Within the structure of English departments, there is an on-going struggle between literature and composition. Each branch believes they are the superior subject, though this has me completely baffled. I'm not sure why there is such a war between these two factions; I entered the field of English because I love to read and write, not because I prefer one over the other...unless of course I'm working on a particularly difficult essay, or reading a book that is not my favorite...but even then, I remember that they are two parts of a whole, not two distinct entities.
Peter Elbow's article "The Cultures of Literature and Composition" lays out the argument for us between the camps of literature and composition. There seems to be a safety in structure that comes with teaching literature that goes away as a composition teacher because Elbow explains that a composition class is usually less planned (Elbow 467). There does seem to be a certain amount of vilification of literature professors in Elbow's article when he states that often times, literature professors say things like "'Students have nothing of significance to write about," or "No one could really get intellectually interested in student writing" (467). I'm not sure where these professors teach, but I would not want to be in their classes.
I do not believe Elbow is attempting to start a war, I believe he is just explaining his experience, which is perhaps what makes it more tragic that some people think they should exist in a world without student composition. Where would those people be if they had professors who said the same thing? My guess is not professors of literature. The quote I agree with that Elbow says he has heard is "We can't teach students to write unless we give them models of good writing by good authors to imitate" (467). Here is where we need to look for the solution to the war between the states of English.
We become better writers when we read, so why should a literature class be separate from a composition class?
Most students are required to write in literature classes anyway, and it should be the professor's job to take into account a students proficiency and assist them to a higher level of composition. I've been in literature classes where a professor has taken the time to address how to write better with the students, and it has helped my writing tremendously.
In this video, John Green goes into detail about the importance of reading and writing. Now, for the most part, his video is about reading literature and writing fiction, but he does make several good points about writing in general that I believe can be applied to composition in the classroom.
As the title of the video suggests, John Green talks about how and why we read, and one of the reasons we read, as he states toward the end, is because when we understand the language of writers, we can obtain the skills we need to become better writers. When we read books, no matter the genre, we can see how the authors use language, and we can then in turn mimic it, make it our own, and continue the tradition.
"Writing, or good writing, is an outgrowth of that urge to use language to communicate complex ideas and experiences between people." ~ John Green
At one point in the video, Green says "We privilege reading and writing because they allow us to communicate directly and transparently with people who live very far away from us," and I think this can still be applied to freshman composition; their goal is to communicate with their instructor, their peers, and perhaps a wider audience, and in order to do that, they need to have the skills reading will present them. Books, Green says, are "stories about communication" and we read them to figure out how people in the past communicate. He makes great points about why we have structure in writing so we can understand each other when we speak and when we write. Because of this, reading is always a conversation between the author and the reader, and with composition, the author is the student, and the reader is the instructor; if the student can accurately communicate, they can persuade their instructor that they have obtained the proper skills not just from their learning but from the reading they have done.
I feel strongly that writing and reading should be used together in order to give students the proper skills they need to excel in both areas. Through the dispelling of the idea that one part of the field is above the other, we can strengthen the way composition is taught to students.
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Works Cited:
Elbow, Peter. "The Cultures of Literature and Composition: What Could Each Learn from the Other?." Anthology of Essays. 466-478. Print.
Green, John, perf. How and Why We Read: Crash Course English Literature #1. Stan Muller, prod. Thought Bubble Creative Team. 2012.
