Teaching Writing Through Literature

Part One: Integrating Reading and Writing in the First-Year Writing Classroom
Part Two: Writing to Learn in Upper-Level Courses

Part One: Integrating Reading and Writing in the First-Year Writing Classroom

Using Reading to Teach Writing

Though the connection between reading and writing seems to be a "given," reading was
not always a dominant force in writing classrooms. In the nineteenth century, students
did not typically write analyses of what they read, but instead wrote themes on
prescribed topics, such as Vanity, Democracy, Ethics, and so on. Reading and writing
became curricularly linked at the turn of the century, when Harvard and other
universities decided that reading literature was essential to learning to write.

The reasons for this curricular link are the same today as they were one hundred years
ago. Those who argue(d) in favor of reading in the writing classroom say first, that
reading inspires students, introducing them to great ideas and improving their ability to
think critically and analytically. Second, reading centers class discussion, giving
students something to talk about beyond their own personal experiences. Reading also
gives students something to write about: at eighteen, students often lack the experience
to come up with sophisticated subjects for their essays, and reading can provide these
ideas for them. Finally, reading illustrates models of truly excellent writing, thereby
offering students instruction in voice, organization, syntax, language, and so on. One
English professor goes so far as to say that there are certain elements of good writing
that can be taught only through reading literature -- the workings of metaphor, for
example.

Still, professors who teach writing often find themselves questioning the role of reading -
- and in particular, of exclusively reading literature -- in the first-year writing classrooms.
These professors are concerned about the amount of class time they devote to literature
as opposed to the amount of class time they devote to teaching writing. They worry that
the attention to reading and analyzing course materials risks crowding out writing
instruction -- which, they feel, should be the priority of the course. They are also aware
of the debate concerning the relative usefulness of teaching literary analysis to students
who do not plan to major either in English or in any of the Humanities.

Still, readings remain the focus of most first-year writing classrooms, in part because the
course content is what most professors have been trained to teach. In courses like
English 2-3 and 5, where literature dominates the reading list, professors argue that the
analytical skills that students learn in taking apart a piece of writing are indeed
transferable to other disciplines. Professor James Heffernan, whose English 5 finds its
center in the analysis of literature, told us that he believes that his most important task in
the course is "to teach [students] to read sensitively... I want them to attend to what I call
significant detail. I want them to see the relationship between one part of a text and
another. And to see how your understanding of context can inflect your interpretation of
a particular element... That's the kind of thing I bring out: a study of literature as a model
for exposition. I still believe in that."

Example: Professor Walter Stephens' Humanities 1& 2

Humanities 1&2 exemplifies the belief that reading can be used to teach writing.
Humanities 1&2 is a Great Books course, founded on the premise that great books are
indeed accessible to first-year students, and that this access might be gained through
close and careful reading -- or explication -- of texts. According to Professor Walter
Stephens, who directs and teaches Humanities 1&2, the goal of the course is to get
students to think independently. Professor Stephens believes that this goal is best
accomplished by asking students to examine a text closely, "from the ground up." By
carefully examining and "pulling apart" these canonical texts, students learn the
fundamentals of argument, critical thinking, and language. In the process, they learn to
build arguments and to develop ideas of their own.

Professor Stephens instructs students in the art of explication in interesting ways. He

begins his instruction in class discussion, modeling for his students how close readings
are done. He also gives students model explications and handouts that illustrate the
technique. Then, Professor Stephens assigns an exercise in which he types out several
versions of a single passage, highlighting different words or phrases in each version. He
divides his class into four or five groups and gives each group a passage that's been
highlighted differently. Each group produces its own explication of the text, based on
what's been highlighted, and then shares its explication with the class. Students are
surprised to learn how varied these close readings of a single passage of text might be.
They discover that there is no one "right" reading -- though there might be wrong ones.
This exercise goes a long way in moving students away from black and white thinking
and towards a way of reading texts that is rich, complex, and varied.

After this group assignment, students write explications on their own. Prior to explicating
a particular text, students are asked to write a one-page personal response to what
they've read. These personal responses are often the "seeds" for the explications that
will follow. In their early explication assignments, students are required to write short
papers that closely analyze a single passage of a text. As the course progresses,
students are required to compare several passages -- first within the same text, and
later between two texts. Each of these assignments requires students to do increasingly
sophisticated critical analyses. The course culminates in a research paper that asks
students to explicate several passages in a text, and that also requires them to use
secondary sources in their analyses. By the end of Humanities 1 & 2, students are
skilled both in analyzing and in synthesizing what they have read, thereby using the
method of explication to create their own critical arguments.

Additional Ideas for Using Reading to Teach Writing

Note: We are currently soliciting ideas for using reading to teach writing from professors
in all disciplines. If you have ideas, big or small, that you would like to share, please
contact Karen Gocsik, Director of Composition.

