Process and Expressivism

Critical Question 1: In his 1969 article, Donald M. Murray talks about the importance of cultivating a "climate of failure", arguing that "Grades, of course, are ridiculous during the writing course" (121). According to Murray, "The productivity and quality of student writing increase when grades are left off each paper" (121). Today, we are still required to submit grades to our institutions to prove our teaching quality and measure student success. How do grades negatively frame our composition courses? How can grades damage and inhibit student learning? What can we do to mitigate this damage while following the protocols and procedures mandated by our institutions?

Critical Question 2: According to Murray, "A teacher's primary responsibility is to create a psychological and physical environment in which the student can fulfill his responsibilities" (121). How can we cultivate safe, open, trusting, and productive working environments? What do they look like? What don't they look like? What physical resources do we have access to that can change our classrooms into creative, welcoming, and collaborative spaces? How does this translate to online classes?

Discussion Post Response:

The expressivism movement in 1960 through 1970 aimed to counter the primary Current Traditional Rhetoric narrative in the composition classroom. CTR took a formalist approach to composition, claiming that truth was found outside of the self and that we use language to find that truth. To counter this, the expressivism movement instead emphasized that truth is found within the individual and that writing is a personal tool that helps individuals figure out what that truth is. Key figures in the expressivism movement focused on figuring out how people form ideas through language, rather than extracting meaning from texts. Expressivism is largely process-based, rather than product-obsessed like CTR. Expressivism emphasized the student's voice by allowing greater agency and freedom over the individual's learning. While CTR emphasized rules, structure, and mimicry, expressivism allows and encourages students to make a mess and accepts that learning is messy. Learning doesn't look like one, prescriptive thing. And learning is most definitely not achieved through grammatical correction. Murray emphasizes the need for an honest approach to teaching composition, acknowledging that "There is no single standard, no one way to think or to write, no we must not give our students the illusion there is” (118). 

Murray's "Finding Your Own Voice: Teaching Composition in an Age of Dissent" advocates for a restructuring of the composition class, revolving around empowering students to find and express their own voices, thoughts, research, passions, and ideas. According to Murray, “In this age of dissent, the student must be given four freedoms-the freedom to find his own subject, to find his own evidence, to find his own audience, and to find his own form” (120). These freedoms allow students to learn and increase the student's agency in their writing and education. Murray's four student responsibilities are clearly expressivist as they give students space to explore their own ways of knowing, conduct their own research, and offer support at multiple steps of the writing process. The following list includes Murray's four student responsibilities:

1. Students develop their own topics by deciding on what they want to say. According to Murray, “Every time the teacher gives an assignment he cheats the student, since each step in the writing process-form, style, tone, effectiveness-stems from what the student has to say” (119). The CTR model traditionally provided students with a statement that they would have to argue instead of allowing the student to develop their own thesis. To reverse this model, expressivism advocates for the student's voice, and encourages the development of ideas that are new and personal. Furthermore, this student freedom allows the student to disagree with the instructor, allowing space for new research and discoveries. 

2. Students find their own sources, evidence, data, and documentation, mining information for themselves to develop informed opinions. According to Murray, “The sturdy fact the relevant detail, the esthetic insight, the revealing incident are the raw materials which he must collect to construct a piece of writing which supports his subject and convinces his reader” (119). Expressivism moves towards a process-based approach to teaching writing. In the writing process, gathering evidence and data is an essential component of developing your own ideas. By allowing the student room to explore the pre-existing discourse around their topic of choice, the student can learn to write in a way that contributes to the discussion rather than just regurgitating pre-existing knowledge. 

3. Students workshop their writing with their peers, receiving feedback that is eye-to-eye, rather than top-down, helping the writer cultivate an informed awareness of their audience. According to Murray, “It is the student’s responsibility to earn an audience, winning respect for what he has on the page” (119). This foundational pillar of the expressivist approach emphasizes rhetorical situations. Rather than creating a piece of writing whose only audience is a grammarian teacher, using student workshops and challenging your students to consider the audience in a wider context increases the transferability of writing skills. Murray observes how "Often a student will understand another student’s problem and its solution better than the instructor, for the student is working on the same level” (119). The CTR classroom contains a dictatorial teacher and isolated, novice students. But, the expressivist classroom places the teacher and students on a more even playing field where there aren't any tricks to English that the teacher is hiding from their students. Furthermore, the student workshopping approach further empowers the students to value themselves not just as a writer, but also as readers. This emphasizes the fact that all students have something to say, and what they have to say is valuable. 

4. Students choose an appropriate form depending on their content and context. According to Murray, “During any writing course, the student should practice many forms, each appropriate to what he has to say” (120). CTR teachers would give their students a form prompt, usually asking their students to imitate a classic writer. CTR emphasized form over content, arguing that what a student has to say (content) is unimportant and unworthy and that the closest they can get to being smart is to accurately imitate the form of those classical authors who are considered "geniuses". Expressivism combats this approach by valuing content over form. Instead, form becomes a rhetorical choice that is centered around what the student has to say.