Topic Choices Story: Comp Tales

["Linda T. Kaastra" <lkaastra@brain.uccs.edu>]

Here is my submission for COMP TALES:


In my first semester of teaching english composition as a grad student, I
did a topic
generation workshop for a position paper.  I told my students how
important it was for this
assignment to choose a topic that was "close to home."  I explained to
them very carefully that topic choice very often determines the success or
failure of an essay, and they will undoubtedly produce a better essay if
they write on an issue that is directly connected to their experience.  I
did a topic check in class,
asking each student to tell me their topic and how they were
connected to the issue. One of my students - a tall, male student -
said he wanted to write on the issue of Rape.  He said that he was
connected to the issue because he has a mother and sister and mumbled
something else after that.  I didn't ask any further questions, assuming
that he chose this topic for sensitive personal reasons, and I went about
the rest of my duties.

A week or so later, I received a draft of his essay and as I read it I
became quite numb.  His claim was something like: "Rapists
should not receive the death penalty."  He went on to argue that "the
nature of the crime of rape is really theft, not violence, in that
something is stolen from the man the woman belongs to." Other points he
made were "rape isn't a violent crime" and "if a mugger doesn't get the
death penalty, a rapist shouldn't either."  

Obviously I had a huge problem on my hands.  Every point he made was
unsound (rapists do not normally get the death penalty, rape is
in fact a violent crime, etc...,) but I was very clearly in a situation
where anything I said against his argument could be misconstrued as bias.
I decided to be very open and tell him that his paper made me angry.  I
pointed out to him how ridiculous it was to write this type of essay for a
young woman instructor.  Then I tried to explain how his reasoning was
faulty. All of these comments came out in our
conference, where I gradually became painfully aware of the fact that I
was in a small office, with the door open of course, with two young male
students who were quite successfully backing me up against a wall.  The
writer said to me "have you ever been raped?"  and both students accused
me of being biased against a point of view different from my own.  I felt
trapped. 

Now, when I give a topic generation workshop, I am careful to mention that
I do not want to read papers on violent crime.  I tell this story to my
students so that they will be more aware of me as an audience.  It works.
But boy was that a difficult time for me.  After that incident I noticed
that out of 25 students in my class, 20 were male.  I did all I could to
keep face, but my heart was no longer in that class.

Linda Kaastra
The Writing Program
UCCS