Hello:
To get the ball rolling for next week, I want us to consider some important questions currently confronting the world of writing. First of all, do you think universities should teach composition or writing? Many universities (including DMACC) teach website design, brochures, PowerPoint, and other visual media under the guise that "composition" can take many forms. However, there are people who feel this leads to a form of illiteracy since the focus is not on writing. Therefore, the assumption is that spelling, grammar and mechanics, and students' vocabularies suffer as a result.
What do you think universities and colleges should be teaching students--composition or writing?
Here is another question to consider: With the rise of text-messaging, instant-messaging, and forums such as Facebook that tend to encourage abbreviated language, what do you think the result will be for our written communication in the future? Do you think that people will care about spelling and grammar (commas, semi-colons, all that stuff you ignore when messaging in any form :) in five to ten years? Why or why not?
I'm looking forward to your replies!
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42 comments:
I think more than anything grammar should be taught all the way through college and through life. I think our standard of language and speech has decreased and has suffered immensely recently more than at any other time. With the vast advances in technology, our focus on oral elequence has virtually disappeared. Our emphasis on speaking well has simply gone away. Many teachers I have met and come across do not even know proper grammar themselves, so how can they teach the young children of the world correct and proper grammar and usage if they themselves don't know how to use it correctly?
When I took Composition I at DMACC (Spring 2006), the focus was primarily on media communications such as brochures. I think that written language skills are fundamental for any education. When we lack the ability to communicate in writing, can we excell to the fullest extent in our areas of expertise? I am of the opinion that all people, regardless of their career goals, need to have a sound grasp of basic writing skills. Perhaps DMACC should offer two separate courses, one focusing on media and visual communications and another focusing on the fundamentals of written language skills. If schools would differentiate between classes, then students would, ideally, come away with the education they needed most.
I think our written communications will get worse in the next 5 to 10 years because of the increase of text messaging, instant-messaging, and forums. Normally when people text they try to make it short as posssible. The spelling and grammar are usually wrong. People use messaging everyday, and if we keep using wrong spelling and grammar it will probably just get worse. Some people might even end up not caring about their writting.
I personally have noticed my grammar has been getting worse. Yes, I do feel this is happening do to text messaging. When writing emails I now notice myself using abbreviations, not using commas, and using acronyms more often then I use to. I know when you are sending a text message you may abbreviate one because you only have a limited amount of space in which to get your point across. Secondly, using acronyms can help if you don’t want to take the time or space to say a phrase. One acronym I notice myself using frequently is TTYL which stands for talk to you later. Do you feel children should begin being taught proper grammar for emails while in junior or senior high?
I strongly believe that universities and colleges should teach writing rather than composition. Although a composition class may teach you how to use PowerPoint and create a brochure, these skills could also be acquired from a different computer class. By taking a writing course, students are able to expand their spelling, grammar, and writing skills. We live in a society in which we are surrounded by technology such as text and instant-messaging. Often times, misspelled words, poor grammar, and lack of punctuation go hand in hand with instant messaging. With ways of communication such as these becoming so popular, it is extremely important that our youth be taught proper spelling, grammar, and writing skills. If not, there's a large chance that ten years down the road an even larger percentage of the American population will be illiterate. If people were never properly taught about the English language, why should they have any reason to care about it?
I think grammar should be taught all the way though high school and college. I took Composition I in high school and found it very helpful. I was realizing what I thought was right, wasn't. In five to ten years I see it being worse than it is now. Due to the fact that the kids that are in the fourth or fifth grade are getting cell phones, which is teaching them the wrong ways of using there commas, capitalizing words, and etc. Is there anyway that someday using abbreviations will be fine and you won't have to worry about them when writing an important paper? Or will children get taught abbreviations and the right way of spelling and grammar?
I feel that it is important for colleges and universities to teach writing. I think that in todays world with the increase of text messaging, children as well as adults have suffered in losing their knowledge of proper English. It is almost impossible to find a person today who doesn't understand the 'text messaging language'. When these young adults and children go into the work force and are not able to spell or put together a proper sentence how are they suppose to be viewed as an intelligent professional and a good asset to the company? In some ways I think that it is important for us to learn media communications, but I think that it should not take the place of a writing course. The teachers of today also need to realize the importance of proper English and be able to stress this importance to their students. How can this importance be stressed to students when a lot of these teachers don't feel that it is as important as sports? I think that there are too many teachers out there who feel being successful at the sport they coach or are involved in is more important than school work.
I believe that both composition and writing is critical for everyone to be educated on throughout life. I have been out of school seven years, and I must say I am suffering in both areas. I know when I get a professional job, I will be expected to be confident to use proper grammer, and vocabulary. I willalso be expected to apply that when writing. I also think High School should require more como, and writing classes to be taken. If they were to do that maybe these young adults would use abbreviated language on there phones, or any time alot less. They we wouldn't have to worry about whats going to happen in ten years. I don't understand why universities would do away with either.
