Ilari Pass

ENED 683: The Teaching of Writing

Dr. Shana Hartman
April 10, 2016

Written Piece: Part I

Wrestle
Reality
Interrogate
The
Ecstatic

Ilari Pass
ENED 683: The Teaching of Writing
Dr. Shana Hartman
April 10, 2016
Inquiry Project Multimodal Write-Up:
Written Piece: Part II
Diya Abdo,
Chair of the English Department
Guilford College
5800 W. Friendly Avenue
Greensboro, NC 27410
Dear Diya,
A graduate of Guilford College with a degree in English, I had an opportunity to continue
my journey to discover the chaotic world of writing for my Inquiry Project assignment that I am
working on in graduate schoolan exciting and resonating experience. As a novice teacher of
writing, I am writing to you because I want to express my gratitude for the various members of
the Guilford community for their help and support for my project with interviews, providing data
sources, etc.
During this process of working on my Inquiry Project I was able to reflect on my own
writing experiences, which shaped me to who I am todaynot only as a writer or teacher of
writing, but the way I want to teach writing. I have always been intrigued with the power of
language, but I never had a real appreciation of how important writing really is, what writing
means, and why we writethese are some of the important questions that were asked for my
inquiry.

As I progressed through this project, my itinerary consists of conducting four interviews,

which are my primary sourcesJennie Malbeouf, Mylene Dressler, Professor Emeritus Max
Carter, and professional tutor/instructor Douglas Smith. From their perspectives, they all share a
special bond of what writing really meansa means to communicate, to connect, and by doing
so in a way of shaping the world with language. For instance, Doug argues that when it comes to
the teaching of writing, a teacher can help a student move more quickly through certain
problems, and a teacher can encourage a students passion for language, but eventually the
student must do the complex work of shaping language. In connection to this, the first secondary
source by Dr. Cynthia Urbanski, where she argues that when it comes to teaching writing,
Suddenly, I didnt have to know everything. I didnt have to plan hundreds of activities that
the students would breeze through and learn little from (Urbanski 31). What I learned from this
is that the teacher, in other words, doesnt have to do everything, but a common bond that Smith
and Urbanski both share is that they have a real passion for teaching students, one that allows
them to serve as models.
Another secondary source by Donald Murray in his book, Learn to Write, agrees with
Smith and Urbanski:
All writers are self-taught. Your instructor can help, your classmates can help,
this book can help, but you still have to write to learn to write. As you read
this book, stop the moment you feel like writing and write. This book should
be a collaborative experience as we write together. If you write as you read, you
better understand what you did not know about your life. (Murray 2)

Another common bond that they share about writing that I have learned, which I think it
is fair to say, is that whenever we write, we wrestle with the reality, or the chaos of the
world...then we interrogate, or question the ecstatic. In other words, the reality is the stuff that
makes sometimes not be so good but we also question the things that seem to be ecstatically
beautiful, such as dancing and being expressive--being "thrilled and terrified." In other words,
whenever we write, we wrestle or struggle with the interrogating by not accepting of what the
world seems to be.

Thank you, Diya, for all of the work in the English department to successfully help me to
get my Inquiry Project up and running, and I thank you for your support during my time at
Guilford.

Sincerely,
Ilari Pass

Works Cited
Murray, Donald. Make Writing Easy. Write to Learn.
11 January 2016. Web.
Smith, Douglas. Personal Interview. 21 February 2016.
Urbanski, Cynthia. Coaching and Teaching by Doing: Modeling
Thinking, Writing, and Reading. Workshop Approach in
the High School English Classroom: Modeling Effective
Writing, Reading, and Thinking Strategies for Students
Success. 25 January 2016. Web.