Recommendations for Students

Three Golden Rules: What SBCC Faculty Want from Student Writers
Is it possible to boil down the almost 100 pages of faculty responses to 3 main suggestions for writing better? Yes and no. Instructor comments are wide-ranging and vary to a significant degree by discipline. Anyone interested in getting a fuller view of faculty attitudes toward writing at SBCC would do well to read the body of this document in its entirety.

Nevertheless, there are three key pieces of writing advice that seem to cut across all disciplines. Nearly all Santa Barbara City College instructors would tell their students: 1) be clear, 2) address your audience, and 3) stay on task.

Rule #1: Be clear.
“I see but one rule: to be clear,” Stendhal wrote to Balzac. “If I am not clear, all my world crumbles to nothing.” What do two nineteenth-century French novelists have to do with twenty-first century writing at Santa Barbara City College? Apparently quite a lot. By far and away, the main piece of advice from City College professors to their students is be clear. Here is just a sampling of their comments:

Your writing should be simple, clear, direct and logical. Skip the fancy and multi-syllabic terms unless they convey a very specific and necessary meaning. Flowers are lovely, but save them for a loved one.
-- Peter Haslund, Global Studies

Learn how to write in a way that clearly explains an event, is understandable to any person reading it, and is free from errors.
--Anne Redding, Administration of Justice

The goal of the design brief is to outline the company's needs, target audiences, and client's expectations as clearly as possible.
--Liz Russoti, Graphic Arts

Learn to be concise, clear, provocative, and document evidence that supports your point.
-- Adam Green, Environmental Studies

Write straightforward simple sentences that are clear and precise.
--Sue Willner, Health Information Technologies

Write clearly and simply.
-- David Morris, History

Write so you cannot possibly be misunderstood.
--Margaret Cole Broughton, English Skills & COMAP

Radiographic and Imaging Sciences Professors believe students should “know how to spell and write clearly.” The Mathematics professors quote Mathematician David Hilbert: “A mathematical theory is not to be considered complete until you have made it so clear that you can explain it to the first man whom you meet on the street.” And Adam Green, reminds us that Why Not Say It Clearly? is the title of a book about writing in the sciences. Even instructors in disciplines that might not be known for their love of straightforward and transparent writing, advise students to write clearly. Philosophers Marc Bobro and Jim Chesher tell us, “Despite popular belief to the contrary, clarity of expression is fundamental to good philosophy.” The breadth of subjects covered in these few comments emphasize the importance of precise and articulate student writing. Students who write clearly have an excellent chance of succeeding at Santa Barbara City College.

“Ambiguity is unacceptable,” says Marine Diving Technology Professor Geoff Thielst, and many of his colleagues at SBCC would agree. This is not to say, however, that ambiguity is never allowed or encouraged in college writing. In Literature or Creative Writing classes, for instance, a story with an ambiguous ending may be preferable to one that has only a single interpretation. Yet creative writers cherish clarity far more than most students might think: the ambiguity they appreciate is nearly always intentional. It is, in short, the product of clear thinking, which is a prerequisite for clear writing. Writers who understand their material are able to write about it succinctly and accurately.

Writing well requires writers to master style as well as content. Journalism Professor Patricia Stark tells us that “journalistic style focuses on active writing (active voice, active verbs), clarity and conciseness. Journalists believe that verbs drive sentences, and we use short sentences and paragraphs to add impact and power to our writing.” And Business Administration Professor Bonnie Chavez notes: “Each discipline requires the development of unique documents. Nonetheless it is essential that successful writing exhibit solid writing mechanics, sound reasoning, appropriate documentation, and critical analysis.”

Professors Stark and Chavez’s emphasis on “active writing” and solid mechanics brings up another important point: good grammar and mechanics are essential to achieve clarity. You can’t be clear if you aren’t using language correctly. Time and again, SBCC professors stress that both instructors and future employers will judge you by your writing. Gordon Coburn says that if an employee’s “sentence structure does not reflect her expertise, she will probably not advance very quickly.” Anne Redding says, even more bluntly: “Bad writing doesn’t make you stupid; it just makes you look stupid.”

Use of standard grammar and mechanics appear to be equally important in every field, from Nursing--“ Proper grammar and spelling are very important”--to Early Childhood Education--“Spelling does matter”--to Accounting--“ Accounting employers continually state that they hope college graduates possess excellent oral and written communication skills”--to Automotive Service and Technology--“Have someone proof your work, use spell check, be neat and professional. Capitalize and use punctuation.”

The National Council of Teachers of English agrees that surface correctness does matter when writers are submitting a final product: “Conventions of finished and edited texts are important to readers and therefore to writers.” In short, instructors aren’t asking students to follow the rules of grammar because they want to torture them, but because good grammar is necessary for good writing.

