The way we teach writing and expect that knowledge to be able to be transferred from one class to the next is simply a false assumption.\u00a0 Most class systems are designed to develop skills on top of more skills, building a sort of tree of skills and techniques.\u00a0 This sort of methodology works well with mathematics and sciences, as mathematics and sciences are built off the concept of developing themselves further off from prior knowledge.\u00a0 However, that can only go so far with literature as it\u2019s a much more abstract subject.\u00a0 Sure, the school system will teach you to write a paragraph before writing an essay, but the contents of those paragraphs and essays will rarely ever be the same.\u00a0 In a far different but similar manner, writing a persuasive essay on what makes a quote from one of the Rocky movies is extremely different from a persuasive essay on the theory of birds evolving from dinosaurs.\u00a0 This raises the question of why English as a subject is taught in a manner that uses prerequisites when the prerequisites are loosely connected more times than not.\u00a0 Literature by nature is something that can take on various forms according to the person\/people writing it as well as the purpose it\u2019s being written for.<\/p>\n
To begin, it\u2019s worth taking a moment to emphasize that the way writing is taught in each class is different, but in general, well done.\u00a0 Each class may have different things it needs to accomplish, but they all can be done in very effective ways, especially at the college level.\u00a0 However, this is exactly where the problem lies.\u00a0 There is a plethora of differences in teaching methods, objectives, and purposes for the assignments in the different writing classes at a single level of college.\u00a0 These differences can legitimately determine if someone will struggle with the class or not at times. \u00a0 To further this example, it\u2019s not an uncommon thing for students in college to struggle with a first-level writing course, but then exceed expectations without difficulty in the second-level course.\u00a0 Associate Professor at the University of Connecticut Ellen C. Carillo provides a similar example, stating, \u201cAnecdotally, writing instructors see this all the time: students entering a second-semester writing course as if they had no previous college-level writing course.\u201d\u00a0 Given these differences, it can be quite difficult to gauge if a student is ready for a higher-level course if they\u2019ve only taken one prerequisite class.<\/p>\n
Another perspective on the differences between writings comes in the form of the reason for the writing.\u00a0 Using prior examples, a teacher can assign a persuasive essay to a whole class.\u00a0 They will likely get as many topics as there are students if it isn’t a prompt for the essay.\u00a0 This is all because people simply have different knowledge than others, so they\u2019ll use that knowledge to convey different messages.\u00a0 Some people can explain why a certain type of music is more interesting than others, or why they believe in a certain way of thinking.\u00a0 These differences in knowledge and purpose simply make it harder to transfer things from one to another.\u00a0 In short, why would someone mention how fast the speed of light is when talking about how to better understand different languages?\u00a0 The simple answer is that they wouldn\u2019t because that\u2019s not useful information for that conversation, or looking at it in terms of writing, for that piece of literature.\u00a0 They\u2019d only add to the conversation what they see as relevant and worth applying.<\/p>\n
In general, it\u2019s a very good thing there are so many different courses and ways to write found within those courses.\u00a0 The variety of styles ranging from informative essays to rhetoric analysis is some of the most valuable things to making well-rounded writers.\u00a0 However, making a linear structure to what\u2019s taught at what times doesn’t help as much when it comes to this sort of topic.\u00a0 The knowledge gained in one class is usually only applicable to that one class, or at best, the specific kind of assignment.\u00a0 This, however, doesn\u2019t make the class bad for the students, as they are given opportunities to learn about new aspects of literature and apply them to their own perspectives and style.\u00a0 Writers being able to write in the styles and assignments that a person is best equipped and comfortable with writing in will often bring about the best pieces possible from them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"menu_order":6,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"Different Literature Calls For Different Knowledge","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":["mariolip"],"pb_section_license":"cc-by-nc"},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[67],"license":[56],"class_list":["post-40","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","contributor-mariolip","license-cc-by-nc"],"part":28,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/40","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/40\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41,"href":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/40\/revisions\/41"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/28"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/40\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=40"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=40"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=40"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}