Q&R 4: Do you think that the “rules for revising” affect the students in a positive or negative way? How about both?
Throughout our experience with writing, we are taught how to write a certain way. We are told what we can write and what we shouldn’t write and that we should look for the “shouldn’t” in other students papers. Some examples of the rules are “Never begin a sentence with a conjunction” or “Never end a sentence with a preposition” (383). However, these rules are “teacher-based” because they want their students to write in the way they prefer for the students to write in. These rules are then transferred to the students in order for them to write good papers and correct their fellow classmates’ essays. Unfortunately, the rules can affect the students in their essays because sometimes they “decide that they have not violated any of the rules for revising” (383). When students decide this, they are no longer prone to go back and revise their essays or let other students revise because they think that they did everything write. This is certainly a downfall for the reason that the students start feeling no need for revision because they think of themselves as good writers. I think that the rules for revising can affect a student in both ways, mostly because I’ve had experience with this. I remember that in junior high my English teacher would specify certain things he didn’t want to see in our essays, not necessarily because it was wrong, but because he didn’t approve of them. This really helped me when I was revising my classmates because I would look for those “certain things” that my teacher didn’t want to see and comment on their papers to be careful next time. However, these teacher based rules can limit a student’s writing and it can make it more complicated for students who are already struggling with essays.
By: Denise
I strongly agree with what you said. Rules for revising can affect students in both ways. It is okay to learn the rules and all of that teachers have taught us, the only thing that may not be good is that we have been limited to work only the minimum by doing that. It is easier to just correct some grammar errors than to structure the whole essay. It is not only the teacher's fault but student's too. And that is a shame because it becomes so difficult when it comes to the sophisticated writings and readings we have to do in college.
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