissions, stamped,that only those who can work well to- self-addressedenvelopes. In my owngether would agree to pursue a joint good timeand it takes good timetoeducational enterprise. But if sucha read and respond to a 140-page journal!Utopia is not to be expected soon, let us I send the work back to the students,at least create an environment in which hopefully with the kind of feedbackour students will be able to learn what which they will really find useful. they can without being the onlyones Students and teachers must liveto-penalized for what surely is as much gether. If it is true that notevery stu-our failures as theirs. dent isdestined for great intellectual