One challenge facing teachers of literature at a research university is how to help students find their paths as scholars and critics—paths which can lead them to rewarding immersion in research and writing using disciplinary theories, methods, and tools. I have developed approaches to meet this challenge in my writing-intensive literature courses. Also, I work with colleagues who share approaches; I have adapted many practices from teachers of composition, literature, and creative writing. I am delighted that several of my students have won writing prizes, have presented work at academic conferences, and have had essays published in journals.
Goals: First I hope students develop the abilities to read and write, to see, hear, think, and speak as independent and skeptical adults and citizens who are challenged and excited by the world around them and especially by the literary and cultural texts we address. I’m delighted when students study literature and culture at advanced or graduate levels. My goals for these students include textual education (navigating the plenitude of canonical and noncanonical texts); critical and theoretical education in the means to read and to perform; and professional education, that is, understanding the structure and practices of university-level English studies as well as the nature of academic institutions, publishers, professional organizations, faculties, and departments which regulate one’s way into graduate school or into an academic career.
Approaches: To accomplish these goals, I design my courses with emphasis on the students’ work and learning, not on the professor’s performance.
- The subject of a course organizes readings in literature, culture, criticism, or theory. The way to see whether students understand the subject is to have them write repeatedly. Students can tackle the most difficult texts by turning their reading into writing, placing their own interpretations into conversation with literary theories, cultural contexts, and other critical opinions. My students begin projects by writing short position papers for class discussion; after discussion and commentary, position papers are revised into drafts of longer papers.
- Absolutely no one gets serious writing right on the first draft. Students’ writing and their understanding of the subject improve by serious rethinking and revision of written work. Rewriting requires rereading and reinterpretation. Revision means seeing again, therefore thinking, interpreting, and expressing in better and more complete form.
- Effective teaching of literature and writing involves sequenced assignments which lead students to experiment with topics, to try out ideas, to bring research and criticism to bear not in one final paper but over the course of a semester, revising projects just as professional researchers and critics do—only within the framework of time and subject chosen for the course.
- Teaching through required revision means taking student work seriously: in classroom discussion where it is analyzed by other students, in student conferences to discuss revisions, and in the teacher’s written comments on papers. In all these we are dealing with the questions of understanding, interpretation, argument, and evidence just as seriously as with the aspects of style, syntax, transitions, and vocabulary. Much of this work must be “formative,” allowing students to try and try again without penalties. The test of students’ abilities comes with the final version on which a “summative” evaluation is based.
- Teaching through revision also means using the classroom to emphasize that students contribute to their own learning through discussion, prepared reports, small group work, analysis of student papers and, when appropriate, performances of songs, poems, and scenes of plays. In advanced classes, I use two weeks of each semester to have students present their work to the class in panels organized like an academic conference.
- Much teaching takes place outside the classroom and outside the office conference. Because I want students to use the library, I take my introductory classes to research-orientation sessions. I want students to know and attend cultural works related to our studies, so I take them to plays, concerts, and museums. Finally, I make myself available for informal conversations over coffee or while walking on campus.
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