Identify where you think students may fail in an assignment in your syllabus, and how you will use that at a teachable moment by design.

In my syllabus, I included some reasonable assignments that I believe FYC students should grasp the concept of without much trouble, such as daily quizzes and readings, a weekly blog, a group multimedia project, peer critiques, and a rhetorical analysis. The one assignment that I believe would be out of an FYC student’s norm is the emulation paper:

Emulation Paper: Students will analyze two small passages of prose (posted on Blackboard) and compose their own creative passages that emulate each original author’s style. In addition, students will turn in a one-page reflection for each emulation discussing (1) specific written mannerisms or choices they see the author making and (2) how these choices contribute to the author’s argument and style.

I have taken this assignment from one of my undergraduate grammar classes. We were given a passage of Hemingway’s and another of Mary Oliver’s. This assignment caused me to not only analyze a work, but to dissect it. In my mind, this is a valuable exercise that liberates students temporarily from the pressure of finding their own style; rather, they can try out other techniques that they might have otherwise been afraid of using. I think that Hemingway is a useful author to assign because students do not have to be intimidated by a large vocabulary. His style is simple, but distinctive. Oliver would be a more difficult author for basic writers to emulate, but she provides more opportunity for more creative students to indulge in a new writing style.

I see various things that would confuse a student and perhaps cause him/her to stumble. First of all, FYC students have been taught to be very concerned about plagiarism. I think there could be some confusion about what it means to “emulate” an author without copying their work. We would have extensive discussion about this problem in class, looking at several examples of emulations and dissecting what the emulator did in their own writing to mirror the original author’s. This assignment emphasizes the importance of grammar in writing, showing how form shapes content. I think this could also be a point of confusion for some students, as many writers do not adhere to standard grammar. This makes students examine the purpose behind an author’s usage of such grammar, though. We would discuss reasons for particular phrasing, pacing, vocabulary choices, etc. Lastly, I think that students might be intimidated by having to come up with their own creative pieces.

I am not sure that basic writers would be able to succeed in this assignment, strictly because they must succeed at two things: Writing a cohesive section of their own creative writing prose and doing it in the style of someone else. I believe it is a valuable experience regardless, because students will be confronted with the role of form in one’s writing. Oftentimes, students cannot get past the fact that they are not “good” at grammar, and they do not comprehend that grammar is not meant to be a rule book. It is meant to help us convey exactly what we wish to convey, and there is a stark difference between those two purposes.