real writers in students

In both Johnson and Freeland’s articles, I discovered the valuable idea of regarding students as real writers, who are capable of, if given sufficient preparation, critiquing others and their own writing. Both the online peer response and the collaborative teacher/reader-student/writer conferences remove the social, cultural, and interpersonal factors that are disruptive to the identity of students as responsible and intelligent writers and critics. As teachers of College Writing, we must recognize that in every student there is a writer. No matter what their writing backgrounds, experiences, and levels of proficiency in writing, they have the need to express their opinions on issues of their concern and they are proud of putting their opinion in words. As teachers, we must protect and refine that pride at the outset of their college writing experience. Moreover, we need to nurture the capacity of the critic in student writers to enable self-sufficient writing process. Once students are at the wheel of the writing process, they will be willing to and often enthusiastic for explore (-ring) audiences, purposes, rhetoric, and other strategies.