Professors teaching writing courses in every discipline can use their reading
assignments to teach writing. Of course, the readings we assign sharpen our students'
analytic skills by requiring them to think critically about the course material, but these
assignments might do more. Reading and writing work best when one process fuels or
informs the other. In order to make sure that reading and writing are working together
effectively in your classroom, you might wish to consider the following:

• Limit the amount of reading assigned so that students have time to devote
themselves to their writing.

• Create at least one writing assignment (perhaps a short one) in which students
are asked to analyze how an argument is constructed, rather than focusing
exclusively on the content.

• Provide students with models of good writing, taking time in class to talk with
students about what, exactly, makes the writing so good.

• Provide students with models of bad writing, taking time to talk about what,
exactly, makes the writing so bad.

• Create hand-outs that list the qualities of good writing in your particular discipline,
and ask students to evaluate a piece of writing according to these standards. (For
this exercise, consider breaking students down into smaller groups and then
reconvening to compare observations.)

Part Two: Writing to Learn in Upper-Level Courses

Why Writing is Essential to Our Students' Learning Processes

The discussion of how writing might be used to improve our students' learning
processes has been with us since the early seventies, when James Britton (in "Writing to
Learn and Learning to Write") and Janet Emig (in "Writing as a Mode of Learning")
illustrated how and why writing was essential to learning. Emig's work, which argues that
the writing is a "unique mode of learning," is especially persuasive in convincing us that
writing might be -- or even should be -- a part of all of our courses.

Emig's argument rests on the following assumptions:

• Writing serves learning uniquely because students must attend to both the writing
and thinking processes as well as the written product -- that is, they must not only
consider what they think, but how best to communicate what they think to a
community of readers.
 • Writing serves learning uniquely because it is primarily through writing that many
of the higher cognitive functions -- such as analysis and synthesis -- develop.

• Writing is unique to learning because it originates a verbal construct that is

graphically recorded. (The italics point to what Emig feels are the important
distinctions between writing and the other ways of learning: listening, reading,
and talking. Listening is passive: it neither originates with the reader nor is
graphically recorded. Reading involves communication that is graphically
recorded; however, the ideas do not originate with the learner. Talking can offer
original ideas, but because talking is not graphically recorded the learner's
thinking and communicating don't need to be as sharp as when writing.)

In short, Emig argues that students' learning is improved when writing is part of the
learning process. What insures their learning is that writing requires them to be active
and precise in the learning process. Emig and others believe that courses that rely
solely on lectures and reading assignments are "anathema" to student learning, in that
students are not required to be active in processing their own understandings of the
course materials. Courses that use class discussion are more effective, because
students are required to participate in the learning process by articulating their ideas.
However, class discussion cannot provide the same learning benefits that writing will, in
that talk is loose and inherently redundant; moreover, it "leans on the environment" to
communicate its point. Writing, on the other hand, must be structured and concise;
moreover, it must provide a context for an audience that is not part of the environment
but that exists apart from the writer as she is writing. These distinctions between talk
and writing point to the way that writing forces students to become more careful, more
engaged participants in their learning.

How to Use Writing to Learn

So far, we have been discussing why writing is important to the learning process. We've
yet to consider how professors might incorporate writing into their courses.

Typically, write-to-learn exercises are of two types: those that parallel or are part of our
students' reading processes, and those that are part of our students' discovery or
invention processes. We'll look at each in turn.

Write to Improve Reading

Using writing to enhance our students' reading experiences is perhaps the most
common write-to-learn exercise. Professors who use these sorts of exercises typically
have developed them because they understand that students often read texts passively,
simply to glean information. Write to learn exercises, like the ones listed below, insure
that students work closely and carefully with texts:

• Ask students to write in their texts. Students are too often passive readers. If
they are instructed to write in the margins -- where they can challenge or ask
questions of the writer -- the reading process becomes far more active.
 Furthermore, in writing in the margins, students find that there is "room" on the
page for their conversations -- a visual reminder that all texts are part of an
ongoing discussion and are not "the last word" on a given subject.

• Ask students to keep a reading journal, in which they must continuously record
their responses to what they are reading. In journals, students are generally free
to pursue their ideas in any way that they feel is productive for their learning
process. Some professors respond in writing to the journals, seeing them as an
opportunity to engage students in dialogue about the course materials. Other
professors don't read the journals, but simply make note that they've been kept.
In any case, reading journals are particularly effective in encouraging students to
use the writing process to deepen their understanding of the course materials.

