a curious discomfort

Among the essays that tend to get the most play in the courses I teach are Lex Runciman’s “Fun?” and Richard Larson’s “The ‘Research Paper’ in the Writing Course: A Non-Form of Writing.” This said, Fishman’s study of Amish literacy is another that's showing signs of making its way onto the often-played list.

The decision to include Runciman and Larson (unlike Fishman’s "Because this. . .") hasn’t always been deliberate—that is, it’s not been my plan or intent from the get-go. Rather, they are the kind of things I’ll add, not last minute per se, but at the point at which it seems to me that the course or a component of the course seems to be missing something without them. Truth is, despite using it in my fyc course, my play theory course, my research methods course, and my teaching theory/practice course, I don’t particularly like the experience of reading “Fun?” (the first and final paragraphs make me cringe, in fact), but the points raised here (especially his reference to Harris’ study of one-drafters), tend to resonate with students. For my part, after rereading the piece, I do find myself being more cognizant of the decidedly battle- like or generally un-fun, un-fuzzy-feel-good, life-and-death-super-serious ways writing (practicing it as well as teaching it) is often represented in scholarship. Case in point:

At the conclusion of Composition-Rhetoric Connors writes, “The question of writing assignments is uncomfortable for many teachers because it presents such a clear mirror of one’s individual philosophy of education. It’s is easy to feel that one’s teaching is not striking a good balance between making writing meaningful to the student and making the student meaningful to the community. [on the reification of that binary i'm thinking: ‘oh no he just didn’t. . .!’] Debates over the last two decades between advocates of ‘honest, personal writing’ and those of ‘writing that gets the worlds work done’ [repeating again, ‘oh no he didn’t!’] will probably continue, because the seductions of an emotional knock punch are no less real for teachers than the seductions of a well-planned and carefully done research paper. [here i’ll just offer a big sigh, admiting that, put this way, or given only these two options, the 'carefully done research paper' sounds like the better deal.] The question of personal writing assignments forces us to take an implicit stand about what we think is important, for students and for society—and making important decisions is always uncomfortable. The continuing debate, tacit though it may be, indicates that we as a profession have not yet come to agreement about the larger purposes of writing in this culture. [word.]