Bad Ideas About Writing
I selected this book for a teacher-prep course focused on composition pedagogy. Just about every instance of teacher-created writing frustration that these upper division English majors have ever encountered in their writing career is addressed in this book. The “bad ideas” approach gave my soon-to-be ELA teachers a platform for identifying their good ideas about writing. Additionally, they felt validated about their frustration in previously being criticized about writing “flaws” that in fact are not flaws. The book pulls together some “big names” (Muriel Harris, Scott Warnock, Beth Hewett) as well as a nice assortment of names recognizable from a variety of professional journals and some obvious newcomers. A particularly helpful feature, especially for prospective ELA teachers, is the “Further Reading” section that ends each article. This section includes fundamental resources that inform the pivot from the “bad idea” that triggers each article to the good ideas that should show up in our pedagogy and that can support our confidence as writers. There is no index and no glossary. Given how well-presented key terms are within each artlcle, the lack of a glossary is not a problem. And the author bios are provided right at the end of the article they wrote rather than the end of the book.
The approach—identifying a bad idea, debunking it, and presenting a solid writing practice to replace it—shows realistic attention to issues that truly matter to student writers, to obstacles they may have faced in their writing journeys. I think most professors and most students would agree that the scope of the bad ideas correctly depicts things that can go wrong in writing pedagogy but that can be remedied through application of good instruction.
The topics have predictable longevity because the same bad practices persistent in ELA classrooms from generation to generation of writers. The book addresses misconceptions and misteachings about grammar, creative writing, research, grading, the five-paragraph essay, the usefulness of technology—all topics that we ourselves contended with when we were students and that current students still face. Happily, the book also includes a section on online writing instruction. This OWI section might need updating soon but it does address basic issues in teaching and learning writing online.
A lot of composition and pedagogy “jargon” is integrated but all effectively contextualized and well-explained. That was a key decision point in my selection of this text for my teacher candidates. The terms and concepts in the book are reflected in the teacher certification exams that the teachers will be taking as part of their credentialing process regardless of the type of licensure exam that is required by their state.
The articles in the book follow a delightful “formula”: the bad idea is presented, usually in a disingenuous tone somewhat mimicking the way the bad idea is presented as gospel truth in classrooms; then there is a debunking of the bad idea, usually based on the author’s lived experience or on actual classroom stories featuring the author’s students; finally there is a section juxtaposing the good idea that represents best practices. The Further Reading section is a valuable research resource for students who may be interested in bolstering their rhet/comp credentials as they get ready to teach or for graduate school.
The sections of the book allow for reorganization based on the professor’s approach to the course. The sections are not linear or consecutive; you can literally skip around for what seems best for your course and/or your students. And there are abundant articles in each section which allows for selectivity in matching readings to course objectives.
The major sections zoom into the broad topics that are creatively subdivided into a variety of specific bad ideas. When I first reviewed this book as a possibility for my upper division class of prospective teachers, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I could not say, “Hmmm, this would be a better text if x topic had been included.” It seems quite liberal in coverage of and presentation of topics that guide students toward appreciating truly good ideas about writing.
The option for downloading the entire book as a PDF enhances its usability as a learning tool. Students can highlight, add notes, use the search feature, and all-in-all use the book as they do a print book.
No problems with grammar.
Most students, regardless of their cultural or ethnic background, will see themselves reflected in the approaches presented in the articles. I can see someone raising the lack of specific attention to translanguaging as a possible gap or cultural insensitivity; however, I can attest that in my classes of almost 100% Hispanic students many of whom are second language speakers of English, no one felt slighted and all found meaningful connectivity in the topics presented as bad ideas. Additionally, because so many of the authors in the text have established credentials as contributors to discussions of writing pedagogy, we know that their work represents egalitarian views about cultural inclusivity.
One of the major benefits of using this book is the way that it makes students almost hyper aware of best practices in teaching writing. They ended the course feeling empowered about what they would do in their own classrooms with their own young writers and what they would avoid. As the course project, each of my students created a chapter that they would add to the book, focused on a bad idea that they had encountered and offering their own writing experiences as evidence for debunking that idea. Finally, this a “fun” book to work with. The students almost joyfully responded to their initial reading assignments as they realized that things they had been told were wrong in their writing are in fact not wrong at all.