{"id":26,"date":"2021-11-11T17:35:56","date_gmt":"2021-11-11T17:35:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/front-matter\/introduction-2\/"},"modified":"2024-04-30T20:19:46","modified_gmt":"2024-04-30T20:19:46","slug":"introduction-2","status":"publish","type":"front-matter","link":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/front-matter\/introduction-2\/","title":{"raw":"Introduction for Students","rendered":"Introduction for Students"},"content":{"raw":"Everyone has a relationship with writing. Everyone has an opinion about it, too. Some people love writing so much that they build their careers around it; others get frustrated by the prospect of writing and avoid it whenever possible; still others lack literacy skills and find writing impenetrable. Our views of writing are very much shaped by our experiences. Those views can be shaped by public perceptions and general assumptions, as well. In 1975, Newsweek<\/em> ran \u201cWhy Johnny Can\u2019t Write<\/a>\u201d \u2014 a cover story that empowered a nation\u2019s public to become indignant over how writing was taught in college. Because everyone has ideas about writing.\n\nBut here\u2019s the problem: Many of those ideas about writing are bad.\n\nIn 2015, Cheryl E. Ball and Drew M. Loewe addressed the issue of widespread inaccurate understandings of writing by issuing a call for chapters<\/a> in a book they proposed called\u00a0Bad Ideas About Writing<\/em><\/a>. The book, published in 2017, tackles head-on the misinformation writing scholars often encounter in their classes, their social groups, and their society. It presents a collection of chapters, each establishing a bad idea, and each working to explain to a broad, generally informed audience, why each idea presented really is bad. It\u2019s a great book based on an amusing conceit, and the authors share great thinking. Each chapter presents concepts that should be central to writing classes.\n\nUnfortunately, Bad Ideas About Writing<\/em> is a rough way to introduce students to core concepts of the discipline. When\u2019s the last time you learned something by talking about the wrong<\/em> way of looking at the issue? You probably learn best from people telling you what you should<\/em> do, rather than warning you to avoid what you shouldn\u2019t do. Sure, some corrective guidance along the way can really help correct errant ways or doomed decision-making. But most folks learn best starting from what they should be doing, then working to improve that process through practice. The alternative, focusing on bad ideas, while fun for making a point, can create havoc for clear instruction in the classroom.\n\nProblems arise when students read Bad Ideas About Writing.<\/em> From my experience in classes I\u2019ve taught since Bad Ideas<\/em> came out, students more often than not reach the end of the chapter and feel confused \u2014 they reach the end of a chapter agreeing with the chapter author (just as they should). Then they remember the title of the chapter (phrased as an actual bad idea) but swear they\u2019ve just been talked out<\/em> of that exact idea (because they have been). These students then have a crisis of mind trying to decide whether the idea is good (because a chapter is named after it) or bad (because the author argued against it). If this brief scenario description has confused you, that\u2019s intentional. Welcome to how my classroom feels after students read\u00a0Bad Ideas<\/em>.\n\nLet's fix that confusion. This book you are now reading was designed, first and foremost, with\u00a0clarity and relatability as its central goals. Rather than collecting bad ideas writers should avoid, we have assembled good<\/em> ideas that students and\/or teachers should implement. It\u2019s sort of like an instructional guide to life in a writing classroom, arguing for a better way to do things than students might naturally try. And rather than having established composition scholars write chapters about material they\u2019ve studied for years, we have students, themselves enrolled in writing classes, figuring out how best to explain ideas they themselves are actively working through. The chapters in Good Ideas About Writing serve as a guide for fellow students wandering their way through a writing curriculum, written by students currently embarking on that same journey.\n\nIt is our hope that Good Ideas About Writing<\/em> preserves the aspirations of its predecessor by addressing the most common (mis)understandings of the work and the study of writing. We also hope this text addresses the specific needs of a very particular audience: students in post-secondary writing classes. We hope you find these good ideas both helpful and accessible.","rendered":"

