Richard Marius' A Writer's Companion, a required text, provides students with a clear and practical discussion of the drafting process and the development of topics. "Think of writing as a process on its way to a product—sometimes painfully," Marius explains, "Don't imagine you must know everything you will say before you begin. Don't demean yourself and insult readers by letting your first draft be your final draft. Don't imagine that writing is easy or that you can do it without spending time on it. And don't let anything get in the way of doing it."
Competent writers in every profession realize that the drafting process leads the writer to think critically about a topic and deeper into familiar topics. and opinions and, through the process, to discover some new insight. In this sense, drafting is the process of thinking on paper or thinking on the keyboard. Even the final copy editing of grammar and punctuation can reveal some new idea that can be worked into a final draft.
Clear and effective writing requires this kind of attention to the details, but it also requires attention to the conventions of English grammar and punctuation. The writer's final draft reveals the writer's use of craft to communicate clearly. John Langan's English Brushup, the course's required workbook, provides students with paced self-instruction and practices in order to develop the student's use of these basic elements of English. Effective grammar enables the writer to communicate complex ideas as clearly as possible. This skill is important since we now seem to drown in communications.The writing course assignments examine the impacts of different communications media on our society and on our individual lives. Anyone will find it difficult, if not impossible, to point out which part of daily life is not influenced by media. There is no question about media's influence, the important questions examine how and why media influences us. The search for answers leads the writer to examine the complexities of the legal, the moral, and the ethical implications of this influence. The complexity of media's influence seems poorly understood by many in our society, and based on my experience, many students are poorly prepared to develop reasonable opinions about the media's relationship with our democracy's citizens, the marketplace, and our republic.
To add some breadth and background reading for my students I post comments and links to news, trade, and journals that I come across in my daily reading. The articles' topics vary from the quality of programming and content, to the business and politics of mass media, to the criticism of mass media. I encourage students, or anyone who has read this far, to post comments and/or links about these stories.
As an adjunct instructor, my courses and course times often change from semester to semester, campus to campus, and this blog serves my students and myself as a focal point, an open and democratic forum about media. Pleas keep your comments reasonable, civil, and intelligent.
Please contact me with any questions you may have regarding my courses.