• Require students to write personal response essays that are rooted to one
particular passage in the text. These assignments not only encourage students to
write their way towards a more complete understanding of the texts, but they can
also serve as the basis for class discussions. Professor Jim Heffernan discusses
his students' personal response essays in class, making observations both about
the students' ideas and their writing -- noting, for example, when a student has
produced a particularly elegant turn of phrase.

Write to Discover What You Think

Perhaps the most difficult challenge of a student's learning process is coming up with a
response to course content. Students are bewildered by the prospect of coming up with
original responses to the materials they are reading or the lectures they are hearing in
class. Even if they can find a topic that intrigues them, students often don't know how to
transform their interest into an academic question. Once the question is developed, they
are often at a loss as to what position they might take.

Writing can help students to discover interesting questions and to make interesting
responses. Students need to be told that writing isn't just a way of telling, it's a way of
knowing as well: writers often don't know what they think about a particular subject until
they write about it. As E. M. Forster says, "How can I know what I think until I see what I
say?" Even writers who have a good sense of the questions that they intend to pursue
often don't make connections among their ideas until they sit down to write about them.
As C. S. Lewis said about his own writing:

I do not sit at my desk to put into verse something that is already clear in my
mind. If it were clear in my mind, I should have no incentive or need to write about
it, for I am an explorer... When I have discovered the meaning to me of the
various fragments of experience which are constellating in my mind, I have begun
to make sense of such experience and to realize some pattern in it; and often I
have gone some way with the poem before I am able to grasp the theme which
lies hidden in the material that has accumulated. (qtd. in James McCrimmon's
"Writing as a Way of Knowing.")
How does one use writing to get students to discover what it is that they think about a
topic? Some ideas follow:

• Use discovery drafts. Discovery drafts are focused free-writing exercises, in

which students sit down at the computer and allow themselves to "think out loud"
as they write. Discovery drafts are especially useful if students are encountering
ideas in a course that are difficult or foreign to them. Typically, students don't
write well about subjects or in disciplines that they aren't familiar with, and
discovery drafts help students to become familiar with the phrasings and nuances
of difficult or new material.

• Use in-class free-writing assignments. Present students with a topic (or let
them come up with their own) and allot fifteen or twenty minutes of class time to
free-writing. Then use what students have written to guide the class discussion.

• Create writing and research assignments whose chief aim is to make students
discover new ways of thinking about the course materials. For example, you
might, as Professor Tom Luxon does, provide students with a passage from a
text that is full of allusions. Professor Luxon then asks students to go to the library
to track these allusions down. Finally, they write a short paper about how
knowledge of these allusions illuminates the text. Or you might, as Professor Julie
Kalish does, ask students to go to the library or to the Internet to find five facts
relevant to a particular assignment and then to write a short essay about how
these facts have brought students to a new or revised understanding of what
they've read.

• Use blitzmail. Professor Renee Bergland requires students to blitz her and the
class once a week with some response to the course materials. In this way,
students not only write their way to their own individual understandings, but they
also contribute to an ongoing group discovery about the topic at hand.

Example: Professor Marianne Hirsch and Leo Spitzer's "Representing the

Holocaust"

However you use writing to help your students to learn, it's important to note that write-
to-learn exercises work best when the writing is an integral part of the learning
experience of the course. In other words, professors who want their students to write to
learn do not simply assign writing and expect that their students will learn from it; rather,
they find ways to make the students feel that writing is natural, even necessary, to the
course's methods and goals.

One course that manages this aim is Marianne Hirsch and Leo Spitzer's "Representing
the Holocaust" course. While the course's explicit topic is the Holocaust and the way that
historians and others have struggled to represent the Holocaust as historical event, the
implicit premise of the course is that all history is a form of representation. Writing is one
way that history is represented, so it's inevitable that writing would be central to this
course. One of the course's texts, Michael Marrus's The Holocaust in History is a book
about historiography, giving the students a foundation for their exploration of history as
written construct. The course also makes use of memoirs, video testimony,
photographs, and films. This consideration of these various representations of history --
and particularly of the students' own representation of history in their papers -- makes
writing very much a part of what "Representing the Holocaust" is "about."

Beyond the connection between writing and the course material, however, is Professor
Hirsch and Spitzer's strong belief that writing promotes very specific kinds of learning. In
particular, students can discover through writing ideas and responses that will not come
to them while they are listening to a lecture or engaging in class discussion. Moreover,
the Holocaust is an historical event that requires rigorous personal introspection. Writing
allows students to process this event in a personal space, beyond the public space of
the classroom.

In order to make the course "work," then, Professors Hirsch and Spitzer found ways of
making room for their students to process this difficult event. This "room" was found in
both the course journal and the group papers/presentations. A discussion of both
assignments provides an excellent example of how writing might be used to improve our
students' learning experiences.

