Why Comp Theory?!?

I am a nerd. Seriously. Not just a little, either. I love writing and I enjoy editing, and it occurred to me this week that I might enjoy editing more (because I am the designated editor amongst my family and friends) if what I was editing was written properly. I spend half of my time with each paper that I review worrying more about structure and grammar than content, which is, realistically, to be expected.

My dream, however, is to go beyond editing the papers (letters, emails) of my nearest and dearest to grading papers of students at the collegiate level. Teaching has always been a draw for me, and I know that if I can learn how to teach, I will definitely be more effective in the classroom. And, because of my own experience in school, I believe that if a student can learn to write well, she can accomplish anything. If I can learn in this class how to teach my students to write good papers, then I feel that I will be on my way to achieving my goals (as both educator and narcissist).

As I understand it, this class will focus mainly on us educating each other on the ideas that the most intelligent specialists in the field of composition and rhetoric have to offer. To me, that means that we will be learning how others have succeeded in teaching while, at the same time, finding our own footing in the same field.

I will admit, when I saw that this class was a requirement for gaining a masters in English, I had no idea what to expect. I read On Writing by Stephen King in my senior seminar as an undergrad, and had expected this class to be along the same ilk. Boy was I wrong! The saddest thing is that I received my bachelor's in writing and I feel that I have never really learned how to write. I have understood basic ideas of writing papers that will make professors give me a nice shiny A or B, but I never knew what made the papers good or why I might have succeeded when my classmates were struggling.

I felt like it was similar to learning how to walk. When we are small we take a few (hundred) missteps, but eventually we learn and, for the most part we do not have to think too much about how we walk. A person who has just been in a debilitating car accident, on the other hand, needs to learn how to walk again. Now, me knowing how to walk, even if I can walk really well, is not going to allow me to teach that person how to walk. I will need to learn muscle function as well as exercise management and will need to know exactly how either contributes to someone being able to walk. That seems to be what this class is for. 

After years of our students "knowing" how to write a paper, we will have to undo all that has been done and re-teach them how, not only to write, but to think. Mark Twain once said, "If we taught our children to speak the way we teach them to read [and write], we would all stutter." The same is true for composition and forming basic arguments. All students, in my opinion, are cripples until they get a teacher who wants to teach them how to think and write well. We must be the rehabilitators, we must go beyond the basic cookie-cutter education that most of us, I'm sure, received. To do this, we must know exactly what we are talking about, and all of the different forms of teaching and learning (that are within our power to learn. There are so many) before we can truly be useful as educators.

I feel that the structure of this class, and all of the different views on education that we will be exposed to, will allow us to accomplish the task of teaching others to be good writers. I also feel that, through this ability, our students will be able to succeed more readily in their college education.

There are three programs that are acceptable to get into medical school: a science emphasis, a math emphasis and, get this, an English emphasis. I know this because, at one point, I wanted to be a doctor. I wanted to help people after they had been in car accidents. I wanted to make a difference. I believe that teaching makes even more of a difference, because of the doors that can be opened for those whom we teach. I could save a life as a doctor, many, probably, but I could not give a person very many important tools to take into life with him after I had saved it. Here we are learning some important lessons to pass onto others, and, to me, that is pretty exciting.