I think is very fair and important that, all students need to be emphasis in how to read or write papers by using commas, capitalizing words etc. All Universities include Dmacc should teach composition,in fact, students don't need to suffer the struggles of poor writting and failed.I also believe that the teachers should have a quality time for those students that really need help with their grammar and spelling skills.
Our emphasis as students is to learn well now, and be successful for the future in different areas.
As a second-language speaker, I believe that I still have a lot to learn, especially with English. Although, it has been several years already since I first learned the language, I truly believe that English is more than just being able to communicate with each other.
It has a more value of grammar, knowing good vocabularies, writing a descend paper, communicating with good articulation and being able to spell well.
It is very important that colleges and universities to encourage their students to use and learn English, not only on the composition side, but also the writing.
With the existence of text messaging, it brought about the new language of abbreviation. Such as "BRB" for Be Right Back or a word "thru" for through. It's surprising that people are used to these abbreviations with incorrect spelling and at the same time they understand them, which scarily could lead to a low level of English later in life.
I think that it's important to use a proper English language from now for our future life and for others.
I think it is very important to teach writing in high school and up. Writing is much more important than composition, becuase you dont write essays in your everday world. It seem like the focus of a lot of english classes is interpreting other people's writing rather than developing our own. But as long as another person understands what you're trying to say, whether its abbreviated or not, does it matter how grammerically correct it is?
I think that colleges should teach writing classes, there are many times in life when you need to be able to write formally. I also think that it is important that a composition class is available too, if not required. Many jobs out there require the use of powerpoint and other technological devices.
I truely believe that we should be taught Writing and not so much Composition in college these days. We learn a lot about powerpoint and brochures such as media communication but very little about grammer, puncuations, and spelling. In text messaging, we use many abbreviations to type a message fast and short but, that can cause many problems for the younger generation. If the students that become teachers go to teach the next generation but don't know how to do propper writing skills then how are the kids ever going to learn how to write and communicate with our society today. Would you like your kids to come home from school one day and say what is a noun, verb, or a comma because the teach doesn't know for sure? That's what I thought. Nobody wants that.
I believe that colleges everywhere should offer both writing classes and composition classes. I think that the agenda for composition courses, however, should teach mechanics and how to write, while writing courses would put the skills taught in the composition courses to use. Of course with the way the classes are set up as of now, grammar and mechanics are bound to fail future generations. Many students aren't aware of the variety of classes. Many take "composition" for granted as a writing course, when it could really be focused on power point. The real question in my mind, however, is how long has this truly been a problem? My grandma, who is in her 70's, hates to be corrected on her grammar because she says that it was what she was taught in college. How long have universities labeled proper grammar improperly?
To do with composition vs. writing I honestly don't know. Certain aspects of composition do help in the workplace, but writing should also help to communicate anything you have to get across. And that is the point that I feel is most important. This is my bias opinion of course. In the use of text messaging we have been able to adapt our writing styles to say a lot in a minimal amount of space. Through the use of abbreviations and acronyms we express ideas with just a few letters and our views are understood with little to no confusion. So if we can get our points across in less space and spend less time doing it then wouldn't that just be the American way. And should we not integrate this into our way of writing so as to not cause our ways of writing to deteriorate any further.
I do feel composition should be taught all the way through highschool and college. Learning to write correctly is extremely important no matter what kind of job you do. No, I don't think we will be writing the same way we are texting in 10 years. Texting is just short messages you send to your friends not something you send your boss.
I believe that writing classes should be taught to students throughout high school, especially with today's technology. I also believe that composition classes should be offered to college students. Keeping the two separate allows students to focus on vocabulary, grammar, spelling, and punctuation that will get them prepared for college and the workplace. I know if I'd had more writing classes in high school I would be more confident in taking composition in college.
If it was my decision to choose between either english as a composition class or a writing class, I would definately choose writing. There are so many components to writing that require skills that you will need through out not only your schooling, but skills you will need in all professional relations. If you are not capable of writing correctly, you may lose out on numerous opportunities because you may appear less than intelligent. Isn't it those opportunites the reason why you are attending college? It can be helpful to know how to make different types of communications, (i.e. brochures, powerpoints, etc.) but what is it really worth to you if you don't have the basic skills in order to get the job in the first place?
I think that universities and colleges should be teaching students both composition and writing. We all need the practice with our grammar and spelling. We also need the practice of composing essays because so many instructors assign large projects. With the use of text messaging and chatting there has been many abbreviations for words. So, when it comes time for papers or projects students will start to slip in areas because of the short cuts they use.
