Teaching Writing That Works: A Group Approach to Practical English

by Eric S. Rabkin

Book Overview

Expressing ourselves well in written communication is important to many areas of our lives, and essential in the working world. Many courses that seek to prepare students for professional writing, however, overlook the fact that most real-world writing is produced by and for people working within groups. Teaching Writing That Works offers composition instructors an alternative to the conventional composition course in which one individual (a student)...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0472064436
• ISBN13: 9780472064434
• Release Date: January 1990
• Publisher: University of Michigan Press
• Length: 218 Pages
• Weight: 0.72 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Teaching Writing That Works

The result of Rabkin and Smith's inovative, nonhierarcical approach to composition learning is Practical English, a course devveloped at the University of Michigan. In this successful and popular course, the choice and execution of writing tasks are the responsibility of students working together in groups rather than working alone as individuals. The crucial rhetorical issues of audience and purpose are focused by having students use their writing to do real work, both within the classroom and beyond it. The writing that evolves from this collaboration is then edited and evaluated by the group. In this emphasis on students' authority over the responsibility of the learning process, Teaching Writing That Works reflects current pedagogical concerns and philosophy. ---excerpt from book's back cover