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With support from the WK. Kellogg Foundation and Sid Wi Richardson Foundation

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THE COMMUNITY/COLLEGE CONNECTION: HELPING STUDENTS WRITE FOR THE REAL WORLD

Research argues convincingly that language learning occurs most successfully and efficiently in real social
contexts. In a college/community interactive project, our college tried to provide such a context for our
students’ learning—the real life context of our local business community.

Too many of our students’ writing tasks displayed an unacceptable tolerance of errors and deficiencies in
argument and content. Students were not inclined to develop convincing and useful content in their
assignments. Their writing didn’t sound right; it was often stiff and awkward—even pompous—as they
tried to imitate the "voice" of a business community they knew nothing about, and as they simultaneously
repressed and devalued their own voices in response to years of error-centered English teaching.

Like many career writing instructors, we had exhausted alternative teaching approaches. We knew the
futility of haranguing our students about how effective writing enhances one’s chances of career success and
personal growth. We had also come to realize the serious limitations of emphasizing composing strategies.
The case-study approach (e.g., the student is asked to role-play an accountant faced with a specified,
problematic writing task—like a collection letter) was only another decontextualized "fiction." And we had
long given up curricula that amounted to merely a list of writing genres—good-news letters, bad-news
letters, sales letters, memo reports, and so on—that were unconnected to each other and to a real world.

Realizing the need for a context-specific learning environment, we moved the classroom into the
community and initiated two community-based assignments: a formal report written for business clients and
an article for publication. We introduced both during the first week of classes and assigned students to
groups so that they would complete these writing tasks as "teams."

Before classes began, we invited members of the business community to participate as "real-life" clients
for our students’ formal report assignment. (The Chamber of Commerce was particularly helpful in
identifying potential clients for us.) In their first meeting with these clients (to whom we had in effect
contracted them), our teams of students negotiated suitable topics. Tasks ranged trom gathering information
for an industrial saw company on the nature of the lumber industry in the southeastern U.S. to helping the
owner of a gym evaluate all available means of advertising. The reporting assignment automatically
generated other communication tasks such as the information-gathering interview, confirmation letter and
memo, and interim progress report. This assignment culminated with a wine and cheese party (a
conventional occasion in the business community) where clients and students celebrated a job well done.

The second assignment invited the community-at-large to be "real-life" readers of our students’ journal,
Community Focus. We asked the students to develop article topics which had both major, global significance
and immediate, local relevance. A variety of suitable subjects was suggested: e.g., barriers to inter-
provincial trade, mega-market merchandising, rent controls, airline deregulation, de-institutionalization of
the care of the handicapped, and the high cost of liability insurance.

The results have been encouraging—students have become engaged in these interactive, real-world
situations; have developed a sense of themselves as members of the business community; have behaved
responsibly about their commitments and deadlines; and have not needed us to remind them of the purpose
of their writing tasks, the importance of drafts and revisions, and the necessity of writing in standard
English. The classroom has developed into.a busy, dynamic workplace.

Diana Wepner Janet Giltrow
Douglas College Douplas College

For further information, contact the authors in the Communications Department, Douglas College, P.O. Box
2503, New Westminster, B.C. V3L 5B2.

 

© Community College Leadership Program, The University of Texas at Austin, EDB 348, Austin, Texas 78712