The Typical English Composition Student & Why English Composition Matters

Since January is the time when I prepare for the spring semester courses that I teach, I start to think about the classes I teach and what I would like to get from students in terms of the essays I receive.

I’m sure all of you at some time or another have had an English teacher who is absolutely in love with English and literature and what he or she teaches.  Those teachers should be.  That’s what makes an inspiring and effective teacher.  What is hard for the average student to take is when those teachers expect students to have the same love as they do.

I take a very different approach when I teach English Composition to incoming freshmen.  I know that in my class, I’ll find two maybe three students who love to write.  I’m grateful for those students because it’s likely that they’ll turn in essays that I’ll really enjoy reading. 

The majority of the students in class are students who are required to take it for the general education credits, and they will be grateful when it’s all over.  I don’t mind those students, and I tell them that I don’t expect novels and super creative works.  All that I want from them is sincere effort in trying to communicate clearly and at a college writing level.  I just want them to put in the effort that students should for any college course.

Why does English Composition matter so much?  Sometimes it’s hard to make a student understand that these highly constructed academic essays will help them with college and with life.  In a typical student’s life, there’s email and texting. Neither form of communication is anything like college English.  They don’t see the connection, and that’s what I try to show them throughout the semester.

Here are a few of the connections I hope I get my students to learn:

What’s the point of a comparison and contrast essay?  Besides learning a new form of writing, students are also learning critical comparison thinking that can help them when buying their first car, choosing an apartment, or purchasing a large appliance.  With that type of essay, students have to learn to pick out the useful information and make decisions as to what is important.  We are making comparisons all the time and basing many decisions on those comparisons.

What’s the point of an argument essay that requires research?  This one is a biggie because students groan when they know they have this huge essay at the end of the semester.  Besides helping them learn the steps in working on a longer piece of writing, I try to show how in the real world, we often have to persuade people.  If you are in sales, you have to persuade people to buy.  Why is my product better?  What special features does it offer?  Maybe you have to persuade your boss to invest in a new piece of office equipment.  Why do we need to place a perfectly good copier?  Why should we spend the money now?  We often have to persuade people both personally and professionally.  Most young students have already practiced persuasion when trying to get something out of their parents, but most of them have not learned to persuade beyond pleading and comparing themselves to their peers.  Again, I try to show them critical thinking skills.  They need to look at a problem and research it and find what’s important to that topic.  They need to learn how to blend logical argument with emotional appeal and while appearing knowledgeable about their topic.  What are the details that will sway a reader?  What are the key components that make you believe what you do?

I could offer a lot more examples, but you get the point from just these two.

We are a species that relies on communication.  We rely on verbal communication, and we rely heavily on written communication.  Our world goes beyond email and texting, and there are very few jobs out there that don’t require written communication skills.  If a student can write successfully in college English adjusting their style to whatever scenario they are given, then they can communicate effectively anywhere they go.  Writing clearly matters.

The Typical English Composition Student & Why English Composition Matters

Since January is the time when I prepare for the spring semester courses that I teach, I start to think about the classes I teach and what I would like to get from students in terms of the essays I receive.

I’m sure all of you at some time or another have had an English teacher who is absolutely in love with English and literature and what he or she teaches.  Those teachers should be.  That’s what makes an inspiring and effective teacher.  What is hard for the average student to take is when those teachers expect students to have the same love as they do.

I take a very different approach when I teach English Composition to incoming freshmen.  I know that in my class, I’ll find two maybe three students who love to write.  I’m grateful for those students because it’s likely that they’ll turn in essays that I’ll really enjoy reading. 

The majority of the students in class are students who are required to take it for the general education credits, and they will be grateful when it’s all over.  I don’t mind those students, and I tell them that I don’t expect novels and super creative works.  All that I want from them is sincere effort in trying to communicate clearly and at a college writing level.  I just want them to put in the effort that students should for any college course.

Why does English Composition matter so much?  Sometimes it’s hard to make a student understand that these highly constructed academic essays will help them with college and with life.  In a typical student’s life, there’s email and texting. Neither form of communication is anything like college English.  They don’t see the connection, and that’s what I try to show them throughout the semester.

Here are a few of the connections I hope I get my students to learn:

What’s the point of a comparison and contrast essay?  Besides learning a new form of writing, students are also learning critical comparison thinking that can help them when buying their first car, choosing an apartment, or purchasing a large appliance.  With that type of essay, students have to learn to pick out the useful information and make decisions as to what is important.  We are making comparisons all the time and basing many decisions on those comparisons.

