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K. E. Allen
K. E. Allens Responses to Martinez Project Questions Re: English 125

1. To your understanding, what is the goal of English 125? English 125, Writing and Academic Inquiry, has
a number of goals, which are listed as objectives in my course syllabus. In CSP English 125, students will
have regular opportunities to reflect, analyze, synthesize and evaluate their process and their achievement of
goals in reading, writing, and thinking. Students will develop their critical thinking and reading skills and
their ability to engage in reasoned and informed personal and collaborative reflection, conversation, informal
and formal writing. Practically and specifically speaking, students will have the opportunity to do the
following:

Write 25-30 pages of revised polished prose

Reflect on their own processes of reading, writing and thinking
Produce complex, analytic, well-supported arguments that matter in academic contexts
Demonstrate an awareness of the strategies that writers use in different rhetorical situations
Develop flexible strategies for organizing, revising, editing, and proofreading writing of various lengths
Give and receive instructive critiques for writing-in-process
Develop skills for finding and citing sources
Logically and coherently develop ideas within sentences, paragraphs, and essays
Integrate textual evidence via effective quotation selection and paraphrasing
Apply principles of academic integrity
Develop critical thinking and analytical reading skills
Annotate texts to identify arguments, sub-arguments, organizational strategies, and use of evidence
Develop strong student study skills
Learn and practice effective strategies for communicating with professors via conferences and email
Manage time to meet deadlines

Students who work hard to achieve these goals tend to develop greater confidence as scholarly and inventive
writers in an academic setting. By focusing on these goals, the course prepares them for the type of writing
and academic inquiry most often assigned and valued in University classes.

2. What does it mean to be a successful student in your course? What commonalities have you noticed
among successful students in your sections? Any among the not so successful? See below.
3. What do students struggle with most? Time management, the revision process, asking for help. What are
some ways of overcoming these shortcomings?
Students who succeed in my courses embrace the writing and revision process by actively engaging in the
reading analysis assignments for discussion, and listening actively and raising relevant questions in the class
discussions. Students who embrace the revision process (it is rigorous and quite manageable) as described in
the course contract and course description tend to excel in this class. Each writing assignment develops as a
four-week project through a series of stages targeting specific skills that increase in complexity as they plan,
research, draft, and revise each writing assignment. My most successful students share a willingness to
explore, experiment, and practice the genre expectations that vary from assignment to assignment. They are
willing to make mistakes and learn from them. While they may not have entered the course as masters of time

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management, they quickly adapt to strengthen those skills so necessary to their development as critical
thinkers and writers. Successful students are willing to ask for help when they are stuck on a project or they
find themselves falling behind; they develop proactive habits in response to obstacles they encounter. They
learn to accept failure on the condition that they reflect on the experience and grow from it.
I think that asking for help is possibly one of the most challenging skills students struggle to embrace in my
course. Because writing is such a collaborative process (heavy emphasis on process) at every stage except,
perhaps, the actual writing, I encourage students to reach out and get as many eyes on their writing as
possible. As with many UM courses, successful students plan ahead, set a healthy study schedule, and
discipline themselves to maintain a solid pace in the course. Successful students learn and apply the
knowledge they gain from their many peer and instructor critique conversations. From the feedback I have
received from students, this intensive process of dialogue and engagement with each other, the instructor
(me), and the texts they write and read has been inspiring and extremely valuable to their learning process.
The process also helps them strengthen their independence as thinkers and writers in setting goals and
achieving them. So I think I will keep up these methods of engagement and process, refining my teaching and
learning knowledge gained from the students I work with from term to term.
Less successful students are those who refuse to embrace the writing and revision workshop process. Some
students who enter the course with the mindset that they are just going to get through the course because its
required tend not to do as well. This course can be demanding for students who have never before been
asked to think for themselves, or test their ideas in speech and in writing, or to even to reflect on the
questions, what do I think about this, and why do I think this way? (Honestly, these holdouts tend to be
among my favorite challenges, I confess.)
Thus, the least successful students are those who cling to old ways of writing and learning, and treat the
course as purely a repository of data. These students have learned to bring nothing to their educational
experiences. As a result, they have learned to be passive and disengaged. They tend to miss assignments and
even class sessions. Their writing and critical thinking skills do not develop. They might rouse themselves to
memorize a list of terms and grammatical rules (without much thought beyond the completed assignment or
quiz), or seek a quick and easy formulaic method for writing without regard for genre or audience
expectations.
To these students (any student, actually) I say, come to office hours, lets brainstorm a strategy for starting
your writing project, make a list of points and examples, create a plan. I ask them, How are you going to
make this class your own? How do you take ownership of your education? How do you want to spend the
next 14 weeks of your life in this course? For me, the process of writing is a lot like the teaching of
writing both are grounded in dialogue whether it is with oneself, other people, or a text they have written
or have read. What a joy it is to witness those students liberate themselves from the mind-shackles of the
banking concept of education 1mindset.
4. What does an instructor, such as yourself, look for when grading writing assignments?
Each writing project comes with a rubric designed specifically for its respective genre, audience and research
requirements. Student work is assessed on the successful demonstration of a cogent central purpose for
1 See Paulo Freire, The Banking Concept of Education (Ch. 2), from The Pedagogy of the Oppressed.