Rule #2: Address Your Audience.
From the time of Aristotle onward, writers and speakers have been encouraged to think carefully about how they present themselves to their audience. Addressing your audience in writing means knowing who your readers are. An English instructor who assigns a self-reflective essay on a meaningful life experience does not want to receive a terse list of bulleted items. And a chemistry professor asking for a lab report really doesn’t care how a student feels about the thermodynamic quantities of chemical reactions. You ignore your professor’s expectations at your own peril.

This guidebook is being created as Santa Barbara City College prepares for its ten-year accreditation visit from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. Among the proposed Institutional Student Learning Outcomes is one for Communication. In an early draft form, that ISLO states that “all graduates are expected to demonstrate achievement” that goes “beyond simple content mastery” in Communication, which is defined as “the ability to read, write, speak, listen, and use nonverbal skills effectively with different audiences.” Each of the Communication skills also requires the writer (or speaker) to not only specifically address his or her audience, but also to modify the communication based on how the reader/auditor responds.

Two questions on the Writing in Your Field form ask instructors to identify specific audiences for writing by students in the discipline and writing by those who choose the discipline as a career. The very fact that the responses to these prompts are so diverse proves how many potential audiences there are for a piece of writing. Even when they are still in college, student writers may be writing for audiences as varied as trainers at clinical sites (Alcohol and Drug Counseling, Radiographic and Imaging Sciences) to potential editors at an academic journal (Communication) to parents of young children (Early Childhood Education) to SBCC students and faculty (Honors Conference, Journalism).

In class the primary audience is nearly always the instructor, yet even within a single discipline, different instructors may have widely varying expectations. In English, for instance, some instructors want their students to follow a set structure: thesis, topic sentence, support. Other instructors find such formulas too constraining and argue, instead, for a more creative approach to expository writing. The important thing to remember is that neither type of instructor is wrong: they are only different in their expectations. The variety of expectations means that students must always be attentive to audience.

Of course, students frequently complain not only about these shifting expectations, but also that their assignments don’t matter to them personally, and, therefore, that they cannot generate sufficient interest to write about their topics. That’s a genuine problem, but English Professor and Honors Program Coordinator Melanie Eckford-Prossor has some good advice: “Make your writing matter to you and it will matter to your audience.”

Again, it’s important to practice addressing different audiences in college because once you leave school and enter the workplace, the demands of audience become even greater and more varied. Employees who write frequently must keep those different audiences in mind. Depending on their career, workers may find the audiences for their writing either very small and specialized--as in the case of a nuclear physicist--or vast and diverse--a journalist writing for a mass circulation magazine or popular Website. And just about any job will have multiple audiences for writing. Someone working as an insurance company claims adjuster, for instance, might--within the span of an hour--type a formal report to his boss, send off an informal email to a colleague, write a stern letter to one client and a sympathetic letter to another. Like it or not, our audiences shift with each new writing task, and the successful worker adapts to each of those changes.

Rule #3: Stay on Task.
If addressing your audience means knowing who your readers are, staying on task means knowing what your readers want from the document you are producing. “Consider carefully your audience and purpose,” English Professor Barbara Bell says, reminding us that audience and purpose, are, indeed, closely connected. If you forget whom you’re writing to, there’s a good chance you’ve also forgotten why you were writing to them in the first place. “I went off on a tangent,” students often remark when their writing goes astray. Or: “My essay doesn’t flow.” Frequently, these complaints arise because the student writer did not stay on task.

Marine Diving Technologies Professor Geoff Thielst recommends: “Read and follow the instructor’s directions.” And Gerry Lewin and Janet Shapiro from DSPS urge students to “be sure the purpose of writing is dealt with adeptly.” Every writing assignment you receive has parameters, and staying within those boundaries will not only help you improve your grade, it will also save you from wasting time and energy. Most instructors give students general guidelines about the length and purpose of an assignment, but the more specific the instructions, the closer you should follow them. When given a writing prompt, the successful student does exactly what is required for that particular assignment. If the requirements are unclear, the student should talk with her professor and ask to see models, if they are available.

The leadership provided by Vice-President Jack Friedlander and the Director of the Faculty Resource Center, Mark Ferrer, has convinced many SBCC faculty members that the best way to get students to stay on task is to be as explicit as possible in stating the goals of a writing assignment. Here, the value of Student Learning Outcome statements and grading rubrics quickly become apparent. Rubrics and checklists aid both students and instructors in adhering to the specific expectations of a writing task.

These expectations can be many. The Writing in Your Field form asks instructors to name particular types of assignments given in class, and, once more, the variety of responses is overwhelming. Virtually every contributor to this book acknowledges that, from journal articles, lesson plans, and proposals, to contracts, lab reports, business letters, and more, each discipline has a variety of very specific “genres” of writing that require a writer to accomplish very specific tasks. The National Council of Teachers of English reminds us that “Writing is not just one thing. It varies in form, structure, and production process according to its audience and purpose.” Your professors understand this. Yes, they want you to be clear, to address your audience and to stay on task, but aside from those three common goals, there is a world of difference awaiting City College students as they move from class to class and discipline to discipline.

