Who teaches Composition?
In Zorn's article that was sent to the class he brings up a very interesting idea that coincides with what we talked about in class this past week. I've been pondering the whole idea that Composition is taught by lowly TA and Graduate students and we can all see why that is probably not a good idea. However, Zorn says that English Composition courses are suffering and failing because we, as a university, appoint English professors who have lost touch with what Composition is to direct the courses. He says that English professors are too over philosophical and bring too much in to the course that has nothing to do with Composition.
This idea brings to mind the solution to the problem. I firmly believe that in order for Freshman Comp. to be a valuable field and not be discounted as "service" work we need to bring in people who are passionate about Composition and Writing in a more practical sense. Not just on the academic level, but all levels in which writing is used to prepare students to read, think and write critically. Restricting this fields academic pool to those with PhDs and Graduate students who are otherwise occupied, we need to broaden our fields view. Bringing in instructors and BA holders would greatly increase our fields presence while improving its view from the outside. Obviously, there would need to be criterion added to the hiring process to determine if they are passionate or strong enough of a writer to apply that to the classroom. However, those are the finer details. Until we can broaden our view and hiring pool I think that Freshman Comp. will just continue going in the opposite direction that most English students wished it would go.
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