Chapter 2 [pg. 43-53]

The National Council of Teachers of English published "Research in Written Composition" in 1963, just after the civil rights movement began to take full force. The question it posed was, "What is involved in the act of writing?" As future teachers of writing, how would you answer this question?

As we all seemed to have touched on during our class discussions, I believe that the act of writing varies as students progress through different grade levels. Many of us were taught English grammar through high school, and often times papers were judged primarily on that basis. Because of this, students write in the manner that they feel will get them the best grade [in this instance, proper grammar]. However, like we've discussed, I feel that the act of writing must be an equal balance between grammar, critical thinking, and analysis.

Ultimately, the act of writing involves focusing on combining sentences, according to Frank O'Hare. He says this after viewing the failed results of John Mellon's tactic, in which he tried to teach the students the grammar behind combining shorter sentences into longer ones. I can see why O'Hare's method proved to be better. When students are taught to structure their sentences in particular ways, with specific focus on grammar, they get too wrapped up in making sure it "fits the model", so to speak. Since O'Hare noticed that children are familiar with combining sentences through spoken language, he had them focus solely on combining those sentences in writing. It is because they weren't obsessing over grammatical errors that they were able to write with success.

I tend to agree that the act of writing involves a focus on content rather than structure; however, structure does have a place in the act. I almost want to make a comparison between the act of writing and a play. A strong play consists mainly of two things: good actors and an impressive plot. The actors can be very talented; however, if they have no plot to work with, they would stand there looking pretty. On the other hand, a play can be based off an impressive plot, but if the characters are out of costume or unable to portray their characters well, then the play is harder to follow. Similarly, the content of good writing can be related to the plot of the play, and the grammatical structure can be related to the characters.

Overall, the act of writing involves a number of components that we, as future teachers, need to link together so that our students will be able to write effectively.