First off, it is my opinion that universities should teach composition as well as other reading and writing skills. Now, as far as there being a decline in the level of writing of college students I can’t say. I do know that in most of my classes I am told this fact but have no evidence of this, nor am I given any, when instructors make this claim. If there is a stronger focus in the design and aesthetic aspect of writing then it could be at the expense of spelling, grammar, and mechanics. So, I feel that if we want to get back to writing skills then we should turn our focus back to these particular aspects of writing that are in jeopardy.
In response to the second set of questions, I think that it is not an issue of abbreviated words and language, there will always be a place for formal writing, as much as it is the enculturation of a way of communicating that is direct, abrupt and rushed. In conclusion I would like to pose the question of whether or not the way our world communicates with us (i.e. T.V., advertisements) changes the way in which we communicate amongst ourselves.
I took the DMACC course, Composition II, in high school and our class focused only on writing so this whole idea of visual media labeled as 'composition' is something I find quite new. However, I do believe that students should learn to write in composition classes and something such as visual composition should be granted its own course. Writing is an important part of a student's education due to the fact that, not only is a student learning argumentative and rhetoric skills, but is also learning proper grammar and increasing his or her vocabulary. These are useful to a student's verbal communication skills as well as their ability to write comprehensibly. Of course, I think that these skills should be important enough that universities shouldn’t have to necessarily worry about them and instead, leave it to a student’s earlier education . Is it wrong to believe that these skills are important enough that they should be taught earlier in life, even possibly beginning in elementary education?
Personally, I think composition should be taught in all colleges! I believe that we use writing, spelling, and grammar everyday. No matter what career path that we choose to take, I think that it’s truly vital. The colleges that are covering up the composition classes with other “equivalent classes” are only hindering our generation of students/future working adults. Yes, I would say that the easier way out would “equal”, no composition class! I mean who doesn’t agree, but is it really helping us?
On top of some colleges not making composition a requirement we have the other outside distractions: facebook, myspace, and texting. I believe that these sites and electronics are creating bad habits for our writing and grammar skills, starting from such young ages. Due to the fact, that now day’s kids have cell phones and their own personal pages by age 10. Sometimes I wonder what will happen to our future, in writing and communication.
I beleive that colleges should be teaching composition rather than writing. Almost everyone knows how to properly write but not many peole know how to use PowerPoint and other programs like it. These programs are helpful in so many ways that I think everyone should know how to use them. As for teaching writing skills, grammer, spelling and etc, this areas can be gone over in seconds with spell check or grammer check on any computer so why should we have to waste our time learning about it in class? By learning composition we gain more knowledge than we would with learning proper writing.
As for the second question, I beleive in five to ten years, texts and abbreviations will not cause any problems with writing styles, spelling or grammer. I text and facebook with abbreviations all the time and it doesn't seem to make me want to use them when I'm in a composition class. For me this will not be a factor but it may be harder for others to be switching back and forth.
Both writing and composition should be taught at the college level. They are skills that will be used throughout most of our lives. It has to start with a strong base in the fundamentals of grammar, which should be taught begining in the elementary levels of our schools. I wish that more importance had been placed on spelling, grammar and mechanics even when I was in school many years ago. I am having to unlearn many bad habits and relearn the correct way. Can you teach an old dog new tricks? Yes, it just takes a little longer. I have young children in school and am determined that they will learn these fundamentals from the begining the right way. We have to keep up with technology and learn web design and PowerPoint, but we can not forget composition and writing. Text messaging and instant messaging, where it is common to abbreviate, should not hurt our communication or writing skills as long as we keep practicing the right stuff in our schools and universities.
I think that schools should teach the proper way to write no matter what. If a student can not get their idea across because the reader is having difficulty reading the ideas then the credibility of the student can suffer. Technology has made people soft on how to write proper. The use of instant messaging has made communication and speaking to people a thing of the past. When someone has to talk to a person one on one some people have lost the ability to talk to people. The proper grammar is at times only taught in elementary and after time people lose those abilities. Some of the problems them become one on knows the correct way to use grammar.
Personally I thought that Composition II was English which would have writing as part of it. I feel Frustration and even agitation at all the new computer langauge. To me a noodle is a piece of pasta now it means something totally differant,and poeple talk with this new langauge as if everyone knows it and if they don't who cares. I think gramar, proper sentance structure,etc should always be reinforced throughout a students academic process. Technology is a must to learn if one wants to keep up with society as it is now, but technology isn't always the helpful tool it was met to be. Like Elliott here, I think that there should be separate classes that aid a student developing better skills in both areas or focus more on one if that is where that individual students needs to work on.
