Students: seminars too rigid

It may be the one class every Penn student has to take during his or her undergraduate education, but it's also the one class whose merits students can't seem to pinpoint.

A foundation at many colleges across the nation, Penn's 50 to 60 writing seminars seek to transition the writing of incoming freshmen from "five-paragraph, SAT or free-form writing" to shorter essays with more peer revision, said program director Valerie Ross.

"I loved having a small class, especially freshman year, but sometimes what the teachers have to teach is very constrained . in the form and practices of writing," Wharton freshman Chloe Caan said. "Everyone teaches and learns writing in their own way and it's hard to have certain models to go by."

"It's very formulaic and doesn't allow for creativity necessary to become a better writer," added Wharton freshman Britt Danneman, who suggested the seminars be focused on content rather than following a specific structure that students "probably won't ever have to use again."

But Ross saw something different in her experience.

"Students come in and they think they know how to write at the college level," said Ross, "but for most part we find that students are often not capable of writing an argument."

She emphasized that the focus of the seminars is on critical writing because all types of prose, from blogs to non-fiction, use techniques like straw man and multiple reasons taught in critical writing.

"If you feel this is constraining, that's a sign you're a novice writer," said Ross, who added that students may not realize the full benefits of seminars in the short run.

"At first I didn't like the requirement, but now through being in one, I really see how it's greatly helped me polish and revise my own work," said Engineering freshman Lindsey Eatough, who is currently enrolled in "The Concept of Fat."

Yet students often commented on the effects of the rigid structure of the class on their writing quality.

"There's no excitement to the writing," College freshman Lucas Lemos said. "It's just a forced and tedious process of how I can make this or that sentence more concise."

"What if you're already a good writer?" he said. "It puts pressure on teachers to grade your first essay worse."

For consistency, each professor now grades all students based on a midterm and final portfolio assessment.

"If all the classes were different and creative, I think students would then complain . that there's no standard across the classes," said Jacqui Sadashige, a Classics professor.

Sadashige, who teaches two writing seminars on cinema, encourages students to connect class work with outside interests through short documentaries or music "mashup" projects.

"Teachers should feel more free to expand and develop their courses to fit the needs of their students," said School of Arts and Sciences graduate student Adrian Khactu, who teaches "Race Matters."

"We probably need to do a better job of communicating to students," Ross said. "Sometimes we're so busy teaching that we don't have time to tell students . why they're doing this."

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