"I write for me. for the audience of me. If other people come along for the ride then it's great."
-Edward Albee
Its fall, so that means another group of Composition classes to teach at school. I have just completed my first full week of classes and am excited to start a longer weekend. I have met over ninety new students we will all have the opportunity to share experiences of writing and learn of our ideas of what makes for good writing. On many occasions, in Academia, students gauge good writing by the grades that they receive. However, during the first week, I try to dispel this misconception. Many times student writers misconstrue good writing for “effective” writing.
At the beginning of my current position, I started discussing the difference between “good” writing and “effective” writing. Something that is “effective” is usually discovered through measured benchmarks. For example: an effective film is one that can bring in the ticket sales. That is to say, an “effectively made” film can be something else entirely. It can be something that can bring someone to tears. Notice that both are different concepts, but the similarity is that both can be measured. If a film opens on a Friday, the first thing that we read in the newspapers is how much money it made. If it made back more money that it took to create the movie, then it was “effective.”
As such, in the Composition classroom, an “effective” essay is a piece of writing that accomplishes the goals on the assignment sheet and achieved high marks on its rubric. Once the instructor/assessor has critically evaluated the essay, they can assign the appropriate “grade” for the paper, thereby concluding how effective it really was.
This is different from something that is “good.” A good essay (or anything else for that matter), is less tangible. It cannot be figured out by a measurable (i.e. rubric, benchmark, assignment sheet, etc.). Good is something that is based more on emotion than logical. Eating my wife’s vegetable soup is good, but it is difficult to convince others why I like it so much. I like the spices she uses, the amount of garlic that brings the right bite, or the veggies that soak up the tomato broth that she uses. It isn’t too much and it isn’t very little. This isn’t something that I can measure, but when I take a taste, I can tell you if I enjoy it or not.
In addition, a good film does the same thing for me. It is enjoyable. It doesn’t have too much action, or too little action. It has the right about of acting (no overacting, or a Twilight-type of bland facial-features, wooden-acting schlockfest). If I leave the film with lingering ruminations of the storyline, then it is a good film.
This is akin to my perception of “good” writing. There are aspects that I look for in good writing. However, it would be unfair of me to grade a paper solely on if it is good. Since effective is based on a rubric (something all the students have), then that would be fair. If I am in the mood to read about dung beetles, and Student A writes on dung beetles, then I would want to award them a stronger grade than someone else who decides to write a biography of Kristen Stewart (sorry Twihards).
My policy is that student writers should write to their assignment sheet, but not to forget what they consider “good”. I think every instructor’s ultimate goal is to receive a paper that matches the rubric, but the student feels that their essay is a “good” essay. Whenever I write a project, I write it to (first and foremost) make me happy. If it gets published, then so much the better. However, on that strong possibility that it does not make the grade (if you will), at least it will make me happy.
