Reflection of Memorandum

I feel that this assignment was particularly useful as a future teacher. Not only are we going to be put in the position of teaching our students how to become efficient writers but most likely, throughout our teaching career, we will be put in a similar position as an active faculty member. I always was under the notion that a memorandum was a short “FYI” notice and did not realize the depth of it.

As for the actual assignment, I ran into difficulties along the way. I felt that my memorandum was fairly short and was worried that I didn’t cover the topic or get my point across. However, after talking to both groups on Tuesday and Thursday, they relived my worries. They told me that it was straight and to the point but still fully covered all that I needed to cover. I also wasn’t sure if there was a right or wrong way to go about writing the summary. I learned that the format of a memo is similar to writing styles; they are all different but can still be correct at the same time.

Some of the recommendations I discussed in my paper were ones that I experiences (or didn’t experience) as a student myself. Others were new to me. For instance, “Teachers need to be a role model.” Of course this isn’t a new idea for me however the way to go about doing it is. Such as, teachers should do assignments with their students in order to understand the struggles they are experiencing.

In researching this topic I also was able to grasp the understanding of letting children choose their own topics a little bit better. You can point your students in a particular subject matter and let them take it from there.

When it came to using references, I mainly used my own. I wanted to use others but I felt like I had to read the entire article to make sure that I got the same thing out of it that my classmate did. It also was hard because not everyone in our group did their article summary.

The Importance of Correctness

I feel that there isn’t a necessity to write “correctly” all the time. And by correctly, I’m talking about correct grammar, punctuation, spelling, thesis, transitions, ect. Often times, being able to just write freely, gives your more leeway to write what you want to write instead of getting mixed up with the correctness of the writing. Whenever I begin a paper, I just write. I don’t care about the spelling, or if the sentences flow, or if the paragraphs compliment each other. While more and more ideas flood my brain, I try to write them down as quickly as possible, not caring if everything is correct. Rules of Thumb goes over many aspects of writing such as spelling, grammar, punctuation, how to put a paper together, and the style in which you use. And, yes this is all important information to use when writing. However if you get tangled up in all of this “correctness” you will never reach the actual writing part. It is like I told my ELL college student I was paired up with for ENGL 470; just write and get your ideas down on paper. Then we will go through and work on the correctness as an entirety of the paper, next work on individual sentences, and lastly spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

With this said, I definitely feel that correctness is important for published work or what students usually call “Final Draft.” When you write a piece you want your selected audience to be able to read it. Generally in the U.S., the selected audience is that of English speakers therefore your paper should take use of Standard English. You don’t want your audience to be distracted by errors of correctness. You want them to be engaged in your writing instead.

The Teaching of Writing

After reading all four of my articles, I can see a lot of overlap within the context of the articles. One suggestion that keeps reoccurring in my given articles is to let the children write about what they want. I feel this is so important. Even today in college I am asking myself why some of my professors aren't implicating this idea. I have been asked to write multiple papers where there is a specific topic that you HAVE to write about. They give you the way they want it written and exactly the format. I understand for the learning of class material that when given a topic there does need to be some general topic. However, professors should give a general topic and allow students to choose how to narrow down that topic into something that they want to talk about. The outcome would be a lot more successful.

In a couple of my articles, the authors suggested that the topics of writing be something that matters. I remember one example of how the students were asked to write about problems they were facing such as bullying. This is another way to get a more successful finished product.

In looking at the overall reading of my articles, I found that I often would relate the suggestions or examples to my own career in writing. I find myself saying, "oh i remember when my teacher did that too and it was such a great experience" or "if only my teachers did this..."