PASSWORDMANAGEMENT
johnmitchellinterview_march14
Hi, John! Okay, here鈥檚 my first question. If you had to compare your style of teaching to a certain type of weather system or to certain ecosystem鈥攍ike a jungle or coral reef鈥攚hat would you choose and why?
Um, I would say鈥m鈥鈥檇 like to think of my class as an ecosystem where there is a lot of diversity and color.
Cool! How long have you been teaching and why do you teach writing?
I鈥檝e been teaching around 10 years. And why? I think, because I can. I mean, my personal opinion鈥攚hich you can put in鈥攊s that you can鈥檛 teach someone how to write, but you have to put them in a situation where writing is their only choice to move forward. I teach the way I learned way back when I was an undergraduate.
I took this Shakespeare class where we would read a play every week. We had to write one paper for each play, and it could only be two pages. And if you wrote more than two pages he would just drop it into the trash. So, that situation forced you to figure out that you had to focus on one really important idea and relate it to the whole play. The discipline of having to read that much and write that little taught you not to procrastinate because you don鈥檛 gain anything by putting it off. I had to say, 鈥渙kay I need to do this now, get it done, and move on.鈥
The other thing, kind of related, is I earned my living as a technical writer, and there the situation was, you know, 鈥渉ere鈥檚 what we need, and we need it now, so get it done.鈥 So that鈥檚 what I try to get across to the students. If they spend hours and hours worrying about it or not doing it that鈥檚 a total waste of time.
I see. So your approach to writing is to be efficient, clear, and to the point, both in form and in process.
Yeah because it is all practice anyway. I have my 10,000 hour theory that I stole. 10,000 hours of practice makes you an expert. So if you use directed practice for something for 10,000 hours you become expert at it. So practice, practice, practice.
Okay. So is that the homework time requirement in your class? <laughs>
Yeah, well some students certainly act like it is or they think it is. <laughs>
No. But I do have them write something in almost every class. I mean I use the analogy of learning to walk and talk. You just practiced all the time. No one taught you, you just practiced all of the time. You learned by doing. That 鈥渄oing鈥 concept: just do it.
Right, quit talking about thesis statements; Let鈥檚 just write one and then another.
Right. And then eventually you鈥檒l stumble across a good one
What were you like as a student writer?
I didn鈥檛 like to write much, and I still don鈥檛, but I like to read. I still read a lot, broadly and not deeply. When I was a graduate student, my excuse for not writing was, 鈥淚 write all day at work, I鈥檓 not going to come home and write.鈥 Technical writing was a different kind of writing.
People, even people with really advanced degrees and everything else, think there is a magical component to writing, you just put it in this magical machine and out comes writing, polished, clear, and precise and specific. Because they don鈥檛 see the effort: the 27 times you revised that one sentence.
For technical writing, it sounds like the research would have taken a lot of time too?
Yeah, yeah. That was my favorite part: figuring out the questions to ask because dealing with so many experts鈥攚ho are really technical鈥攜ou have to know what you鈥檙e talking about. It鈥檚 all about languages, because they all have different languages. The other thing about it鈥攚hich was really what I did during the second half of my career鈥攊s translating, what they call 鈥済lobalized,鈥 to 16 different language. That means you really have to narrow the vocabulary and it has to be standard, consistent English. Minimal vocabulary.
Wow! So it sounds like your approach to teaching GEW is simply, write it, get it down, get it done鈥
Yeah, it鈥檚 practice. But the other part of it is the reading. The language comes out of the reading. A lot of the students have really interesting ideas, but they can鈥檛 explain them because they don鈥檛 have enough language. And with reading you get the feedback of having seen ideas presented in a clear and reasonable way, so you are able to get in to the habit of operating in that way, I think.
So they read a lot, and they writing a lot in your class.
I hope so.
What outcome then do you feel is most important for GEW student writers to achieve by the end of the semester, and why?
I think it is revision. They should recognize that writing is really allowing time to do revision. Because any time you write something, even if it is an email, if you don鈥檛 take the time to read it over and make revisions you will almost always make mistakes. So I really try to emphasize the habit of revision and the value of revision. My students always discover what they really want to say in a paper at the end of writing it, and I encourage them to put that at the beginning of the paper, and use that as the focus: the upside-down cake I call it鈥ecause the kind of writing they will be doing in other classes after GEW is so different, the skills and the practice are what matter: close reading, asking good questions, revision.
I know you volunteer for the Freshmen for a Day event each semester. How long have you done that and why do you do it?
I鈥檝e done it for two years, and I started mostly because someone asked me too. But I think the value is it shows the students who come that college is really different than high school. I mean, I鈥檝e had students say, 鈥測ou should make me do this.鈥 Sorry, those days are gone. The kids [at the Freshmen for a Day event] that I see haven鈥檛 really thought much about college. They may not have parents or support telling them 鈥測ou need to do this or that鈥 to prepare for college. The book Reading Classes talks a lot about cultural capital, how middle class parents create for their children cultural capital that they can use in college whereas working-class kids, college may not be what they鈥檙e thinking about. I came from a similar, working-class experience.
Alright, so then what resources on campus do you support or recommend to students wanting to engage writing that has real and lasting impact?
I encourage them to use the library; the library is really important. I think the Writing Center is a good idea. I don鈥檛 get a 100% response, but I tell them every day to go. And the computer lab because I know I have students who don鈥檛 have internet access at home, which I think is incredibly unfair for them. Those are the main things. Counselors and tutors also can be a real benefit.
Alright, cool. Thanks, John.
Okay, good. Easy.