JAC Volume 13 Issue 1

The first edition of the St. Martin's Guide to Teaching Writing was published in 1989 and was distributed primarily as a complimentary text to instructors using the St. Martin's Handbook. The new and much expanded edition—more than twice the length of the original—is still available free on these terms, but now it is also being offered (for sale) as a textbook for graduate courses in the teaching of college writing.

We already have a pool of excellent basic texts, in an array of formats, for initiating the new writing teacher into the discipline of composition studies, including Erika Lindemann's A Rhetoric for Writing Teachers, David Foster's A Primer for Writing Teachers, Gary Tate and Edward P.J. Corbett's The Writing Teacher's Sourcebook and, more recently, Lindemann and Tate's An Introduction to Composition Studies. Perhaps more overtly than any of these others, however, Connors and Glenns' book aims to be the kind of practical introduction to "theories, techniques, and methods" of teaching writing that many graduate students need. The authors have produced a book that is, for the most part, just what its title suggests: a "guide," a friendly companion through the sometimes tumultuous and intimidating waters faced by TAs preparing to meet their first classes or trying to figure out how to manage the ones they are currently charged with "teaching." With a couple of exceptions, Connors and Glenn's is a balanced and informative text, one that should serve its intended audience well.

Connors and Glenn write in their brief introduction:

Part I, "Practical Issues in Teaching Writing," leads the new teacher step-by-step through the mechanics of preparing for and conducting writing courses. It contains sound discussions of such topics as "Finding out the Nature of the Course" they are expected to teach, planning for "The First Few Days of Classes," and developing "Everyday Activities," including how-to advice on such difficult points as establishing disciplinary policies and orchestrating workshops. Because they address elements of nearly every new teacher's nightmares, though, perhaps the most valuable components of Part I are the chapter-long explanations of making "Successful Writing Assignments" (thankfully expanded from a mere five pages in the first edition), which offers specific advice drawn from Edmund Farrell and William Irmscher; and "Responding to and Evaluating Student Writing," which covers general theoretical points like defining "standards" and such particular concerns as using mathematical systems for determining final course grades.

In the second part, Connors and Glenn examine "Theoretical Issues in Teaching Writing." Because of their careful synthesis and presentation of these, this section of the St. Martin's Guide should interest not only the new instructor who seeks a foundation for establishing and altering his or her pedagogy, but also the seasoned teacher who wants a refresher course in major tried theories of writing instruction. Rightly, I think, this is the longest section in the book, and space will not permit a detailed description of each chapter. However, the major areas covered are "stage-model," cognitivist, and social constructionist perspectives on "Teaching Composing and the Composing Process" (an excellent chapter, new to this edition); variously conceived classical and modern grounds for "Teaching Invention" and "Teaching Arrangement"; analytical and imitative theories (mostly Corbett's) of "Teaching Style"; and "Teaching the Sentence and the Paragraph." Each major theory discussed, it should be noted, is immediately rendered into practical terms in sections labeled "Classroom Use of ." Part II concludes with an excellent "Invitation to Further Study," which overviews major professional organizations and publications devoted to the teaching of writing and presents an ample, if somewhat curiously dated, selective bibliography for additional reading in the discipline. To the new teacher-scholar in composition studies, however, this last chapter might ultimately be most valuable for its brief but lucid outlining of three major "issues that most concern theorists and practitioners today": purposes and modes of evaluation, "the relationship between individual cognition and social ways of knowing," and the ways issues of gender, race, and class are "related to success or failure in writing, to the dynamics of the classroom, to ways of knowing n general."

The third and final part of The St. Martin's Guide is a section wholly new to this edition, a collection of essays assembled under the heading "Connecting Theory and Practice" for the purpose of "demonstrating the ways in which theory and practice can and do intersect in the writing classroom." This mini-reader covers subjects ranging from rhetorical theory to disciplinary histories to collaborative writing to using the classroom as a site for ethnographic research. There is no forthright indication of this, but most of these, I think, are previously published works; many are several years old, their arguments having become so commonplace as to seem rote to anyone at least vaguely familiar with the discipline. But even granting Connors and Glenn's primary intent to introduce new teachers to these topics, there is another problem with their choice of essays for this section: they include only the work of a select handful of scholars. Of the eleven essays, for example, either alone or in collaboration, there are six by Andrea Lunsford, four by Connors, and two each by Glenn and Lisa Ede. Quite naturally, Connors and Glenn do preface the section by saying that "many of these essays represent the scholarly base on which the St. Martin's Handbook stands," and so the fact that the majority of the essays are by the authors of that handbook is not surprising. But if it is not surprising, such narrowness is surely not legitimate either in concluding a book that aspires to any kind of general introduction to the discipline. Others have written compellingly on the topics covered, and sometimes more recently so as to expand their range of concerns. Ignoring that work in favor of the same familiar names seems more than a little unfair, if not egotistical.

I must call attention to one more feature of this book that I find disturbing: while obviously trying to strike an encouraging tone for new teachers, Connors and Glenn's writing sometimes seems to approach condescension. Particularly the first part of the book is sprinkled with statements like "You are alone in your classroom. It may not have seemed a smashing success, this first day of class, but you did it," which ends their overview of what to expect on the first day of class; and "You have just entered the most vital and exciting field in the teaching of English. Welcome," which concludes their discussion of assigning final course grades. No doubt, many new teachers of writing do need stroking—but only to a degree and probably not in a text they are consulting first for information. Comments like those cited will only serve to reinforce new teachers feelings of greenness, and to some they will be decidedly insulting.

All in all, however, the new St. Martin's Guide has much to recommend it which transcends the two problems I have just suggested. Its authors, both respected teachers and scholars, have a solid grasp on the difficulties of settling into work as a teacher of writing, and they offer some of the best advice yet available for making that work as rewarding as possible for teacher and student alike.