The Idea of an Essay, Volume 2

179 elevate the student’s feelings of incompetence in writing and isolation from his or her peers. For instance, from the scenario in the beginning of the essay, if Sarah Lewis’s professor recognized her anxiety in the class and brought attention to her predicament in the presence of her classmates, the resulting humiliation would reinforce Sarah’s attitudes of displacement in the composition course. In addition to the ineffective solution of drawing harmful attention to the individual student who feels incompetent and isolated, the possible resolution strategy of accommodating uncomfortable students by permitting them to write about anything they desire is also unsuccessful. Some freshmen students entering the college level writing arena feel uneasy and inadequate due to self-concepts of incompetence in the topics of their assignments. If the professors attempt to solve this predicament by forsaking the requirements for the assignment subject matter, however, the students may take advantage of this freedom and choose oversimplified topics, neglecting to strive for excellence within the writing field. In today’s culture, adolescents display indifference in various areas including writing topics that do not relate to them. Margo Guillory, a homeschooling mother, attests that a lesser social pressure on students to apply themselves in settings that are irrelevant to them exists. This leads to attitudes of entitlement among students to only write about topics that amuse or connect to them in some way (Personal interview). Thus, this strategy of allowing students to write about anything they desire doesn’t resolve the situation, but instead reinforces students’ attitudes of entitlement. This solution also hampers the students’ academic performance, a result that opposes the teachers’ initial goals for their students in writing classes. Because of the harmful effects and insufficient results of these two possible solutions, professors should abstain from using them. Although some individuals might disagree with its effectiveness, an alternative approach is possible that involves the teachers’ acts of diminishing feelings of incompetence and isolation among freshmen students in the field of composition by allowing students to view themselves as a part of the writing profession and connecting the topics of writing assignments to the students. This approach includes the use of in-class peer review workshops, professor-student revision meetings, and a limited range of assignment subjects. Its effectiveness and practicality makes this