Writer's Journal Entry #1

Sunday, 30 August 2015, 8:41 PM

by Will Misenheimer

In light of reading "Unteaching Writing Myths" and "Students' Right to Their Own Language," I
have come to the conclusion that many of the ideas expressed in the readings were very accurate. In
fact, I feel that many topics, such as the main theme in "Students' Right to Their
Own Language," hit a sore spot that needed to be reflected upon. For example, it is quite certain in
our society that many speakers of the so-called "Standard English" look upon other dialects with
inferiority, an act that I have been guilty of at times. Our society has praised the British dialect of the
English language, while other, pieced together and choppy dialects are looked at with disapproval.
The reading does a great job of exposing this truth, and further suggesting that it is the content and
idea of the writer that is to be graded, while the insignificant troubles, such as misspelled words,
should be looked at with a more forgiving attitude. However, misspelled words and grammatical
errors may be too distracting if they occur very frequently. I believe that "Unteaching Writing Myths"
also discussed key points that I can easily relate to. I can vividly remember my English teachers
preaching the 5-point paragraph. While I believe that this format may be a good starting point and
instructive tool, it would be silly for every argument to have exactly 3 points and body paragraphs.
While it is vital to have sentences that outline or provide a main idea for the argument, it would be
ridiculous to limit a thesis statement to the traditional format (ie. Baseball is the best sport because it
is fun, it is played by several countries, and it is our nation's pasttime.) To effectively handle the
situation, there needs to be more application to real-life writing in the high school stages and less
direct reiteration of the 5-point paragraph.