TA Complaints About Student Writing 2

“My students think all texts are ‘novels.’”

The tendency to conflate all written material under one grand category is annoying. But it may not represent your students’ wholesale lack of textual sophistication. It may simply indicate that they need more discussion of texts as texts. You may have to talk about the kind of writing your discipline relies on (and creates) as well as distinctions between primary and second sources.

We’ll talk more about increasing students’ textual and disciplinary awareness in Clarifying the Writing Assignment and Preparing Students to Write the Assignment (By Writing).