When students are asked if college composition courses are helpful, the answer may not be on the good side. In Bergmann and Zepernick’s article, “Disciplinarity and Transfer Students’ Perceptions of Learning to Write’”, there were both positive responses and negative responses for composition courses. For example, “students tend to think of writing in English classes as personal and expressive rather than academic or professional” (Bergmann, Zepernick 129). It appears some students view the courses as something that they learn from expressing their own personal views onto a piece of paper. Furthermore, students “reported having gained much of their current writing ability in courses such as history, chemistry, or metallurgy” (Bergmann, Zepernick …show more content…
Going back to the first response of students in Bergmann and Zepernick’s article, could it be because students feel more forced into speaking their opinions on a topic as opposed to writing about facts? Compared to English papers and history papers, one requires perspectives and knowledgeable intuitions while history papers require students to research facts on past events in a good detailed format. Students credit other courses besides composition courses because they require students to apply their writing skills in different scenarios. In an article done by David Brauer named, “Writing Between Two Worlds: Science and Discourses of Commitment in the Composition Classroom”, he believes that there is a “collision between a student’s personal beliefs and the discourse of the natural sciences” (Brauer 72). The personal beliefs can be connected to the cultural background of a student. Therefore, students may perceive composition topics much differently than a research paper for …show more content…
He noticed that “only a small percentage were actually taught by people who sought to one day teach composition as their vocation” (Shafer 38). If this was the case for other schools, students are probably not motivated to focus on their composition papers. Having inspiring teachers makes an enormous difference in the classroom because it provides an atmosphere of students that want to learn more of what the professor’s knowledge is. Shafer’s solution to have active students is “if instructors are determined to use literature in a composition class it should be approached in an inclusive, reader response method, so that students have the opportunity to transact with the text to shape it to fit their concerns and worries” (Shafer 39). Students should feel inspired to write papers. This is a great motivation for students to consistently work on applying what the professor is saying and applying the rules and objectives required for the