The Course Journal

The journals that Professors Hirsch and Spitzer assign in their "Representing the
Holocaust" course are not simply another requirement. Rather, journals exist in this
course because it is necessary for them to be there: the journals serve as a "space"
where students can work out the questions they have and the dilemmas they face when
encountering a subject as morally terrifying as the Holocaust. In this way, journals
support the students as they struggle with issues that are complex and irresolvable.
Among these issues: "How can one write about this event when in many ways some of
these experiences are not represent-able?"

The course journal addresses this question. In requiring students to write everyday in
response to the various representations of the Holocaust, Professors Hirsch and Spitzer
bring students to create their own representations of their experiences of a historical
event. This document is ongoing, allowing students to develop a kind of conversation
with the course materials (and with the professors as well). Requiring students to think
and write for every class not only makes students better prepared to participate in class
discussions, it also profoundly engages them with the ideas that drive the course.

Moreover, the course journal provides students with a record of their own learning
experiences. Students can look back through their journals to discover their initial
reactions to a particular text or moment in the course and note how their reactions have
evolved with time. In this way, the journals allow students to monitor their own learning
processes.

The journals also serve as a place where students will discover the questions they wish
to take up in their more formal papers. (The course requires two.) In their journals
students will find which of the course's questions they find most haunting; they will learn
which themes seem to recur; they will discover how their reactions to the course
materials begin to work their way from simple observation to argument; and so on.

Of course, using a course journal presents certain challenges to the professor that need
to be overcome if the assignment is to work effectively:

• First, students often don't understand what is expected of them in the journals.
Professors need to set the limits -- if indeed they have any. In Professors Hirsch
and Sptizer's course, students are permitted to write formally and informally,
about the personal and the public. However, they are also instructed to direct
their journal entries to what they've seen or read -- an instruction that insures that
the assignment will be primarily academic.

• Second, evaluating journals poses a problem. Should professors mark in their

students' journals? Should they grade them? And by what criteria? Professors
Hirsch and Spitzer concur that evaluating journals is "very hard." They don't give
letter grades but use a "check" "check-plus" "check minus" system to evaluate the
work. The criteria for evaluation seem to be how engaged a student is with the
course materials. A superficial reading of the course materials will result in a poor
grade. On the other hand, students who show that they have genuinely and
thoroughly considered the questions posed by the course will be rewarded. As to
whether or not to write in the students' journals: Professors Hirsch and Spitzer do
make written response throughout their students journals, viewing the journals as
an opportunity to enter into more private conversations with their students about
these very difficult issues.

• Finally, the presence of the journal in a course presents professors with additional
reading -- and often a lot of it. Professors Hirsch and Spitzer report that student
journals are generally 30-40 pages long. Still, Professor Hirsch says that these
journals are the only batch of student papers that she consistently looks forward
to reading. In the journals Professors Hirsch and Spitzer report reading "some of
the best student writing" they've encountered at Dartmouth.

The Group Paper and Presentation

The other unusual writing assignment in Professors Hirsch and Spitzer's course is the
group paper. Like the journals, the group paper has a pedagogical "place" in the course,
in that they bring students into small communities in which they can process some of the
questions they've been wrestling with in their journals. Again, because the course
material is difficult, intellectually and emotionally, students need a place in which they
can begin to work through the materials. The small groups help to provide that.

The group paper serves another course goal in allowing the professors to "cover"
material that they don't have time to address in class. For the group paper, the
professors pick a "big topic." Past topics have included non-Jewish victims of the
Holocaust, ghettos, resistance movements, and so on; in the year we spoke with them,
the topic is trials. Professors Hirsch and Spitzer break these topics down, allowing each
student to choose to write, for example, about a different trial. They provide students
with specific guidelines and questions, and then the groups decide for themselves how
to break up the work. Professors Hirsch and Spitzer make themselves available to help
students to find materials. They (or the teaching assistants) also meet with the groups in
x-hours to discuss the groups' progress.

At the end of the group process, there are two products: one is a presentation; the other
is a group paper. Students are allotted 45 minutes for their presentations, many of which
make imaginative use of media. As a cover sheet to the group paper students are asked
to include a short summary of what each group member's contribution was. Every
student gets the same grade on the project, even if work was divided unevenly. This
practice does sometimes lead to complaints, particularly when one group member has
not done his share of the work.

Still, the disadvantages are outweighed by the advantages. Not to be overlooked is the
fact that the group paper assignment relieves the professors from the task of reading
several individual papers. If the final paper for this course were not a group effort,
Professors Hirsch and Spitzer may not be able to devote their time to other aspects of
the course -- in particular, responding to their students' journals. Professors teaching
large courses may want to consider adapting group papers to their own courses as a
way of getting students to write, without placing an impossible strain on the professors'
energies.