Theorizing the Relationship Between Teachers and Student Writers

8/8/2019 Theorizing the Relationship Between Teachers and Student Writers

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Ryan Griffin

Fall 2010

Theorizing the Relationship Between Teachers and Student Writers

Writing is, at its core, an act of communication which establishes a relationship between

the writer and his/her audience. And this relationship, like any other, needs to be nurtured and

strengthened in order to be meaningful. If a students personal investment in the writing

process does not feel equal to the teachers investment in the reading and responding process,

then the meaningfulness of the communication will dissipate, causing the text to lose its value

and the student to lose his/her desire to develop more fully as a writer. The ideal relationship

between a student writer and a teacher, I believe, requires proportionate effort on the part of

both student and teacher so that the feelings of value correspond to one another on the same

level. In other words, the audience needs to see eye to the eye with the writer in order for any

meaningful encouragement or criticism to take place, and the teacher/student dynamic must

be one of mutual investment and a shared desire for improvement and success.

Id always thought of myself as a writer, but it wasnt until an American Lit course my

junior year of college that a teacher consciously and critically took my writing as seriously as I

did. His responses to my essays were not marked by cheap compliments and trivial

recommendations; he gave me the sense that he cared to help me improve myself as a writer

and wanted to be a resource for me during the writing process itself. I remember feeling

empowered because of the fact that his primary purpose as an educator did not seem to be

slapping me with a final grade which only evaluated my product. He communicated a desire to

conscientiously share his expertise with me in order to help me develop that product, and our


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mutual goal for that product was authentic, meaningful writing that fulfilled the expectations

for whatever assignment I happened to be completing. From the first response he returned to

me on my initial rough draft, I knew that he was as serious an audience as I was a writer. His

comments to me were so thorough and his compliments so specific that I was thirsty for his

actual criticism, which was given candidly and was, though cutting, ultimately encouraging.

Since his class, Ive made tremendous steps in terms of my formal and informal writing. My

voice has grown stronger, and my confidence in my abilities has increased ten-fold.

The most meaningful aspect of the writer/audience relationship was that he was

basically by my side as an encouragement from the beginning. Up until that point, most of my

teachers appeared at the end of the process and only responded to my writing in what felt like

an attempt to justify their grading process. This is a practice which assumes that students will

improve as writers each semester based upon a one-time evaluation grade, but I know in my

own case it didnt do anything but diminish my sense of an audience who cared as much as I

did, and I rarely took any of the comments I was given to heart. In light of this, I want, first and

foremost, to be a coach rather than a critic. I understand that there are times for a teacher to

stamp a grade on a final essay or project, but I intend to use this power as little as possible and

try to focus, rather, on consistently acting as a guide to my students as they work and rework

and rework until they have something that we both can feel proud of, something that

empowers them and satisfies my standards of what the text should achieve. I believe that

teaching writing requires an intense preoccupation with the writingprocess and little to do with

evaluating a finishedproduct, if there even is such a thing.


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In terms of how this relationship actually affects the process, I believe that a major role

of the teacher should be to help students find their authentic voices and to give them the tools

they need in order to communicate their ideas with clarity and strength. What this means

depends a lot upon each respective writing assignment. Regardless of the differing

expectations regarding form and genre, however, there are certain qualities of good writing

that teachers should focus on and other elements that are maybe not quite so important. For

example, I dont believe it does very much good to dwell on stylistic errors. I think that it can

be helpful to note if there is awkward phrasing or incorrect grammar, but this type of criticism

should be more of an afterthought compared to the more substantial elements of structure and

voice. A students style will inevitably improve the more than they read and the more they

practice their own writing, and I think it can be a waste of time to nit-pick over elements which

seem superficial by comparison.

The real responses that student writers need revolve around the relative expectations of

the differing assignments. Does this text accomplish the intellectual task that was requested of

it? Has the writer achieved an authentic voice given the relative range of the prompt? Does

this voice communicate ideas clearly and with strength? Is the text focused and structured in a

way that is coherent and accessible to readers? These are some of the specific questions that

teachers need to address across prompts and genres because they transcend specific

assignments and address the good writing as a skill to be practiced and a craft to be perfected.

Most importantly, though, we need to interact with the ideas themselves. Structure

and voice are important in developing the skill of writing, but they will feel empty if the

students actual ideas are not taken seriously or responded to. Again, the degree of this is


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relative to the specifics of the assignment. But ultimately, we need to address our students

ideas with respect and encouragement because we have to understand the fact that writing is a

representation of identity. Writing is never impersonal. If writing is a communication between

the writer and the audience, the meaningfulness of that relationship is based upon the concept

of sharing oneself with another. It does not matter how badly a text is written; the teacher has

a responsibility to give positive feedback in a spirit of compassion and empathy because these

texts do not exist in isolation. Student writing, and all writing, is, without fail, a representation

of identity. That is why so many young writers are uncomfortable with writing and writing

confidently. Because it makes them feel vulnerable. As teachers, we must respond to each text

with the understanding that the words themselves are representations of authentic human

beings, and that if we want to nurture them as growing writers and individuals, we must treat

them with the encouragement and respect we would have if it were an intimate, confessional

type of setting. If we can achieve this, our positive comments will be valued and our negative

comments will be thoughtfully considered. If we can learn to see our students in their words,

we can look them in the eye and thoughtfully share our expertise in a way that expresses

appreciation and benevolence.

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Theorizing the Relationship Between Teachers and Student Writers