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writing, organization, language clarity, progressive buildup of ideas to a meaningful conclusion, successful
use of evidential support, proper citation methods, their engagement with the peer review process, their own
revision process, and a final reflection-on-action analysis about their revision decisions and effects on their
argument development. Each project increases in weight (10, 15, 20, and 25) to account more effectively the
writing that improves over time.
I have found it extremely unhelpful to state in a rubric, Im looking for originality or, I know what good
writing is. Every story tends to be similar; how we tell that story is where the sparks of originality, deep
thinking, and selfhood reside. How we tell the story or analyze the data is through technique. Technique can
be learned. Technique can be practiced. Technique and its effects on argument, etc., can be assesseddid it
work? Why or why not?
In English 125, I coach students to build and practice the skills they need to speak in their own voice with
authority (ethoscredibility), with knowledge (logos-- research, analysis to show understanding of the facts),
and with the practiced skill of connecting with their audience (pathosconnecting through empathy, respect
and so on).
As the risk of repeating myself, students who carefully read the course contract (given out at the beginning of
the term and signed by the student), who commit to fulfilling the expectations described therein, tend to do
well. The course contract sets out course expectations in order to achieve a B. The requirements are
manageable, but they are rigorous, and I believe that when a student fulfills their course contract, such effort
deserves a B grade. Writing and critical thinking that performs at an exemplary level earns an A. A
performance that performs at less than the requirements set forth in the contract can expect to earn less than a
B. Students whose writing grades fall below a B- may be invited to revise such a paper in order to improve
their grade.

5. How can students work together to succeed in the course? Is there mutual benefit to cooperation?

My entire course is modeled on the in-class writing workshop experience. Every semester, my students blow my
mind with how quickly they grasp the concepts in good writing through reading each others work. Not only do
they learn to see how something is done wrong, they also learn to see a writerly move that is working well, and
can quickly grasp how to accomplish the same move in their own work. Students learn by doing, and they learn
by collaborating with each other. They begin collaborativetraining on the very first day of the course. As a class,
we set rules for engagement, we discuss best practices for offering critiques, we discuss what we most fear about
participation in a college course like this one (or writing workshop), and we develop best practices to allay those
fears about presenting our ideas through discussion and writing workshops.

Students identify and practice good citizenship in the workshops. They do so by listening to others with respect, even if
they disagree; they witness first-hand and come to value differences in peoples life experiences. They ask questions when
they do not understand something. They focus on the project, not the person (principles before personality). They learn to
recognize that every person in the room starts with a blank page and countless shitty first drafts 2 (including the teacher),
2 See Anne Lamott, Shitty First Drafts.

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that workshop is not for you to fix my paper, but for me to study your writing carefully and respectfully and learn from
the successes and failures therein.3 They learn to recognize that writing is hard work and that being a good writer takes
time, attention, honesty, and courage. As in writing, as in life.

6. Lastly, do you have any general advice for students who plan to take English 125 or any other first-year
composition course?
Some general suggestions (not necessarily in order):

Read the syllabus. Underline important ideas and deadlines. Ask questions if something in the syllabus
confuses you.
o Set up your due dates in the calendar immediately (or, if you rely on Canvas, make sure you
check the course site daily and plan accordingly).
o Plan ahead. You can always make changes later!
MEET WITH YOUR INSTRUCTOR regularly. Do not wait for your teacher to ask you in. If you cannot
meet your instructor during office hours because of schedule conflicts, go to your teacher and request an
appointment. That is your right. Use it!
o Come prepared with a question (or more) to your conference. Bring a draft and/or outlines of
your plan. If it is too early to show a draft, that is okay. But show your instructor that you are
prepared and ready to engage. Your instructor will be impressed. Moreover, you will have a very
productive session.
o Read the emails from your instructor (including Canvas notifications).
Develop your time management skills and use them faithfully. College is a four-year triathlon. You want
to pace yourself day-by-day in manageable time chunks.
Take breakschange your physical surroundingswalk, dance, sing, whatever. It really helps.
Embrace the revision process. Its part of the course requirements. Why fight it?
Ask questions. Always. True wisdom starts with asking questions. We are here because we want to know
more and do more good with the world in which, existentially, we have found ourselves thrown.
Be willing to explore new and old ideas those you encounter in the texts, discussions, and anywhere else
that set your hearts and minds on fire. And check out those that dont!
Embrace the growth mindset.
Practice good citizenship in writing workshops and in your lives.
If you devote an average of six hours a week (sometimes less, sometimes more) to this course and keep
an open mind, you will do fine. You may be tired, but you will not be bored. You will laugh a lot. And you
will meet some of the best people of your lives.

3 See Jeremiah Chamberlin, Workshop is Not for You.