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01/19/2004 Archived Entry: "20 most common errors"

My professional listserv is at it again. Advice on the Most Common Grammar Errors is circulating, and we've been directed to Andrea Lunsford's Online list (taken from her handbook). From missing commas to the it/it's distinction, Lunsford covers 'em all, for sure. What a nice way to reduce writing to "error." But hey, error is contagious. What about the 20 Most Common Errors members of my professional listserv make regarding composition? I'll just list a few:

  • Argument should always result in agreement (the "Can't we just get along?" model)
  • Argument should be fair (hey guys! no yelling!)
  • The more general the advice, the better it is (see the WPA Resource book: "Make sure you have a plan")
  • If you don't know how to do something (prepare a syllabus, write a report, find the bus to work), email the listserv.
  • If you have a one or two word response to an email ("yes" "right" "good job" "congratulations"), you should email the entire listserv
  • When someone says "Respond off list, please," you should just go ahead and respond to the whole list.
  • The only correct political viewpoints come from the left ("Show students the other viewpoint - like this anti-Semitic newsletter posted online")
  • Assignments that don't ask students to narrate personal experience all the time (the extended "my summer vacation" assignment) must be postmodern.
  • Graduate students don't understand how to design courses (so WPAs should do it for them)
  • Asking students to write 5 essays a semester is fine (even though few academics write one essay in a semester)
  • Textbooks achieve everything
  • Nobody understands composition (except compositionists)

    Replies: 3 comments

    Yeah, this one:
    "--If you know nothing about a particular topic, but need to research it, email the listserv."
    is one of my favorites.
    Everybody: I'm teaching a class this semester on X. What should I do? What should I teach?

    Posted by j @ 01/19/2004 07:54 PM EST

    Here are some of my nominees:

    --You can be a good teacher (or scholar) without thinking abstractly or theoretically.
    --There is something called "Theory" which is used by an elite (and elitist) few to confuse the rest of us.
    --If I don't see something happening, nothing is happening (scholarly work, administrative action, political action, et al.)
    --If you know nothing about a particular topic, but need to research it, email the listserv.
    --Archives are enough.
    --It's better to have 5 immediate answers to a question than a single answer an hour later.

    And 2 corollaries to the ones you offered:

    --Nobody understands writing programs (so WPAs should accredit them)

    and

    --If we just took the time to educate all of the non-compositionists, they would both understand composition and agree with us about it.

    Posted by cgb @ 01/19/2004 07:33 PM EST

    Yes!

    Posted by WPA lurker @ 01/19/2004 04:01 PM EST

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