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| Discovering What's Left Out |
| Now I have a good opportunity to make a crucial discovery: what have I left out of my argument that needs to be in it? I have the major argument of my essay, a sense of the overall design, and some usable language, but I still have the nagging feeling that I can't quite get at the heart of the question of a competency exam. I need to look at the "other side" before I make my outline, not only for perspective, but because if I do so now, I'll have time to integrate whatever I discover. This is much more efficient than rearranging, as any writer knows who has discovered a useful or crucial point too late in the writing process. What would the little world of Shakespeare College of the Communicable Arts be like with a competency exam? Aside from the practical problems of administering a test, and forgetting for the moment any philosophical debate about its wisdom, there are, after all, precedents in other areas, such as computer science and swimming. The swimming test is something everyone who graduates from SCCA must pass: up and back the length of the pool. Writing is every bit as important in the modern world as computer skills, although probably not as important as swimming. Dedicated teachers of writing should jump at the chance to reenforce what they do by requiring that students pass a test. Besides, wouldn't it raise the level of literacy throughout the college, and raise the reputation of Shakespeare College at the same time? Why don't more schools, especially the so-called "elite" schools, have a competency exam? We could be in the forefront. Harvard would follow us! A competency exam would put old Shakespeare on the map. We would be known as the school that demanded and got a minimal standard of writing from its students. I'm not convinced by making a case for the other side, but I am disturbed. Why shouldn't we try it? What harm would it do? But writing is not like swimming or computer skills. For one thing, it is not a life and death matter; people get along without writing easily and well, and society trundles along with a mostly mute citizenry while still managing to put a man on the moon and lower interest rates. Moreover, writing does not lend itself easily to incremental learning; and there isn't any program tailored specifically to the kind of learning writing does require. Swimming saves lives; computers get bills out faster. Writing doesn't have an easily achieved, demonstrable payoff. It's not surprising, then, that people are interested in cutting losses: if you can't write, at least learn how to spell. And even that futile goal is unrealizable. The truth is, you can't make people write well unless you provide a supportive learning environment over time. No exam has ever created that. Fear, panic, and anxiety do not create a good writer; instead, they discourage risk, and prevent people from tapping their deepest resources and sharing them with readers. The real problem with a competency exam is that it would work against the goal of competent writing, intimidating both students and teachers, rather than invigorating the learning process. A self-paced course in statistics, with good tutors available, is a workable endeavor. But writing is an unfolding process in which practice is linked to the discovery of meaning, and the motivation to reach an audience. Students will not learn to find their own voice for an exam. Teachers will not support students in attempting new, risky kinds of thinking and writing if they are to be judged on how well their students perform on an exam. Teaching people to swim once up and back the length of the pool is a marvelous goal; and students will find computer skills useful in their work lives, and in their personal lives. But writing requires nurturing, patience, honesty, and wisdom. Some people will not write clearly or powerfully without a great deal of help and support. A competency exam completely misses the goal for teaching writing, and will consume everyone's best energies at a time when resources are dangerously scarce. The exam undercuts the very goal it is intended to achieve. Adding an Although-clause to the Thesis Now I feel better. That was the insight, the piece of structure that was missing from my argument, showing that the appeal of the competency exam (bringing everyone up to a standard writing level) is not only illusory but self-defeating. If I incorporate this insight into my thesis: Although the idea of a writing competency exam is appealing on the surface as a way of strengthening a basic skill, such an exam would be self-defeating because . . . then there are two benefits for my paper. First, I'll have the opportunity to refute the major argument for such an exam. Second, in doing so, I gain a structural benefit as well, linking my opening thesis statement to my conclusion, where I'll suggest a better way to strengthen students' writing skills while urging writing teachers and others across the curriculum to help. By taking a look at the "other side," I have clarified my own view, and forced my conclusion on the whole question out into the open. (When we integrate the QUICK WRITING PROCESS system in Chapter 8, it will make sense to include an although-clause in the original provisional thesis.) Although it has taken some thirty pages to explain each of the QUICK WRITING PROCESS decisions so far, I actually have used less than half the time allotted for the whole project in my timetable. Much of what I have written here for the reader takes place in the conscious writer's mind: assessing the relationship between writer and reader; devising a thesis; and analyzing possible material for the raw draft. Actual writing time and energy is devoted to what matters most: the spontaneous because-clauses that provide the material, the language, the explanations, and the passion for the whole project. Now I can weave ideas I have selected from my because-clauses into the main strands of thought by combining, connecting, and rearranging them into the persuasive order of a quick argument-outline. |
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