Meetings

MEETINGS Thursday, October 16 AU Afternoon CONJOINT:(Stratton) WESTERN STATES WOMEN'S STUDIES CONFERENCE Luncheon and Program Presiding: Sharon Niederman, Metropolitan State College Sherry O'Donnell, University of North Dakota Joan Eades, University of North Dakota Secretaries: Linda Hogan, Idledale, Colorado Judith McCombs, Detroit, Michigan Expanding the Boundaries: A Seminar on Planning and Administering Women's Studies Myra Dinnerstein, Director, Southwest Institute for Research on Women, University of Arizona Sharon Niederman, Director, Outreach Education Program, Metropolitan State College Rose-Marie Oster, Associate Vice-Chancellor for Graduate Affairs and Acting Dean of Graduate School, University of Colorado, Boulder Marcia Westkott, Assistant Dean of College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs 5—6 p.m. Wine and Cheese Reception 7—10 p.m. Open House, Metropolitan State College Women's Resource Center, Auraria Campus Thursday, October 16 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. RMMLA Board Meeting(Gold) ROCKY MOUNTAIN REVIEW107 Thursday, October 16 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. TEACHING: ENGLISH COMPOSITION(Coronet) MOTIVATING THE RELUCTANT WRITER: ENTRANCE/EXIT COMPETENCIES Presiding: Nancy N. Jones, North Lake College, Irving, Texas Secretary: William J. Gracie, Miami University (of Ohio) John Spradley, Metropolitan State College, "Proficiency Examinations in Writing: The Voice of Experience." In 1976, Metropolitan State College began a proficiency examination intended to ensure that every student completing the first semester of freshman composition would have acquired "minimal proficiency." Three years and one million three hundred thousand words later, the effort was abandoned. Proficiency examinations in writing are not appropriate shortly after students are admitted to college, but with proper preparation and funding, a junior-level proficiency examination may be legally and morally defensible. Carolyn Logan, Casper College, "The Rewards of Composition: Knowledge and Liberation." The best way to motivate reluctant writers is to give them something worthwhile to write about and to reward them with knowledge and liberation. By teaching students how language works in their lives, by having them read about the significance of language in their thought and behavior, and by having them write about their discoveries of language as a tool they can master, we reward students with knowledge about a specific subject and we help them liberate themselves from the stifling linguistic habits. Jesse T. Airaudi, Baylor University, "The Reluctant Thinker and the Uses of Voice Parody in the Classroom." The reluctant thinker, encouraged by "real users" of the language — newsmen, politicians , advertisers, sportscasters, and some teachers — is dismayed when we point out the incompetencies and potential immorality of his model. Forced to choose "us" or "them," he may graduate less able to write and think than when he entered..We can gain his trust through "voice" parody, and his corrective laughter, enlightenment , and courage to speak plainly will result in greater language competency. Jerry Craven, West Texas State University, "Motivating Reluc108VOL . 34, No. 3 — CONVENTION ISSUE, 1980 tant Writers by Publishing their Work." In order to motivate a reluctant class, most of whom had taken 101 before, I asked them to assume that they were writing articles for publication in a magazine ; then I made a series of assignments that dealt with subjects of interest to each student and promised to publish their best papers. They responded well, both in pouring much energy into the first draft of each assignment and in revising carefully in case the paper were selected for publication. At the end of the semester, for a nominal cost, I had a booklet printed containing at least one essay from each student. Articles on the project in the student and city newspapers also caused them to take their writing more seriously. Lester A. Standiford, University of Texas at El Paso, "The Transfer of Motivational Techniques from the Creative Writing Classroom to the Composition Classroom." Much of a first-term course in "creative" writing must be devoted to the stripping of original motivations from students who enroll "wanting to be writers ," so that more useful basic values can be substituted. Since replacement of largely idealistic motivations is usually a more dissonant psychological process than simple learning, and since the basic values discussed are of equal importance for the beginning expository writers, this paper suggests a dual value in adapting successful...