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Subject:Re: What's important From:Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- AXIONET -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 25 Jun 1997 12:21:33 -0400
Matt Ion <soundy -at- NEXTLEVEL -dot- COM>
wrote:
>Yes: they should have passed Grade 12 English, preferably with >at least a B.
Hi, Matt:
After seven years of teaching first year English, I have to disagree. In
my experience, high school English marks are poor indicators of
anybody's ability to write.
September after September, I'd see scholarship students who'd plummeted
down to Cs and mediocre students who, by the end of the semester, had
suddenly blossomed into good students. In both cases, the difference was
motivation and organizational skills.
The scholarship students who got into trouble had coasted along and
never learned proper writing and study skills. When they got to
university, and what they produced was suddenly the key to their grades,
they couldn't cope--there were no marks for efforts, and not many for
participation.
By contrast, the mediocre students who blossomed were the ones who,
having their feet kicked out from underneath them at university, learned
how to stand on their feet and get organized.
Once I made this observation, I made organizational skills an important
part of my composition classes, and encouraged students to observe and
talk about their writing habits.
The result? Virtually every student who made the effort to overhaul
their writing habits improved their mark by the end of the class. They
didn't all become top writers, but they did become better ones.
--
Bruce Byfield (bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com)
Technical Writer / Job Bank Team, STC Canada West Coast Chapter
h: (604) 421-7189
"Give me your hand then, love, & join your voice with mine,
We'll sing of the hurt and the pain,
And the joy of living."
--Ewan McColl
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