Student Essays and Learning to Lie

[pdlloyd]

A student came into the writing center, distraught over an assignment. The assignment was to write about the most traumatic event of their life and how it had changed them. I suggested that perhaps the teacher would be willing to let the student write an alternate assignment, but the student had already asked, and the instructor had not been

Comments

[eneit]

well done, a brilliant way to help them learn how to write out the bad stuff, without destroying pieces of their own soul in the process.

I remember being asked to write something similar (what event happy or sad, had the most effect on you as a child? Examine those emotions and feelings as a child does.) for an assessment on writing for children. I was an adult but still it was by far the hardest thing I'd ever had to sit and confront - or perhaps, re-confront.

[pdlloyd]

It's always good to find a way to help. Assignments similar to this one are often used by instructors at the community college, but they usually also offer enough flexibility that students don't feel trapped in an assignment that will be, at the very least, terribly painful. I feel very lucky to have found a way to help this student.

[clarentine]

Thumbs up, both for leading the student to seeing the light re writing, and for getting them past their repeat trauma.

[pdlloyd]

Thank you. It was wonderful to see.

[mount_oregano]

When I was coaching kids to take tests for English as a second language, I advised them to lie and even showed them how. That seemed to relax them. For example, if they ask you what your favorite place to visit is, tell them about the place you know best so you can talk about it the easiest, even if you don't like it.

I don't think I created writers, but my students passed the tests.

[pdlloyd]

The idea that writing a personal essay can also be an exercise in fiction can be very freeing.