First, I appreciate that Beaufort, like Fulkerson, takes the time to reflect on her work and acknowledge where she’s changed or gone wrong. It serves as a reminder for me to look back and think about how I can improve. There was quite a bit I agreed with in this article, embarrassingly even the parts from Appendix A of College Writing and Beyond. Since this is a critique of that, I felt unsure (not sure if “wrong” is the right word) agreeing with it. Nonetheless, here are some things that resonated with me.
“First, I proposed that writing curricula need to be designed to explicitly teach all five knowledge domains that writers need to draw on for success with writing projects: discourse community knowledge, subject matter knowledge, genre knowledge, rhetorical knowledge, and writing process knowledge” (Beaufort 2). I think these are solid domains for writers, specifically first-year composition students. I agree that if they can achieve these, they will have a strong foundation for their future writing.
“By the latter, I mean the subject should be relevant to the life experience and interests of a given age range of students” (Beaufort 5). I believe this is crucial to students’ curiosity and engagement. It’s disappointing that this isn’t always possible, as there are things we just have to teach. However, it’s ideal when we can have a subject that’s relevant to students’ experiences and interests.
“Nor are students schooled in how to understand and participate in the discourse communities of other disciplines they will work within beyond writing courses” (Beaufort 7). While this is true, as I’ve mentioned before, this is difficult to achieve. We have limited time and students from different majors, so while it’s a valid point, I’m not confident this can be achieved in first-year composition. It should certainly be a goal when designing curricula, but it should be the responsibility of those in the discipline to teach what the discourse community is like.
“This states the obvious: if you don’t have some depth of understanding of the subject you’re writing about, your writing will be vague, unclear, insignificant” (Beaufort 4). Speaking of things I’ve mentioned before—and I’m going to keep saying it—subject matter knowledge is so important. As Beaufort pointed out, students should also be informed of the teacher’s expectations. How can we expect students to be successful if we’re not giving them a fair opportunity to expand their understanding of a subject or informing them of our desired outcomes?
“Multi-subject readings and discussions in a writing course, as short as 10 weeks or even 15 weeks, do not enable students to gain much in-depth subject matter knowledge over the time-span of the course” (Beaufort 4). This is something I feel frequently as a student, even though I understand we sometimes can’t blame the instructor. When I look back on my undergraduate experience, and even now in graduate school, there’s so much being thrown at me that I’m not actually learning. This overload doesn’t provide repeated practice, as Beaufort mentioned, which is why I often walk away without any memorable takeaways.
College Writing & Beyond: A New Framework for University Writing Instruction is another great piece by Anne Beaufort. Starting with “The developmental process for writers never ends.” (Beaufort 177), I think this is key to so much in life. Being a lifelong learner is essential to growth, so I appreciated this being highlighted. Under “Ways to Teach the Concept of Discourse Community,” Beaufort writes, “Teach the practice of mindfulness, or meta-cognition, to facilitate positive transfer of learning.” (Beaufort 182) Coming off the heels of our second synthesis paper, the mention of mindfulness immediately caught my attention. I agree that teaching this does aid in the positive transfer of learning and is important to the classroom in general. Speaking of mindfulness, I liked that in one assignment, Beaufort provided space for flexibility, writing, “And, we may add new questions to our list.” (Beaufort 186) Typically, essential questions are set in stone, but it’s important that the environment is collaborative and has room to adapt as learning takes place. This flexibility is also seen when “Unit 4 is an optional unit (depending on pacing of the course and student needs) to extend research skills.” (Beaufort 187) Both are good examples of mindfulness.
Something I thought was a good framework for students is when Beaufort stated that students should “Look for the theme in your experiences and analysis that will surprise, stir, delight, or educate the reader.” (Beaufort 192) Surprising, stirring, delighting, or educating an audience is such a simple yet effective approach to writing. If you’re able to do one of these, potentially leaving a lasting impression, you’ve done your job. The last thing I want to add is that some of these assignments were great, and I’m definitely taking notes. The Context of Meaning and Discourse Community Map were particularly interesting, in my opinion.
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