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The overwhelming majority of Americans will not write academic papers for a living. The writing tasks that are required of us in the real world are actually more like the context-bound precise and focused tasks . . .- where audience and purpose really matter (Wiggins, 2009).
“You can teach students how to write, but if they don’t understand why they should write, chances for success will diminish” (Gallagher, 2006)
…get serious, really serious, about Audience and Purpose. That’s what “authentic assessment” in the teaching of writing amounts to: ensure that students have to write for real audiences and purposes, not just the teacher in response to generic prompts. (Wiggins, 2009)
[Students] are more likely first to recognize and then to acquire effective writing skills when they have teachers who model by bringing professional writing into their classrooms (Gallagher, 2006)
writing to real people is motivating (Avery, 1995)
In order to succeed in college and work-or just to manage in everyday demands of life in an increasingly diverse and media-saturated society- young people will have to be able to read and write in many different styles and for many different purposes, guided by an acute awareness of the context at hand and the need to adapt their language to fit that context. They will have to be able to communicate effectively to many audiences, to do so using all sorts of media, and to make sense of all kinds of written materials, from technical manuals to textbooks to the terse, grammarless prose of e-mail and instant messages (NALC Steering Committee Report, 2007).
Real writers are trying to make a difference, find their true audience, and cause some result in that readership. Yet academic writing is notoriously turgid, arguable because the impact of the prose is too often an afterthought, the writing a mere vehicle for offering up new knowledge. Yet, if we are to judge by the bulk of secondary school writing assignments- namely, assignments to find out if you read the book (“Was Oedipus fated to go blind?”) or aimless prompts (“Write about a time when you were wrong.”) – we would assume that students are writing for no purpose or person (Wiggins, 2009).
They read newspaper editorials, magazine articles, and other relevant nonfiction to examine both sides of an issue before they generate outlines or comparison charts. (Avery, 1995).
Real-World Writing Modeling Real-World Texts NSTWP, 2009
Teach Writers NOT Writing (Gallagher, 2006)
Writing is Thinking on Paper (Wiggins, 2009)
authentic writers use detail, example, anecdote, and metaphor (Avery, 1995)
...they learn that critical thinking and critical writing produce authentic writers holding tempered, strong convictions. (Avery, 1995)
…there are consequences for succeeding or failing as a real writer. You get the job . . . or you don’t. You make the reader laugh or cry, or you don’t, with consequences for the world, your ego, and your pocketbook (Wiggins, 2009).
Amy Rasmussen, rasmussena@cfbisd.edu
