My focus on
linguistic accuracy most likely occurred at a young age when I was asked to
write rough drafts, second drafts, and final drafts. Those experiences helped
teach me how to analyze my work and look for errors. I probably started process
oriented tasks in the latter stages of elementary school or middle school. I
cannot remember for certain. Most likely I was in the in-between stage for
self-editing when these tasks started occurring.
I think the
lessons I was taught in editing with process oriented approaches helped me
become a better editor. Those lessons definitely helped me become a good enough
writer to do well on all my history projects although I think history
professors cared more about content. Having said that, I think my grades would
have suffered if the form was not good and it interfered with the content. Of
course English professors seemed to be more rigid when grading my papers and I
understand why. It is their job to fine tune my writing skills. At times I felt
somewhat overwhelmed when editing my own paper for an English class so I would
seek out a writing tutor.
My primary
experience teaching writing is in history and Spanish classes. Organization and
content is my primary concern in history courses although I still point out
grammatical errors. Sometimes those grammatical errors interfere with my
understanding of the content. In my Spanish classes my focus is probably the
opposite. I care more about grammar and spelling than content. I realize
content is not going to be great because of the limited vocabulary. Probably
the biggest challenge in giving student feedback is striking the right balance
in regards to challenging them and being too easy on them. If I am too strict
frustration will set in and then they do not learn anything. On the other hand,
sometimes students need to be motivated. For example, if I have told the same
student several times that you don’t conjugate the second verb in Spanish and
they keep making that mistake, it is probably time to get tougher on that
student and start counting off for that recurring mistake.
My ideas are
congruent with the process approach because I have seen how that approach
helped me as a student. I want to really emphasize self-editing and peer
editing. The best way for students to become good at self-editing would be
through lots of practice so it is important I give them amble opportunities to
practice.
