WEBVTT 1 00:00:15.075 --> 00:00:21.240 I'm Anne Ruggles Gere and this chapter was actually a very late thought. 2 00:00:21.240 --> 00:00:25.240 We had collected all the data, we had done a lot of the analysis, 3 00:00:25.240 --> 00:00:27.810 we were writing chapters. 4 00:00:27.810 --> 00:00:32.410 And I began to think we spent so much time looking at how 5 00:00:32.410 --> 00:00:37.520 students develop as writers but what happens afterward? 6 00:00:37.520 --> 00:00:42.340 Because I think in general the research that has been done 7 00:00:42.340 --> 00:00:47.730 on student writing development, particularly for college students, 8 00:00:47.730 --> 00:00:52.550 has focused just on the college period itself. 9 00:00:52.550 --> 00:00:58.970 And has not really looked backward to what happens, what students bring with them. 10 00:00:58.970 --> 00:01:02.660 Or to what shape it takes as they move forward. 11 00:01:02.660 --> 00:01:06.500 And that was what really set this in motion. 12 00:01:06.500 --> 00:01:09.680 And everybody else was busy working on chapters and I thought, 13 00:01:09.680 --> 00:01:10.800 okay, I can do this. 14 00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:14.453 And so that's what really led to this chapter 15 00:01:19.477 --> 00:01:23.989 Everybody's path as a student writer is different, and 16 00:01:23.989 --> 00:01:29.631 if you've been told that every writer should go through these stages. 17 00:01:29.631 --> 00:01:34.970 Don't feel in any way inadequate or wrong if you haven't done 18 00:01:34.970 --> 00:01:40.740 it that way because one of the things that we know from this study. 19 00:01:40.740 --> 00:01:43.170 We looked at 169 students, and 20 00:01:43.170 --> 00:01:48.200 I would say there are 169 different ways of developing as a writer. 21 00:01:48.200 --> 00:01:50.600 There isn't a single path. 22 00:01:50.600 --> 00:01:57.370 And there certainly won't be a single path as you move from the university beyond. 23 00:01:57.370 --> 00:02:03.490 I think that students need to know that the kinds of writers that they become in 24 00:02:03.490 --> 00:02:08.850 high school has an affect on the kinds of writers they become in college. 25 00:02:08.850 --> 00:02:11.570 Which in turn has an affect on 26 00:02:11.570 --> 00:02:16.200 the kinds of writers that they become as they move forward. 27 00:02:16.200 --> 00:02:18.898 So there's a sense of continuity but 28 00:02:18.898 --> 00:02:24.039 I would add to that that there are also very significant differences. 29 00:02:29.284 --> 00:02:33.313 Students who come having done very well on the AP exam and 30 00:02:33.313 --> 00:02:38.510 assume that they know everything there is to know about writing. 31 00:02:38.510 --> 00:02:42.850 Often find themselves very surprised and 32 00:02:42.850 --> 00:02:46.900 often disappointed and even feel betrayed sometimes that 33 00:02:46.900 --> 00:02:51.480 they aren't as well-prepared as they were expecting themselves to be. 34 00:02:51.480 --> 00:02:55.500 And conversely, students who come into the university 35 00:02:55.500 --> 00:02:58.540 feeling that they aren't very well prepared. 36 00:02:58.540 --> 00:03:03.540 And are much more willing to learn and 37 00:03:03.540 --> 00:03:09.370 absorb from the environment actually sometimes do better. 38 00:03:09.370 --> 00:03:12.526 So there isn't, again, a clear pattern. 39 00:03:18.238 --> 00:03:23.262 Chris, who is one of the students that I talk about in this chapter, 40 00:03:23.262 --> 00:03:28.840 is a really interesting example of a very under-confident writer. 41 00:03:28.840 --> 00:03:33.530 She chose to enroll in the Developmental Writing Course when she came into 42 00:03:33.530 --> 00:03:34.900 the university. 43 00:03:34.900 --> 00:03:39.910 Because she felt, as she said in her own words, I was very good at science but 44 00:03:39.910 --> 00:03:42.620 I did not think of myself as a writer. 45 00:03:42.620 --> 00:03:46.560 And she would still say, the way she put it is, 46 00:03:46.560 --> 00:03:50.760 I'm confident in my inabilities as a writer. 47 00:03:50.760 --> 00:03:55.240 And yet the evolution that she went through as 48 00:03:55.240 --> 00:04:00.560 a writer is such a wonderful example of how students develop. 49 00:04:00.560 --> 00:04:06.280 For her, it was a matter of taking courses in philosophy, where she felt that she 50 00:04:06.280 --> 00:04:11.800 really learned a way of thinking that empowered her writing. 51 00:04:11.800 --> 00:04:15.520 And, in particular, empowered her writing about science, which I think is 52 00:04:15.520 --> 00:04:21.890 fascinating that she was able to take that way of thinking and writing in philosophy. 53 00:04:21.890 --> 00:04:27.600 And carry it over to to writing grant proposals to NSF, and has done it 54 00:04:27.600 --> 00:04:33.320 very successfully, has gone on to a successful graduate career in science. 55 00:04:33.320 --> 00:04:37.780 And has come to appreciate and 56 00:04:37.780 --> 00:04:41.490 do well at the fact that she is writing, she says, 57 00:04:41.490 --> 00:04:46.080 about 50% of the time as a graduate student in science. 58 00:04:46.080 --> 00:04:51.449 And this is someone who spent much of her life, particularly as an undergraduate, 59 00:04:51.449 --> 00:04:55.066 saying, I'm not a writing person, I'm a scientist.