A Letter Response
Wednesday, December 3, 2008 at 09:15PM | Lynn As an English compostition instructor, I am required to challenge my students by assigning essays and "writes." After grading an excellent group of "demand writes" written by members of my online class, I assigned my face-to-face class to do a response write based on one of the essays posted on this site. My reasoning included introducing the students to finding and reading material online. Each student selected a blog that "spoke" to them. Chris R. (name used with permission) responded to my "Letter to a Student" posted on November 5th. Therefore, today Chris is my first guest blogger. Here is his response.
Response to "Letter to a Student"
I have to say I adore the last line of your blog, "Letter to a Student." Yes, I am jumping straight to the end. I guess it is because anyone could have written the technical advice in the body of the text, which was, by the way, very educational, especially the sentence by sentence deconstruction. But the last line is so Salsi-esque, it makes the letter your own. "I know you will re-read the essay you were about to submit."
Ah, I love it! It is also nice to have in writing the things we hear so often in class. Anyone who is serious about writing should know these things anyway. But it is definitely to our benefit to have the fundamentals reinforced. There was one grammatical error which jumped out at me, reminding me that none of us are perfect (ah, the elusive "A" paper)! I think personally that the most pertinent piece of technical advice was in the fact the last point about whether a paper deserves an "A" or a "B." It is rare that I read my own essays as if I was grading them, but it is an excellent way to see the finer points and maybe errors in my own work. Thank you for all the insight!
Reader Comments (6)
After I read Chris' blog, I had to read the infamous "letter to a student". I had similar sentiment. I found it funny in Chris' blog that he mentions the mistake in grammar. Shortly after his note he also had a mistake, continuing the example. I wouldn't be surprised if there is an easily found mistake in my blog as well.
actually madam salsi is an asset for the gtcc and i am very thank ful to her and i think that her teaching way is flawless,according to my point of view every writer, story teller and historian has its own way of writing and structure of sentences and its like funny to find any grammatical error in any writers work .
While reading "Letter to a Student", I also noticed the "Salsi-ness" of the passage. Being in your class twice a week for five months, I feel like I can scope out your distinct style. It's unfortunate that one microscopic typographical error can sometimes smudge your credibility. I guess what makes writing a book so difficult is not necessarily the act of writing, but living up to the reputation.
Great, wonderful, hilarious, I just love it. This response is like a piece of good german chocolate melting on my tongue.
I love the comment "Salsi-ness", that is truely what you are. Being in your class has driving me back to loving to read and write in whatever free time I have. There is no other teacher that I have come across that knows what she is talking about like you. The one thing that I can say that I really admire about you is that even if u dont know the answer, your always more than willing to go look for the right one. I will miss that salsi-ness in you. I printed out ur blog "Letter to a Student", that way if I ever need to go back and review my work, I have your works to guide me. I look forward to learning even more from you in the future.
-Vince Camuto shoes for less I guess it is because anyone could have written the technical advice in the body of the text.