College Comp

In my college comp class, students are working on their second theme (a narrative). I plan on having them write two essays and then choose which one they like the best to submit for theme #2.

Their first essay is on an obsession or passion that they have. Last Friday they brought in their rough drafts and read them. They range of topics was incredible: romance novels, scrap booking, shopping at the Dollar Tree, 24, Gilmore Girls, chocolate, video games, BBQ wings from Buffalo Wild Wings, popping pimples, and so on. I collected these rough drafts and gave each student a quick completion credit and returned them to the students today.

Then I asked them to write a short focused free write (which is really just a short analysis) of what their obsession/passion essay revealed about them. Many struggled. Many had no clue. I guess they never thought about the deeper meaning of gobbling down buckets of BBQ wings at Buffalo Wild WIngs or why they were addicted to romance novels.

I wanted to give them an opportunity to examine their writing for purpose. That is one thing I found while reading and grading their first themes, many quite simply had no real purpose. But students were able to get some ideas down.

Then I said, "Now I want you to take a look at your rough draft and your analysis of what you believe it reveals about you. Then I want you to write a second focused free write (cue the groans here) in which you look at your rough draft and see if it SHOWS the reader what you talked about in your first focused free write." I want them to check to see that they are achieving some type of conscious purpose in their essays.

Then for a few, the light bulb went off. I had one student say, "But I have no purpose in my essay. I just like to eat Cold Stone Ice cream."

Then I said, "Well, out of all the passions/obsessions you have in your life, why did you choose that one then?"

"Because it seemed easiest!"

"That doesn't mean anyone is going to want to read it," I hated to break the news to her, but I did.

"So what should I do?"

"Write about a more passionate passion!" I suggested.

"But that's a lot of work."

"So is writing."

With that I sent her back to the drawing board.

I am tired of reading papers where the students expect a good grade just for slapping something down on paper. Random and cluttered thinking don't merit high marks (just blog entries!).

Tonight I'll read their second focused free writes and see if any progress has been made.