What’s the point of an argument essay that requires research?  This one is a biggie because students groan when they know they have this huge essay at the end of the semester.  Besides helping them learn the steps in working on a longer piece of writing, I try to show how in the real world, we often have to persuade people.  If you are in sales, you have to persuade people to buy.  Why is my product better?  What special features does it offer?  Maybe you have to persuade your boss to invest in a new piece of office equipment.  Why do we need to place a perfectly good copier?  Why should we spend the money now?  We often have to persuade people both personally and professionally.  Most young students have already practiced persuasion when trying to get something out of their parents, but most of them have not learned to persuade beyond pleading and comparing themselves to their peers.  Again, I try to show them critical thinking skills.  They need to look at a problem and research it and find what’s important to that topic.  They need to learn how to blend logical argument with emotional appeal and while appearing knowledgeable about their topic.  What are the details that will sway a reader?  What are the key components that make you believe what you do?

I could offer a lot more examples, but you get the point from just these two.

We are a species that relies on communication.  We rely on verbal communication, and we rely heavily on written communication.  Our world goes beyond email and texting, and there are very few jobs out there that don’t require written communication skills.  If a student can write successfully in college English adjusting their style to whatever scenario they are given, then they can communicate effectively anywhere they go.  Writing clearly matters.

What Students Need to Add to Their Essays

If you are new to college and getting ready for English Composition (Freshman Comp), what should you try to put in your essays?  Detail.  Detail is what is lacking in many of our busy lives.  We are a society of sound bites and 30 second clips, and unfortunately, that’s what is showing up in much of the writing of recent high school graduates.

So if you are a college student, keep detail in mind when you write.  When you make a statement, you have to expand on it.  And here are some examples of how you can expand your writing both creatively and objectively.

Example 1:  In a personal essay, someone writes, “The food on my plate looked totally unappealing.”

It’s an okay sentence, and most people would have an idea what was meant.  Still, there’s the opportunity to make it more detailed so that people know why it was so unappealing to the author:  “I looked at my plate and silently gagged.  There was congealed gravy on top of some grayish matter.  I tried not to smell it, but I couldn’t help getting sour odor from the food into my nostrils.”  The author now has told you exactly what was unappealing about the food on the plate.

Example 2:  In a research paper, someone writes, “Many people will be involved in a drunk driving accident sometime in their lifetime.”

This sentence needs specific detail and support.  After all, it is part of a research paper and it’s giving a fact without detail or support.  Give the reader something to really go on and believe:  “Almost a third of the American population will be involved in a drunk driving accident sometime in their lifetime (‘Drunk Driving Facts & Stats Tips’).  That means that if you are sitting in a classroom of twenty students, at least six students in that classroom will be in an alcohol related accident some day.”  This passage now has a real statistic what is cited and a little elaboration that may make the statistic more personal.

There are many ways to expand your writing and make your essay longer and more detailed.  Remember:  don’t just fill your essay to meet the minimum length.  Figure out how to fill your essay with substance, with detail that makes the material more interesting.

The Five Senses

One thing that’s often forgotten today is to depend on the five senses.  We are such a visual society that we forget that there are other senses to draw from.  What are the five senses?

·         Sight

·         Hearing

·         Taste

·         Touch

·         Smell

Look back at the food example.  Yes, it’s very visual, but it draws on smell too.  I won’t even try to imagine what that stuff would have tasted like, but you get the picture.  Think of all the things you can include in your essay.  Talking about past birthdays?  Did your parents light the birthday candles with a match?  Recall that sulfur smell and describe it.  Been right beneath fireworks?  Describe the sounds of the explosions and how the ground rumbled under your feet.  You can also try to describe the smell of gunpowder that would have gone along with it.  Writing about your best football game in high school?  Don’t forget the feeling of being tackled with all that weight piled up on you.  Describe the mud splattering against your face during one of the wettest games ever.

Examples and Statistics

Examples can make your writing come alive, it works in giving support to your topic.  The examples can come from your own life or from newspaper and magazine articles or from any other source you can think of.  It really depends on the type of essays you are writing.  In fact, for the research paper assignments I give out, I encourage students to use examples.  Some teachers and textbooks refer to them as case studies.  Either way, find people who have been in similar circumstances and describe their situations and how it relates.  Find examples in business or science or at gatherings.  Make sure you refer to the source where the information came from when you use it.  Sometimes it can be as simple as mentioning the publication or author.  Other times, you have to be more formal and document the sources.  Again it depends on the assignment.

Use statistics to show that what you are writing about matters.  If you are writing about global warming, use examples such as the polar bears’ hunting territory shrinking.  Use statistics about how much that territory has actually shrunk.  Maybe their territory was all of the arctic and now it’s the size of …..  Again, you need to say where information came from, formally or informally depending upon the assignment.

There’s a lot more that I could write on this topic, but I think I’ve given you some ideas of how to add detail.  Like I said before, if I could give one piece of advice to new college writers, it would be to learn to write with details and avoid those 30 second sound bites.