Why Write?

                Kelly Gallagher begins with a very compelling argument in Write Like This: Writing is essential for all positions our students will one day be applying for and so deserves special attention in the classroom.  Further, I agree that it is a teachers’ job to model those skills so that students’ know what the writing process looks like.

  As a personal anecdote, my first job interview required somewhat sophisticated English analytical skills for a slightly above minimum wage job.  After not being able to get my foot in the door at Jewel-Osco, Ace Hardware, Walgreens, and a slew of other generic chain retail stores, I finally got an opportunity at Marshall Field’s in my local suburban mall.  As a sophomore in high school they asked me the basics, like my availability, and my future plans, but then threw me and the other interviewees in the group interview a curve ball.  We were asked to go down to the sales floor and select an item and then return and sell it to the group.  I had never shopped at Marshall Field’s in my life!  One interviewee in his early twenties went down the escalator to the sales floor never to return.  I and my future co-workers all returned with an item and delivered persuasive speeches arguing that our item was not only desirable but absolutely essential.

                So I agree with Gallagher’s premise that no job is too low on the totem pole to require basic English skills.  However, based on professional development and my own interpretation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), Gallagher completely misses the mark when he asserts the CCSS does not ask for real word writing.  He includes only one standard focused on drawing evidence, while many of the standards require finding textual evidence while only a handful ask for obscure literary terms, something Gallagher believes is commonplace in his hypothetical example of meeting future students (9).  CCSS are not focused on literary terms; the focus is on argument and supporting that argument with valid reasons (evidence), much like I was required to do at Marshall Fields as a sixteen year old.

                I support Gallagher when he claims that writing should begin “with teaching students why (italics mine) they should write” (7).  Indeed, apathy is a great hindrance to student understanding, but Gallagher’s solution for teaching the why does not actually answer the question.  For instance, Gallagher essentially frames writing into different levels on Bloom’s Taxonomy, which is not a bad activity.  Indeed, I think working around these topics the way the students do on pages 14 and 15 are great ways of trying to think about the many ways a topic can be explored.  I could see how students could benefit from the exercise after trying it in class, and I think this could be an exceptional activity to try to help students develop a thesis for a research paper, but it’s not a solution for the why a student should write.  As a matter of fact, in the conversation with Marco over his water polo I kept asking myself, “Why is Marco writing this paper on water polo?  Who cares?”  I wonder if Marco could articulate why he was writing a paper he didn’t seem clearly interested in about a topic he felt was pretty self-explanatory.

Calvin and Hobbes Engaging in Some Real-Talk on Assignments

                Instead, I believe that Gallagher should have taken up to answer his original question rather than making a large claim and then sufficing to propose a reorganization of Boom’s Taxonomy as a grand solution.  I think, to take up Gallagher’s original idea, the evidence-based argumentative writing supported by CCSS should be rallied around in classrooms.  More connections should be made to real world writing and thinking skills, such that students will run into when they want to join their careers.  A meaningful activity may be having students find out what kind of writing is expected of them in a future career and then try it themselves.  There is also the option of executing more traditional authentic assessments to address the “why write” question in order to expand their audience, such as writing letters to the editor of a newspaper or writing letters to notable people that are actually sent out.  Students absolutely need to know that writing is a meaningful, authentic skill, and I believe Gallagher missed the opportunity to really support his point.