The Essay as "Deliberate Conflict"

I like Noolifar's post a lot--especially the benefits of the "opportunity of obligation" that being forced to learn (and conform) to a certain technical form can have. When I started grad school (in Rhetoric) I surrounded myself with articles by rhetorical critics I admired-Mike Leff, Karlyn Kohrs Campbell, Brad Vivian, Dave Kaufer-and copied what they did. That is, when they inserted history in their article, I inserted history in my article. When they worked in their lit review, I'd work in my lit review. By copying the form of an academic article (in Rhetoric) I learned how to write one. Eventually, I became confident enough that I was freed from the form, able to produce work without looking at the work of others for comparison. I like assigning essays to my students for this very reason. I also like assigning them other sorts of forms depending on the class. In my Freshman Comp class, I might assign essays, but also other forms that my students might find useful--short arguments, blog posts, even some work on how to do basic coding schemes for language.

Unless it is absolutely un-ignorable, I generally do not grade grammatical errors; instead, I correct them and point out to the student that he/she might work on them. My grade focuses on the issues they raise and they style with which they raise them. This philosophy stems from Joseph Williams' essay, "The Phenomenology of Error," where he proved that "people read student writing with a different screen from the one they use for published writing." We read for error when we read student writing but for ideas when we read professional academic writing.

Finally, a word on discussions: in response to Robin's point (in his email "An essai on essays") that essays/discourse are performed, I wholeheartedly agree. Just like with speeches in my Public Speaking class, I like to discuss my student's essays with them in class. I never give them public criticism (I feel it can be too damaging if it goes poorly); instead, we engage the issues that their speeches/essays brought up. I feel like pushing back against them. This is tough sometimes, perhaps because, as Patricia Roberts-Miller points out, "hostility to argument often comes from experience with unproductive forms of conflict" (Deliberate Conflict: Argument, Political Theory, and Composition Classes, p. 185). Still, I believe that, if I can make it through the first wave of built-up resistance to talking about their essays, I end up having very productive discussions with my students. The effectiveness of the essay, to me, lies in what you do after they've turned the assignment in. Without that discussion, that group engagement with the issues they write about, I'm not sure how effective I might find it.

David