Blog Prompt #1

This week, please read the pdf "What Happens When Basic Writers come to College?"  It can be found under the "Handouts and Readings" Section of our Moodle page (Box 3).  Here are the discussion questions, please answer each question with a full paragraph.  Refer to the Moodle Book on Blogging Instructions for information about due dates and grading policies.

Also, we will be chatting about this in class some, so you may want to keep a printed copy of the pdf in your notebook or organizer.  This applies to all readings we will do.  (Most readings will be from your books, though).

#1  Discussion questions for “What Happens when Basic Writers come to College?” by Patricia Bizzell

1)       Bizzell focuses a lot on world views of entering college students and seems to think it is a very important part of how they will develop as writers.  She writes, “If with great effort students can acquire the academic world view without having to give up their original world views, we do not know what benefits might motivate the effort, although there is some evidence that such benefits exist (see Patterson, Hoggart)”.  What sort of benefits could there be to drafting your papers with your own world view leading your thought processes?

2)      Bizzell claims that in the process of receiving a college education, “The student is asked to take a certain distance on all of his or her Commitments, to weigh them against alternatives, and to give allegiance only as a result of a careful deliberative process. In this sense, the academic world view cannot coexist peacefully with another world view in which standards for commitment are different”.  To what extent is she right, and to what extent can you argue that students can keep their original world views intact during and after education, sort of “play both fields”?