Michael
Homsany
Professor:
Benjamin J. Doyle
English
1111
Wednesday
December 5, 2012
My critique to the Frist-Year Writing Program
“I think you have to judge everything
based on your personal taste. And if that means being critical, so be it.”
Simon Cowell
Northeastern University requires all freshman students to
take a College Writing class in order to engage students as writers at all
levels. Writing and reading are processes through which we learn about and
engage the world. According to the university “Through them, we work out our
ideas, and we take critical positions on issues and problems that matter to
us”. But the thing is that getting into this required course, “College Writing
1111 or 1102,” is not as easy as just singing in to it. Before the first class
we (students) are required to write an essay that describes our prior
experience in reading and writing. But then many questions and confusions
started to appear in my mind; frustration begin when I realize that I had no
one to ask about it since my “audience” was not reveled yet.
Once I first read the prompts for this essay I didn’t really analyze it that
much, I thought it was kind of strange to write an essay before classes start.
Since back then we had not met our teachers and we didn’t have the opportunity
to ask questions or express concerns, but still there was nothing that I could
do besides writing it. Apart from that there was that thought in my mind that
it was my first assignment for the semester and I wanted to do well on it,
since according to the prompts, one can assume it was graded. But while writing
that essay and after turning it, if I really think of it for a minute there are
just so many things that I wanted to critique, and so many things that are
“absurd” in some way for me about that assignment.
To start speaking back to this prompt in a critical way, the first thing that
comes to my mind is something that I also felt while writing the essay; whom am
I speaking to? Who is asking me for this essay, or who is my audience? This
question came to me while trying to respond to this unknown voice. So because
this prompt is not telling me who my audience should be, I created this
imaginary figure in my mind of the head of the English Writing Department. I
thought of her as a big woman, with white short hair, very serious and that
nearly never shows her teeth or laughs; almost as a scary college figure. The
reason that this figure appeared in my head was because of the way that the
prompts are written; very serious and short, generalized, and especially for me
kind of rough and heavy for it to be my first encounter with the English
department. That’s why, while writing the essay, I took as my audience this
rough woman whom I have to “impress” in order for me to in the College Writing
Class. But the truth is that this is just imaginary, since our REAL
audience is asking us to write them without reveling themselves.
When I got to think what is this prompt asking me, is when the trouble came to
me since it limits me (as the writer) and limits your answer. It doesn’t limit
you only because of what it says but also because of the ASSUMPTIONS you can
deduce from it, things we take for granted and the suppositions that one makes
while reading the directions. I just ask my self that whoever wrote this
prompt, why did he/she write “You cannot pass your first-year writing course if
you do not hand in this first essay”, making you assume that it's graded and
that it is kind of one of the most important assignment for the semester which
is something that is not true. What is the purpose of “scaring” us even before
classes started?
Besides that, at the beginning (when we still didn’t know
that this essay will not bring us in or out of the class) my purpose was to
create a first wonderful impression about my essay and me. I wanted to be the
student that they want, but since the directions are so generalized, I wonder
myself, what is the kind of student that they are expecting? What are they
expecting to hear from me or even how do they want my writing and reading
experience to be? On the other hand I felt limited in a way, that because of
the tone and the way of speaking I assume that I should write only about my
strengths, and how am I good in writing and reading. But what if I am not good
in writing at all, or what will happen if I explain to them that the experience
that I had before in writing in English in Panama weren’t the best? So with all
these questions and thoughts in my mind I felt it was trouble and difficult for
me to write only good impressions about me, since actually, because of Spanish
being my native language, I didn’t felt that writing in English was my best at
that time. Reading further the prompts I felt challenge by the idea of writing
“experiences that led me to my current level of confidence and skill in
writing”. As I read this for the first time I felt challenge and confused, and
started to think on why do the person that is demanding this “Placement Essay”
from me assumes that everyone has confidence in writing. Maybe I don’t feel
confidence and comfortable while writing and maybe that’s why I am taking this
course, but how do I tell them this? I am given the option of offering a
critique, or telling that I am not really good at it? I assume that the answer
is NO!
All these
ideas are the ones that limit the writer to write his essay, since we expect
that the university expects a particular type of student.
“Do your best to craft a coherent, detailed, well-organized, polished essay”.
This line is how the directions end, which in some sense I think is asking for
a student to do what you are supposedly going to learn in the English 1111
class. Now that I am analyzing the prompts really deep, and that I just passed
through a college writing course I thought that if back then, when I was called
to write the essay I knew how to craft a coherent, detailed, well- organized
and polished essay, then it was never necessary to take college writing (the
first level) in the first place. Instead I would have chosen Advance writing or
something like that. But this is not the only trouble I had while reading it;
the word DETAILED brings to my mind another ideas that I want to critique. If
you saw the first line of the directions is asking you for a 3-4 pages essay,
but then it doesn’t make actual sense to ask me for a “detailed” paper, while
at the same time limiting me with the amount of pages that I can write; isn’t
this a contradiction? Unfortunately, the amount of pages is not the only
element that they limit but also we are limited on the way in which it should
be turned-it. If you keep reading right after the amount of pages it clearly
says, “typed, double-spaced” making me thing that the university assumes that
every student has a computer or access to a computer and a printer before the
first day of the semester.
After writing this critique, I felt that I had the power to express my self and
write what I feel about the prompts, which is something that I didn’t have
while writing the placement essay. After almost 4 months I still don’t know who
that unknown voice is, but if I have the opportunity to talk with him or her I
would like to tell him that students should be less limited with the
requirements for this essay and that students should be allowed to express
themselves not only by telling their strengths and how confidence they are in
writing and reading, but also what are we troubling while reading and writing
in English and why do we sometimes feel that we have no confidence at all at
the moment of writing an essay. Student must be allowed to say what they really
feel and not to feel the obligation of making a spectacular first impression.
Maybe the writing department of Northeastern University could improve this
prompt just by also mentioning that they are not expecting a specific type of
student (unless they actually do). In that case the university will notice how
we (the students) will express our selves with what bothers us and makes us
feel uncomfortable while reading and writing in order for the university to
help us improve in those areas.
“The one thing which seems to me quite
impossible is to take into consideration the kind of book one is expected to
write; surely one can only write the book that is there to be written.
(Letter to Muriel St. Clare Byrne, 8
September 1935)”
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