Better than Pen Pals

Remember pen pals? I do. I was never quite as privileged as some of the other classes at my elementary school to have the opportunity to write and receive letters from a pen pal over seas, but my third grade class was able to write letters with one of the fourth grade classes in our school. In a small way, the exchange with the fourth graders was important to me and important to the development of my writing because it taught me, in a very informal way, how to articulate my ideas to specific audience.

Now, however, my days of pen pal exchange have been replaced by class blogs and discussion boards. I am not complaining, though! Advances in technology have allowed for much more dynamic and interactive ways to learn and write.

Bryant Fillion, in his article Language Across the Curriculum, encourages the study and improvement of language through this type of writing. He argues that “teachers need to reinforce the use of writing as an exploratory learning tool rather than as a medium for teaching correctness” (Sipple 446).

Writing across the curriculum is just the way to do this!

Anne Herrington, in her own article entitled Writing to Learn: Writing across the Disciplines, says that “writing has an integral role to place in any course as a medium for learning and for teaching how to learn. For these goals to be realized, we as teachers must first believe in the value of writing as a discovery process and be willing to commit our efforts to teach this process to our students” (Sipple 448).

Cross-cultural writing has become a means to an end. The idea is that through collaborative analysis of literature and the opportunity to respond in writing by way of a discussion board the student will experience growth in their writing that begins “in the expressive and then moves outward from the self along a continuum toward either the transactional or the poetic” (Sipple 447).

Certainly there are more ways than one for teachers to accomplish the daunting task of engaging their students in the study of language and literature. Writing across the curriculum is simply one way.

Over the course of my experience as a student at Clemson, I have had the wonderful opportunity to be involved in two different Writing Across the Curriculum programs; both under the direction of Dr. Art Young, Professor of Victorian/British Literature and Poetry. One thing I have always appreciated about Dr. Young’s classes is the diversity of his assignments. We have been assigned to do anything from creative and critical projects, journals and personal poetry assignments, to quick sketches drawn in class in response to selected readings. His class is anything but routine, and I have always appreciated the opportunity to articulate myself not only in the world of academia but also to explore the world of literature and poetry in more creative and expressive ways.

As an undergraduate, I took Dr. Young’s course on Victorian Literature. Through this course, I had the opportunity to collaborate with students at Chalmers in Sweden through the form of an on-line discussion board. Through contact over the computer, we submitted reflections and responses on a number of Swedish poems we had been assigned to read. The interesting aspect of this particular assignment was beginning to understand how language affects interpretation and, thus, affects personal writing. The poems the American students read were poems that had been translated to English by three different individuals. It was interesting to see how language played a huge part not only in each translation of the poem but also in each of our individual interpretations of those translations. The Swedish students often had different insight into the tones, meanings, etc., of the poems simply because they were able to read the poems in the original language. I made the following comment in reference to a particular poem we had been assigned to read and in response to my groupmate’s interpretations of that poem:

In reading over everyone’s responses, I found it interesting the poems that appealed to each of you. To be honest, I chose to play it safe and focus on Tranströmer’s poem “Track[s]” because I thought it was one of the easier poems to understand. It was neat to read Carl’s response in light of my own. I had made the comment that I had typically been drawn more to the translations provided by Robert Bly. I said that his wording and phrasing seemed to come more naturally than the others did, and the poems generally seemed to make more sense (to me) in the context he wrote them in. Carl mentioned that though Bly does use the “most accurate translations”, his wording provides “sharper” terms whereas Swenson’s were “more accurate in a poetical sense.” His background understanding of the language really helps to give insight into the meaning and phrasing of the poems.

As in this example, writing across the curriculum can allow, in ways, for a greater study of language and can highlight to role collaboration plays in the understanding of language.

This semester I took Victorian Poetry under Dr. Young. The interaction with the students at Chalmers was a little different than the interaction I experienced before as an undergraduate. This time our discussions centered on poetry that was familiar and in our own language. Nevertheless, it was just as interesting to read everyone’s personal takes on the poems.

Honestly though, I am always extra curious about the opinions of those outside of my own culture. In looking back over some of my groupmate’s responses and my own (which I included in the sample section of my blog), it is interesting to see how the collaboration over the discussion board provided for an interactive way to learn from and relate to one another. The literature served as a kind of commonality that we shared for a time that, as we drew from it, enabled us to create and share our own identities and ideas. Through the writing across the curriculum discussion board, an atmosphere was created that enabled us to make new breakthroughs concerning our own personal writing, opening our eyes to the literature’s and language’s potential to teach, to grow, and to stretch our understanding of meaning.

Ultimately, in the process of gaining knowledge whether it is through exploring literature, developing our own creative or critical writings, or making life decisions, collaboration is crucial. Without the opportunity to partner with others to dialog our ideas, our personal views are limited, narrow, and unchallenged. The challenge through discourse with one another allows for revision and growth on so many levels—intellectually (academically), practically (professionally); even emotionally (personally). The reading and writing I was required to do for the on-line exchange certainly allowed me to value literature and evaluate my own writing more completely and on a broader (more cultural) scale.

As I approach the next school year and have the opportunity to teach at the undergraduate level, I hope to incorporate the things I have learned and appreciated about these particular opportunities into my own teaching philosophy and practice.

Works Cited
Jo-Ann M. Sipple, "A Planning for Building Writing-across-the-Curriculum Porgrams to Last." The Journal of Higher Education 60.4 (1989): 444-457.

Works Consulted
Art Young, "Writing Across and Against the Curriculum." College Composition and Communication 54.3 (2003): 472-485.

Fulwiler, T., and A. Young (eds.). Language Connections: Reading and Writing Across the Curriculum. Urbana, Ill.: NCTE, 1982.