The Purpose of Transformation

One of the toughest college courses I ever took was English 101.

It was the first semester of my freshman year, and thus, the selection of open classes was pretty sparse. But the one I was most looking forward to was English 101. It was titled "Writing Workshop" (best words to a prospective creative writing major's ears). And after all, how hard could a 100 level course be?

A week later, I was overwhelmed, just from "Writing Workshop". Yes, the 101 class. The professor, now active chair of the University of Mary Washington (UMW)'s ELC (English, Linguistics, and Communications Dept.), assigned the students a personal essay due the first week. Then the sixteen or so students were divided into groups to workshop each other's essays. On top of that, we continued to write more essays. By the end of two weeks maximum, I was so stressed that I dropped the class.

Looking back at that 101 class with a senior's perspective, I realize it actually wasn't as intensive as it seemed to my freshman self. But this brings up an interesting point: what is the role of English 101 in college?

Nichole Stack calls this course a "transformation", specifically about the ways in which we think about writing and actually applying them. Stack defines this transformation as "the emancipatory process of becoming critically aware ot how and why the structure of psycho-cultural assumptions has come to constrain the way we see ourselves and our relationships, reconstituting this structure to permit a more inclusive and discriminating integration of experience and acting upon these new understandings." Stack goes on to examine which areas of the thought process can be influenced by this transformation, including

• explorations for new roles and actions
• building of self-confidence and competence in new roles
• planning a course of action and acquisition for knowledge and skills 

Although these areas appear as rather general, they can certainly be narrowed down to influence the writing process for college students. We can look at the different areas of focus in my English 101 class and see elements of Stack's transformation process:

1) Writing personal essays: My professor assigned each student to write from their own perspective on a subject matter of their choice. This assignment can be seen as a method of building self-confidence in the young writer. Rather than being given a topic, the professor gave her students the ability to choose their own, but also gave them the realization that their opinions and their choice of subject were important.

2) Workshopping: My introduction to the workshop process in English 101 was terrifying at the time, but I have since workshopped in no less than five other classes, and find it the most helpful tool for my writing process. One benefit of the workshop is the ability to experiment with different styles of writing and form, either through personal choice or through the suggestion of a classmate. An outside perspective is, I would argue, absolutely necessary for good writing. It allows the piece to be examined by actual writers prior to publication who will bring up questions and concerns which may affect future readers. 

3) Tying it together: Writing and editing. This is the core of the writing process. And what better way than to repeat it on a weekly basis? Well, at the time it was an overwhelming experience, but theoretically it makes sense. Practice makes perfect, you know.

So, now we know the necessity of English 101. But many universities, including UMW, don't consider this a mandatory class. This is where the freshman seminar can step in. The point of the freshman seminar is to introduce first-year students to the fundamentals of writing at a college level. Incorporating these methods of the transformation process will address the same issues as the English 101 course (in a less intimidating way, one hopes).