Having A Conversation

Pretend you are going to meet an expert on methods in teaching freshman composition.  Her name is Sandie Friedman, and she has a lot to say about the use of popular culture (among other subjects) in the freshman composition classroom.  Friedman has invited you to her house because she wants to share her ideas with you and hear your thoughts about this subject.  The first thing you should do before you sit down with an expert on any subject is to be clear where you stand on the matter!

How do you do that?  How does that translate into preparing for a research paper?

You gather your thoughts about a subject by writing about it before you dig too far into the research; thus, before you go to meet Friedman (in other words, before you read what she has written), you need to write down your own opinions so that you’ll have a point of reference.  This will also give you material to draw on as you talk to (interact with) Friedman.  For instance, when she raises a point that you disagree with, you might draw on your notes to explain why you disagree.

Let’s practice this important first step.  Please type the following in a document and save it, along with the other parts of Assignment #2.

Step One:  Your Initial Thoughts

For five minutes, write your responses to the following questions.  What do you think of teachers using popular culture in freshman writing classes?  For instance, do you think it’s all right for students to write papers about television shows like True Blood?  Do you support teachers incorporating current events into the writing classroom?  Should teachers allow students to write about Donald Trump or Lady Gaga?  Why?  Why not?  Do you agree with the view that the only thing students should be studying and writing about in freshman composition is writing itself? In other words, do you agree that the only legitimate topic for writing classes is language and grammar?

Step Two:  Listening To Your Source

Friedman welcomes you to her home, invites you to sit down, and then tells you that she’d like to explain her ideas to you.  She says the following:

In first-year writing programs such as ours at George Washington University, instructors from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds teach seminars with topics of interest to first-year students. The course themes range from: a seminar on the Holocaust, in which students do research at the national Holocaust Memorial Museum; to service learning courses, in which students volunteer for local nonprofits and write for these organizations; to a course on video games; to my own on classic Hollywood films. In their syllabi, instructors must justify their choice of topic as appropriate for a writing course, and they must follow the guidelines in a course template.