Limiting the Extra Fish

In the New York times, Stanley Fish writes an article "What Should Colleges Teach?" He claims that Middle school and High School Teachers do not teach the basics of writing. He believes that first year college students are not ready for college level writing because of the lack basic writing teachings. From his experiences he believes sentence structure is important to be taught in the class room. Such as in "What Should Colleges Teach?" he says, "1. A sentence is an organization of items in the world. 2. A sentence is a structure of logical relationships." Fish makes a valid point on how many teachers do not teach the basics of writing. Even myself, still struggle with sentence structure and the way they should flow together.

Narrow to Importance

As you can see fish makes a valid point on how sentence structures are a struggle for first year students, even myself. I have to agree with him that college professors should teach sentence structures the first year. I also have an idea of an important idea that can be taught along the side if that and that is "limitation." I got this idea by observing tutoring sessions I was assigned to at The Ohio State University of Newark Writer's Studio. Limitation can work with just about anything, such as a primary source, research and during the process of writing an outline.

One way limitation is important to teaching in college is limiting a primary source. When limiting your primary source you can start off by writing down questions and then answering those questions can lead you to valuable information you may need to start your paper off. A primary source can be a photo, article or even your own research. For instance while I was in the Writer's studio I was observing a session where a student was asking questions on her primary source, which was a photo. The PWC asked a questions, "What is repeating in the photo?" the student answered "There is black and white throughout the photo." There was a description she needed for part of her paper. The student continued writing down questions about the photo and got all her information she needed.

A second way limitation is important to teaching in college is limiting in research. You can limit your search through databases your school may have. It benefit less time spent researching for sources you need. Also when limiting your search you can search for specific things as Northeast Community College explains under their Library Resources, "Many databases allow you to limit your search to a specific type of article (peer-reviewed or referred for example), articles published within a certain time frame, articles with images or graphics, or articles from a particular journal." By using databases such as ebscohost there are advance searches you can use to limit your search as they explain from the Northeast Community College. You are able to get reliable sources from their. It can be helpful for a secondary source you might need.

"Focus"

Third way limitation is important to teaching in college is limiting in your outline. An outline is not just a structure, you can look at it as a tool for limiting in each part of your rough draft. An outline makes it easier to look at each paragraph individually rather than all together. Another thing it helps gives you a limit to ideas to be put into your paper. Being able to use this technique or thinking as an outline as a limiting source, it can make it easier to write your paper as a whole. Last an outline can make things more benefical for yourself when you go to add detail to your ideas, you will know what specific things you are looking for while writing your paper.

Stanley Fish, a guy who believes sentence structure should be taught properly in the classroom according to his article "What Should Colleges Teach?" Again, I agree that it should be, but I do also think "limitation" should be taught in the classroom. Along the lines of limitation I believe it should be taught with a primary source, research and in an outline. I think by using limitation in writing in college can help improve more students in getting more of their information easier and evaluating things better.