" Fishing For The Right One ":Finding Good Sources

College teacher get frustrated when student arent prepared

In thearticle “what should college teach part 3” Stanley Fish talks about what college need to teach. Prior to his experience he had with past college students. He discussed that middle and high school teachers don't teach student the basic skills of writing that need to be learn before entering college composition classes. Which leads to college professors to take the whole load.

Fish argued that letting student use their own style and pattern is not good. Fish stated “You’re not going to be able to change the world if you are not equipped with the tools that speak to its present conditions.”  He means that if you not equipped with the modern style you’re not going far and your always going to be one step behind.

 The main point fish makes is that college composition should teach the structure of sentence. He thinks that is the most important thing that should be taught in first year. He made a lot good point of why college should teach sentence structure in the article “what should college teach part 3”. But i have to disagree with Fish prior to my experience in the Ohio State Newark writing studio. For eight weeks i was observing first year students in college get help in the writing studio. Prior to those observation I found out that most of the students had trouble with finding good and reliable sources. I watched multiple students fishing for good sources. And every time they went to the internet to fish for sources they struggled or came out empty handed.

 In the writing studio they only get one hour of tutoring and half of the time they use the time to find sources and, when they do find a good sources the time is over. So I think that college composition classes should focus on teaching how to find good sources.  They should teach student which website are reliable to use and which websites are not reliable to use.  So students can spend more time writing their paper and least time worrying about finding sources.  Anybody can write a sentence Mr. Fish. I agree with you on that one having a good sentence structure is important but, it more than that. The real question is can you write a sentences that is reliable and that can relate to your paper. If you have a good sentence structure but it doesn’t relate to your topic or if it’s not reliable it not going to do you whole a lot of good.

By, finding a good sources it can give a lot of information that you can talk about in your paper. Also you don’t have to worry about false information. Even, Harvard thinks that sources are important. They stated “When you use sources in academic writing, you engage in a conversation with scholars whose work you have been asked to read, analyze, or discuss in your courses.”   A good source gives you a reliable information that is related to your topic.  A good source can turn your little small sentences into a full blown essay paper.  Evermore, it’s the 21 century nobody uses books for sources anymore everything is online.   So for the future composition classes I highly suggest every college to teach how to use sources.



Many student are using online sources than book sources