Final Reflection

Final Reflection

First of all, my definition of composition has not changed very much since the first day of class. I remember sitting there when asked, “What is composition?” and thinking “Well what kind of composition are we talking about?” My answer to that first question was, “expressing ideas, feelings, fact, etc. through writing.” This was my school answer. I was trying to write the correct answer for a class in College Composition. I knew from day one that composition stretched across multiple genres and multiple facets of life. What I had failed to consider was how many of these genres may be necessary to consider in the realm of the classroom. While my definition of composition has not changed, my ideas about composition in the classroom have expanded greatly.

I want to start talking about my progression of ideas in the context of an analogy. When I was a kid growing up, I had to learn how to ride a bike. So my parents bought me a bike, strapped on the training wheels, and walked next to the bike while I got comfortable. After a little practice, my parents stopped walking next to the bike but they left on the training wheels. After I was comfortable with the training wheels, my parents took them off and gave me the control of the bike.

Now let’s talk about composition in the context of this analogy. Our students need to learn how to compose. So we give them a pen, paper, a computer, use training wheels (i.e. 5 paragraph essay, general strategies, How-to, persuasive and narrative technique), and peer over their shoulder to guide them in correctly implementing these strategies. Later, we take the less active role and allow our students to practice writing on their own within the framework of their training wheels. Now, eventually we need to allow the students to take off the training wheels, and compose without the constraints, while still needing to maintain balance.

Now keeping with the thread of the analogy, there are questions to be asked. Why will I ride my bike? Where can my bike take me? What if I don’t want to ride my bike, I prefer a skateboard? These are the questions that are answered by this class. Why will I write? Where can writing take me? What if I don’t want to write, I want to use another media? As teachers we need to make sure we put on the training wheels or our students may fail to ever get on the bike, but once they are up and running, we need to give them freedom and reason to grow.

Let us start with the first question, “Why will I write?” This class put into perspective the power of composition. I enjoyed being shown a very convincing argument about the progression of human beings. Each step of the animals-language-rhetoric-writing progression was interesting to ponder. The fact that language separates us from animals gives me a new respect for language. The idea that all language is rhetoric and we live in a rhetorical world stresses the importance of being persuasive through rhetorical methods, as opposed to being persuasive by physical or natural circumstances. The fact that writing brings a new humanistic perspective to the table shows a level of importance of writing that I have never considered. While I do not think that Utopia is obtainable, I would consider myself a humanist because I think that people can improve their position by their own means. We don’t need some idealistic end, utopia, to continue to progress. We simply need to improve the world we live in, and I am convinced that I have the power to change things because of language, rhetoric, and writing.

Next let’s address the second question, “Where can writing take me?” This question is a little subjective. I believe the answer to be anywhere you want to go. If you hone your skills as a writer, then through the power of rhetoric you can progress through life as a successful person. Whether it be for dealing with administration in the school you are working, or voicing your opinion through government avenues, or wooing the love of your life, composition can take you somewhere. I am convinced of the power of rhetoric after reading the articles by Berlin and others. I truly believe that writing can take people to new places.

Now, for the third and final question, “What if I don’t want to write, I want to use another media?” I want to address this question from the perspective of a future teacher. I am a little more open to other forms of media in the classroom. While I believe traditional composition will remain important, I recognize the emerging importance of other composition such as video, graphic representations, or audio. With the growing technology of our society and our students increasing familiarity with the technology, there is a need to recognize other forms of composition. Our demonstration of web page format opened my eyes to the subtle importance of color and images in even the most text driven sites. Now to draw more from the analogy, sometimes I am afraid that we fail to recognize the importance of growing trends like skateboarding due to our affliction for the methods of the past like biking. Just as these two forms of transportation can coexist, so can traditional composition and newer forms of composition. We as teachers need to do our best to familiarize ourselves with both techniques or we will lose a part of this coexisting audience.