Balance is the key to almost everything that we do in life. Whether we are eating a balanced diet, trying to balance our budget, or performing a balancing act with our many obligations in life, balance is the key. It comes as no great surprise then that we find ourselves discussing balance in the area of education. While we can look at balance in most areas of education, it becomes most prevalent in a discussion of composition instruction. While we have to balance an equation in math, and we use a balance to measure reagents in science, and even though we may discuss the balance of good and evil in literature, it is in composition that we must learn to balance our voice with the voices of composition instructors of years gone by.
Composition is a unique discipline of study because it, more than any other area, forces us to put ourselves out to be judged. People see our words on the page, or screen, and evaluate them, not just on their mechanical accuracy, but also on the ideas that they represent. Our words express our thoughts to the world. The balance that we must find is that which exists between our thoughts, ideas and beliefs and the compositional conventions that the world accepts to be good and true. There are times when our thoughts should be the primary focus, and we can abandon all concern for conventions or mechanics. No one would suggest that a mourning child revise a sentence in a parent’s eulogy because of a misplaced modifier. We can accept that the content outweighs the convention. There are also times when strict adherence to the guidelines established by the composition authorities is a necessity. It does not matter how wonderful your ideas for reform are, if you cannot present them clearly and accurately people are not going to listen to them. You will not be accepted in higher levels of academia based on some profound concept that you have, unless you can write about without spelling errors. There is a time focus on the rules and guidelines that have shaped the English language for generations, and then there are times when you just have to chuck the book out the window write.
We have to be able to teach students, and writers in general, how to clearly identify the situation and then make a judgment as to what is an appropriate balance to have. I am constantly trying to reinforce with my students when it is ok to just write and when they have to stop and think about what it is that they’re writing. The example that comes to mind most readily is the intrusion of text lingo into formal essays. I have students who will insert numbers in place of words or letters, or use a single letter to represent an entire word. They laugh at themselves when I identify the problem, but they are very likely to make the mistake again. They are not able to find a balance between their voice and the rules that apply to written communication. As teachers of composition, this is where we should be focusing. We are never going to be able to remove this shortcut language, and I don’t think we should. What we should focus on is helping students to identify how this new form of expressing themselves fits into the larger composition picture. Talk 2 U l8r. JK. LOL.
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While the use of text language drives me nuts, especially as spoken English, I must admit that it is mostly because I have remained stubbornly outside the community that is engaged in that discourse. I stubbornly type out texts like full prose writing, write emails like letters with formal greetings and closings, and otherwise reveal a wide formalist streak. What I try not to do, is rile against others using the language in the appropriate place and time.
ReplyDeleteI have a text version of Romeo and Juliet that I used to think was really funny. It's a page long, and summarizes the story in a vulgarized, amusing fashion.
Sometimes, when it seems texting lingo may replace the language that I fell in love with reading writers like Shakespeare (a rather ridiculous recurring nightmare of mine)I wonder what is so funny. Many of my students (even some of the most capable)would prefer the text version to making the effort to read the original.
How does one teach a generation trained by an ADD like pattern of jumpcut image manipulation to appreciate verbal text only in its briefest, easiest forms to appreciate verbal text in its most beautiful and most powerful forms despite the effort required?
Especially now when their every contact with language outside the classroom is based entirely on convenience and expediency, the English teacher finds her or himself battling not only student apathy, but a perspective of language as purely utilitarian that permeates our entire culture. Rare is the student who still recognizes in language the presence and potential for art.