Personally I thought that comp II was writing. I get frustrated with all this computer stuff and the new langauge thats developed with it. To me a noodle is a piece of pasta now it means something totally different. I would like to see more english like gramar, sentence struture and all that. I stuggle writing and I think this a very important tool for life. I am sure that I'm going to have to learn all this technology to get by in this computer age, but proper english is every bit as important. I also think something is being last when can no long write things on paper or sit and read a book. Technology has its place and is fun once I get the hang of it, But lets not let it be the only means of communcation. I'm blogging this also as I thought that I had lost it and typed a new one.
I believe that grammar is a big deal through out college but will we use it later is the real question. Like the second part we are suppose to think about why should we learn all the correct grammar if in the future it might not matter anymore. What if instead of learning comma's periods and others we learn quick writing like ttyl or brb in college, becuase that would become the norm. People would want you to be able to acomplish each task quicker so they would inforce the idea of making everything quicker.
I took Composition II in high school and I think the most valuable thing I learned from the class was proper grammar. It's important to know when and where to use grammar like commas and semicolons; and in this section of the class that is what we learned. It helped me with my writing and I believe that in college we should continue with this same type of education. So if a college offers a Compostion class but doesn't include proper writing and grammar; then the college should also offer a Writing class that will focus on that type studies. I mean how will our grandchildren be able to be great novelists or professors if they don't know proper grammar and writing skills? We need to enforce these skills before it's completely lost to text messaging.
I believe grammar should be taught more frequently as opposed to composition. Due to the new rush of text messaging and MSN, people's grammar skills have been diminishing. I think, not only in five to ten years, but here in the present time, texting and MSN have caused people to use slang and abbreviate about any word imaginable. This is a terrible habit, because it is a stumbling block for people trying to write a good paper. In response to drvannorsdel, I think it would be appropriate to teach kids to write with correct grammar in emails and texts. If we keep texting and emailing with abbreviations, where will the intelligence be in future conversations? I think it is fair to say that with bad grammatical habits, come dull conversations and a negative impact on students who will have to write papers and read documents for class. I think it goes beyond just typing and speaking; bad grammar will also affect reading skills as well.
I think that Universities should teach composition instead of instead of writing. I believe that students these days should learn how to use every form of writing instead of just being stuck writing. The world today is evolving faster and faster and everything is done on a computer. I also believe that while learning composition you are still learning grammar, spelling, and mechanics. I believe that text messaging and facebook are a big problem. People more and more tend to start writing in a class like they are writing to one of there friends. I also believe that this will constrain the use of commas, etc. I believe that in five to ten years it will be harder for students to learn normal writing because of all the technology that people use to abbreviate words.
I'm sure that text messengers' basic writing skills will be affected by their bad habits. I text message and usually do not take the time to check for punctuation and other grammatical errors. So, as a result, when I write formally it takes me a little longer to think about some of those basic things. Bad habits are hard to overcome. In conclusion I think that text messaging is having a negative effect and will affect our future generations writing skills.
I think that colleges should offer both composition and writting classes. It is important for composition to be taught to student to help them prepare for the professional world. now writting (website design, brochures, etc...) is needed for those interested in advertising, graphics communicaton, and business use. Now, facebook and text messaging allowing people to communicate quickly and efficiently. People use slang and abbreviations to save time in an informal situation and it deffinatly cuts the costs of the phone bill every month. What I am trying to say is that communication has many uses. Whether it is a quick question to a friend or a professional letter to a boss, there is a time for the laid back conversation and a time for the professional.
I feel that writing is a very important part of our economy's future. I also feel that in years to come writing will be lost if it's not taught more today. I believe that writing should be taught more thoroughly than composition because we may not write essays everyday in life, but we read and write on a daily basis. If writing isn't taught more rigorously at an early age, where will our world be in 10 or 15 years?
I think that the abbreviated form, that a lot of people are becoming accustomed to in text messaging, isn't going to affect everybody. I know that some people still write in proper English even when it's not required. Just because people don't write proper English doesn't mean that they can't. I think that grammer and the mechanics of writing should still be taught for as long as people continue education. It can be easy to forget some of the writen lauguage but I think that is why everyone should polish it up every year or two.
Media communications are very important, but communicating with meaningless letters and smiles faces is unacceptable. I think to teach writing in all forms should very much be emphasized in schools- even how to properly form an email or other forms of instant communication. Am I the only one who takes the time to both spell out my text messages and punctuate them correctly? I would like to hope not. Please, don’t use the phrases "lol ttyl rotfl wtf ..." and the like to me during a conversation- just one of those little things that irk me ever so slightly. Hast thou cometh to question wither if thou doth not change, that thou shall perish in stagnancy? --Just a thought--
I think it is important to teach writing with strong emphasis on spelling, grammar, and mechanics. I believe it is equally important to teach and have some knowledge of composition. I believe these can be taught in conjunction with each other. I do think that our spelling and grammar will suffer greatly in the next five to ten years, as you tend to retain what you practice, and what child or adult do we not observe walking around without a cell phone anymore ?
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