Everyone has a relationship with writing. Everyone has an opinion about it, too. Some people love writing so much that they build their careers around it; others get frustrated by the prospect of writing and avoid it whenever possible; still others lack literacy skills and find writing impenetrable. Our views of writing are very much shaped by our experiences. Those views can be shaped by public perceptions and general assumptions, as well. In 1975, Newsweek<\/em> ran \u201cWhy Johnny Can\u2019t Write<\/a>\u201d \u2014 a cover story that empowered a nation\u2019s public to become indignant over how writing was taught in college. Because everyone has ideas about writing.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the problem: Many of those ideas about writing are bad.<\/p>\n

In 2015, Cheryl E. Ball and Drew M. Loewe addressed the issue of widespread inaccurate understandings of writing by issuing a call for chapters<\/a> in a book they proposed called\u00a0Bad Ideas About Writing<\/em><\/a>. The book, published in 2017, tackles head-on the misinformation writing scholars often encounter in their classes, their social groups, and their society. It presents a collection of chapters, each establishing a bad idea, and each working to explain to a broad, generally informed audience, why each idea presented really is bad. It\u2019s a great book based on an amusing conceit, and the authors share great thinking. Each chapter presents concepts that should be central to writing classes.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Bad Ideas About Writing<\/em> is a rough way to introduce students to core concepts of the discipline. When\u2019s the last time you learned something by talking about the wrong<\/em> way of looking at the issue? You probably learn best from people telling you what you should<\/em> do, rather than warning you to avoid what you shouldn\u2019t do. Sure, some corrective guidance along the way can really help correct errant ways or doomed decision-making. But most folks learn best starting from what they should be doing, then working to improve that process through practice. The alternative, focusing on bad ideas, while fun for making a point, can create havoc for clear instruction in the classroom.<\/p>\n

Problems arise when students read Bad Ideas About Writing.<\/em> From my experience in classes I\u2019ve taught since Bad Ideas<\/em> came out, students more often than not reach the end of the chapter and feel confused \u2014 they reach the end of a chapter agreeing with the chapter author (just as they should). Then they remember the title of the chapter (phrased as an actual bad idea) but swear they\u2019ve just been talked out<\/em> of that exact idea (because they have been). These students then have a crisis of mind trying to decide whether the idea is good (because a chapter is named after it) or bad (because the author argued against it). If this brief scenario description has confused you, that\u2019s intentional. Welcome to how my classroom feels after students read\u00a0Bad Ideas<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Let’s fix that confusion. This book you are now reading was designed, first and foremost, with\u00a0clarity and relatability as its central goals. Rather than collecting bad ideas writers should avoid, we have assembled good<\/em> ideas that students and\/or teachers should implement. It\u2019s sort of like an instructional guide to life in a writing classroom, arguing for a better way to do things than students might naturally try. And rather than having established composition scholars write chapters about material they\u2019ve studied for years, we have students, themselves enrolled in writing classes, figuring out how best to explain ideas they themselves are actively working through. The chapters in Good Ideas About Writing serve as a guide for fellow students wandering their way through a writing curriculum, written by students currently embarking on that same journey.<\/p>\n

It is our hope that Good Ideas About Writing<\/em> preserves the aspirations of its predecessor by addressing the most common (mis)understandings of the work and the study of writing. We also hope this text addresses the specific needs of a very particular audience: students in post-secondary writing classes. We hope you find these good ideas both helpful and accessible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"menu_order":2,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":["chrisfriend-usli7vicxu"],"pb_section_license":"cc-by-nc"},"front-matter-type":[12],"contributor":[61],"license":[56],"class_list":["post-26","front-matter","type-front-matter","status-publish","hentry","front-matter-type-introduction","contributor-chrisfriend-usli7vicxu","license-cc-by-nc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/front-matter\/26","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/front-matter"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/front-matter"}],"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\/front-matter\/26\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27,"href":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/front-matter\/26\/revisions\/27"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/front-matter\/26\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"front-matter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/front-matter-type?post=26"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=26"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=26"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}