Re: formulaic writing, a different take?, reply

[Carrie Leverenz <cleverenz@english.fsu.edu>]

Denise:  I wouldn't say we've experimented with it, exactly, but we train
TAs as a rule of thumb to ask students to write 5-6 page essays over a
period of 3 or 4 drafts.  Even in our booster first year writing class (not
technically "remedial" but required of students with low entering test
scores), we require that they write at least one 5-7 page essay over several
drafts.  For fluency, we recommend lots of informal writing--my students
have writing due everyday--but for development, you gotta give them time and
space.  Wendy Bishop gives an assignment where one week students bring in X
number of pages, and the next week they have to double their draft; she
calls it a "fat" draft.  I'm not keen on requiring a number of words, but
requiring students to go longer, further, deeper, seems to allow them to do
the kind of intellectual work that I'm aiming for.  Carrie Leverenz

At 04:48 PM 6/3/98 -0500, you wrote:
>Lynne and others,
>
>>
>>I did have one student this spring who wanted out of that prison.
>>Not only had he been taught the three-point theme, but also he
>>had been taught that theme needed a certain number of sentences.
>
>I'm curious as to what the results has been for teachers who have
>established word-length requirements. I've been opposed to this in general,
>but a couple of semesters ago in my developmental English class, I required
>an essay of 700 words and was quite surprised at the improvements in terms
>of content for several of the students. This wasn't "padding" either,
>unless they thought it was. One of the students in the class had seldom
>written more than two pages before, and here he wrote something like five
>and a half. He made interesting assertions and developed them as he never
>had before (this was on the final, by the way, and the topics had not been
>announced beforehand).
>
>Has anyone else experimented with this (word-length requirements)?
>
>Denise Rogers
>University of Southwestern Louisiana
>
>