Writing+as+Praxis-Elizabeth-Jan31

I like this article. I like that Yagelski suggests that we as teachers do not need to justify reading as praxis. We don't have to justify the literacy memoir for example. Even if we ask first year college students or high school seniors to write their own, we are just helping them come to terms and be aware of their own literacy. It teaches them/us to reflect on what and how we read and write, which is very significant. We are reflecting on ourselves and besides I don't like to take away the " I " from my students, My professor of multiculturalism at my undergraduate institution took the "I" out of our writing and I got a C grade in that course. I feel students need to have a strong voice just like any other writer or journalist. I liked "Writing as Praxis" because ever since becoming a writing tutor at the University Writing Center, I developed a taste for good student papers that I can describe as meeting the description of Yagelski of good student writing. I can tell as a reader which student is engaged and totally invested in his or her paper and which student wrote just to meet course requirements. I feel that college students should start out by writing drafts of their papers even in non-English courses. There should be a writing process under professional guidance. Students come to the writing center with a ten-page or a twenty-page paper that has not been peer or teacher reviewed. They expect to hand the paper (which is 50% of their final grade sometimes) in to the teacher after a thirty minute consultation. A tutor can barely touch the surface of the paper and give a few suggestions about the way the ideas are expressed and connect to each other. The students should instead seek consultation starting on page one and do it in short increments. That way, their writing would be well thought out and they can say all they want to say, probing their minds further and coming up with new ideas and sources. I agree with Yagelski that writing is transformative of the writer and the world, especially writing about one's own experiences. My own poems transform me just like Katie and woman whose husband died from Alzheimer's, that Yagelski mentions. My poems make me stronger. My journal makes me stronger and more open to other people, experiences and events. When I read what I wrote after some time has passed, even the second day, I am reflecting and seeing myself in a different light. It is as if writing makes my experience look remote and I view with with a detachment like I'm reading someone else's journal and I can interfere and help.