Should colleges allow graduate students in fields other than English to teach freshman composition?
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"With all due respect to Vershawn A. Young, I agree that reading about teaching might help a teacher in..."
"Michael Guista seems to think that someone engaged in the practice of writing (and grading writing) is gaining valuable skills in..."
"Douglas Hesse claims there is much research out there..."
"One person interviewed for this article..."
"Amen to Mr. Jackman's response! So many adjunct instructors I have seen (admittedly not all) are extremely dedicated,..."
"I agree with Douglas Hesse that the ability to write is not a sufficient credential for composition instructors..."
"One problem is that other departments frequently do not assign long papers/writing assignments (much less grade for grammar/style)..."
"The bigger question would seem to be whether arguably the most important courses in the academy should be taught by GTAs rather than the most qualified faculty..."
"Freshman composition is a poor substitute for what students really need to become good writers..."
"Even more disturbing than the implication that grad students are weak candidates to teach basic composition..."
"No one seems to see the obvious paradox..."
"We all know how well Ph.d.s in all the liberal-arts disciplines write: the stacks of unread, unwanted academic journals tell you a lot..."
"It's the wrong question. We need not ask who is teaching freshman composition but rather how they are teaching it..."
"The solution to the need for more teachers of freshman composition seems obvious..."
"In response to the article, 'Universities Scramble to Find Teachers of Freshman Composition'..."
"The recent hand-wringing about the quality of freshman comp teaching strikes me as hilarious..."
"Professors from different disciplines have always taught in freshman writing at UIW. This is a positive factor..."
"The real issue has to do with the level of support institutions are willing to offer teachers of composition..."
"I have not yet earned my Ph.D., but I am ready, willing, and able to teach first-year composition. In fact, I enjoy teaching composition..."
"English departments must proceed with caution when assigning the teaching of Composition and Rhetoric to TA's from other disciplines..."
"If universities weren't so cheap and actually hired full-time, tenure track faculty to teach these writing courses,..."
"When full-time English faculty themselves disdain the teaching of composition in favor of literature,..."
"When I was a graduate student in English, I was also a composition instructor. However, my ability to teach composition did not arrive magically with my BA..."
"At the University of Hawaii at Manoa, every tenured and tenure-track literature specialist in the Department of English teaches one section of freshman composition..."
"Who are the best teachers? The discussion centers around this issue..."
"'Look Who's Teaching Freshman Composition,' is another comment on the lack of interest many institutions show in their own students' success..."
"I am involved in teaching the use of computer resources to freshmen..."
"Why not just get real and offer all the composition courses to the cheapest bidders? Just offer an auction each fall, and have anybody with a BA show up..."
"As the director of the University of Illinois composition program discussed in the article..."
"The question is not simply what kind of graduate students should staff our composition courses..."
"Hiring graduate students from disciplines other than English is all to the good as long as these graduate students are competent writers..."
"The comments in the article make it clear that those who are not trained or seeking training in composition pedagogy should not be teaching writing..."
"Not enough teachers for freshman English? Too bad!..."
"Two observations immediately arise upon reviewing the responses that this question has generated..."
"What is striking about most of the comments is that it is assumed that if you can write, you can teach writing..."
"I taught for several years in a public college in New York State. Over that time I taught courses called 'First-Year Seminars' which were not seminars at all..."
"I don't know where David Newquist gets evidence to make his claims about writing professors..."
"The real problem is that freshmen are entering university life unprepared to write at a college level..."
"The point is brought up that not all speakers of a language can teach that language, and that not all good writers can teach writing..."
"It seems to me the answer is to hire those of us with MA's in English,..."
"The field of composition and rhetoric should not abandon first-year writing to whomever we can find around campus to teach the class..."
"After having recently left the friendly confines of graduate assistantships for teaching in the 'real academy,'..."
"Does anyone, especially the author, Ms. Wilson, see the irony (or absurdity)..."
"The proposition could be good and bad. There are many, many good writers who majored in history, journalism, economics,..."
"Rather than hiring graduate students from other fields, English Departments should hire their own former graduate students,..."
"Of course, not all teachers of composition and rhetoric should be drawn from English..."
"Part of the problem in answering the question of who should teach freshman composition is that there continues to be less than consensus on what the goals of freshman composition instruction are..."
"As many of the comments in this colloquy indicate, graduate credits in English or a history of having written well do not necessarily qualify one to teach freshman rhetoric..."
"Many teachers argue that they are qualified to teach bilingual classes because they speak the second language..."
" There seems to be some consistency in the responses so far. The issue is not so much whether the instructor is a doctoral student in English..."
" Writing is not the only field to suffer from academe's increasing tendency to undervalue experiential knowledge..."
" The Chronicle story, "Universities Scramble to Find Teachers of Composition," stresses that a shortage of grad students in English is the primary reason..."
"Using graduate students in other disciplines to teach first-year writing is not intrinsically a bad idea,..."
"From 1987 to 1993, I was in the Linguistics Department at the U of Illinois, Urbana getting a Ph.D. in linguistics..."
"It seems to me the issue isn't who's teaching first year comp as much as what is first year comp?..."
"English Departments with graduate students have already diminished the teaching of composition..."
"I have been in the market for a position as an instructor for several months now..."
"Such a move to allow any graduate assistant to teach writing diminishes the significance of literacy and the discipline..."
"I fully support those who hold that English Ph.D.'s do not hold a monopoly on the ability to teach writing or, for that matter, on the ability to write properly..."
"There has been a tremendous amount of research and theory building in the teaching of writing in the last 40 years. To have people teach freshman writing who are largely unfamiliar with that research..."
"Some in English (and beyond) may lament the use of non-English Ph.D.'s to teach writing courses. However, I think a greater evil is to recruit graduate students for Ph.D. programs..."
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