Two Ways to Improve as a Writer: Write and Read
How can students, especially those who are struggling with the writing process, get to the point where employing these three golden rules comes naturally? SBCC faculty members have two main suggestions, and those suggestions are supported by research from the National Council of Teachers of English.

Write, Write, Write
At the invitation of the Faculty Development Committee, nationally recognized Writing Across the Curriculum expert Kathleen Blake Yancey spoke to SBCC faculty at the Spring 2007 in-service. Dr. Yancey emphasized that two there are two main factors associated with writing well: frequency and self-assessment. Writing is a process. You learn to write better by writing a lot and looking at what you’ve written to see how you can do it better. Then you go back and do it again.

According to NCTE, “As is the case with many other things people do, getting better at writing requires doing it—a lot. This means actual writing, not merely listening to lectures about writing, doing grammar drills, or discussing readings. The more people write, the easier it gets and the more they are motivated to do it. Writers who write a lot learn more about the process because they have had more experience inside it.”

City College faculty have much to say on this subject:

I would recommend that students get into the habit of practicing writing—just like anything else, the more you do it, the better you get … and probably the more you’ll like it.
--Jill Stein, Sociology

Put the time in and revise.
--Kathy O’Connor, Physical Education

I advise students to develop their written voices by writing as much as they can on a daily basis.
--Gordon Coburn, Alcohol and Drug Counseling

There are no finished papers. There are final deadlines.
--Ayanna Yonemura, Ethnic Studies

No one is born knowing how to write, and there is no substitute for practice. When students are having difficulty, I advise that they work together in pairs.
--Peter Haslund, Global Studies

The Spanish faculty advises students “be patient and write many drafts.” Mathematics professor Peter Rojas quotes the Roman writer Marcus Fabrius Quintilianus: “Write quickly and you will never write well. Write well and you will soon write.” Health Information Technologies Professor Sue Willner quotes E. L. Doctorow: “Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go.”

Philosophy Professor Jim Chesher tells this instructive anecdote:
"I was doing a classroom observation of a history instructor. During his lecture, the teacher projected on the screen a copy of a draft of the Declaration of Independence, complete with scratch-outs, marginal comments, etc. At a glance, it was clear that one of the finest pieces of writing ever penned, by one of the finest writers, was subjected to proofreading, peer review, and revision. Students cannot expect to improve their writing skills if they do not develop the habit of critical review and revision."

Becoming a better writer means learning that writing is a process. It doesn’t always happen quickly. It takes time and thought, trial and error. Practice and revise. Revise and practice some more.

Read, Read, Read
“Writing and reading are related,” the National Council of Teachers of English tell us. “In order to write a particular kind of text, it helps if the writer has read that kind of text. In order to take on a particular style of language, the writer needs to have read that language, to have heard it in her mind, so that she can hear it again in order to compose it.” The more we read, the better our writing is likely to be, especially if we regularly practice writing along with doing that reading.

SBCC professors heartily embraced this belief. Accounting Professor Michael Kulper says, “READ business publications, and PRACTICE writing!” Ayanna Yonnemura advises students: “Read a lot.” “Read more!” say members of the Art department. The Hospitality and Culinary Arts faculty believe students should “read good books.” After suggesting that students “write often,” Communication Professor Darin Garard adds: “read often.” “Read, read read!” counsels Marcia Warrecker of English Skills. And History Professor David Morris suggested that I follow this writing across the curriculum project with a similar one on “reading across the curriculum.”

Nicole Biergiel of the Writing Center sums it up well: “The best way to become a better writer is to read and write a lot! Students should think of the reading assignments for all of their courses as examples of different styles of writing that they could emulate.”

A Few More Words of Advice
• Think of writing as an opportunity to learn rather than as simply a task to complete. There is plentiful evidence to show that one of the best ways to learn about a subject is to write about. The writing you have to do for your classes is not busywork: it’s part of your education. In the words of Writing Center LTA Lisa Danhi: “Writing is more than an assessment measure; it is a tool for active critical thinking and a vehicle to explore course content and its connection to other disciplines, learning goals, and the wider world.”

• Know your professor. Different professors in different disciplines have different preferences when it comes to writing. Find out what your professor wants before you turn in your assignment for a grade.

• Visit the Writing Center. See Appendix 1 below for suggestions about what to do before, during and after visiting the Writing Center.

• If you’re off-campus, make use of the Writing Center’s OWL (Online Writing Library): You can access additional writing websites and the Writing Center’s own printable handouts at the OWL (Online Writing Library) at http://www.sbcc.edu/learningresources/Website/WL/OWL.htm. Instructors may make general inquires regarding Writing Center policies or procedures by emailing writingcenter@sbcc.edu.

• Use your Brief Penguin Handbook. English instructors may not always assign work from the Handbook, but they do expect that students will refer to it on their own. The Handbook is especially useful for questions about documentation. You may also consult the book’s Website at http://wps.ablongman.com/long_faigley_penguinhb_2/