The Idea of an Essay, Volume 3

132 The Idea of an Essay: Volume 3 overlooks the social aspect of writing. When professors take the social aspect of writing out of the writing process, students struggle to understand the material which leads to ineffective writing. While many professors do not realize it, writing is supposed to be social. I do not want anyone to misunderstand, I do not mean that friends should surround the writer while he or she is writing. The writer would find it difficult to accomplish anything in this situation. Instead, I am speaking of social encouragement and critique in writing. Lucille Parkinson in her research study “A Stranger in Strange Lands: A College Student Writing across the Curriculum,” she followed the college writing career of Dave. She observed his writing in three different classes: English Composition, Poetry, and Chemistry (236). She noticed that Dave performed fairly well in the writing assignments for both English Composition and Chemistry. However, in his poetry class, Dave almost failed the writing assignment. The difference, Parkinson found, was that in both Composition and Chemistry, the professor allowed Dave to discuss the material and the paper with his classmates and even to have an individual session with his professor. But the poetry professor, forbade any of his students collaborating or critiquing each other’s papers (243). Because the professor did not allow Dave and his fellow students to discuss and critique they did not understand the material. This lack of socialization in writing impairs students and fosters poor writing. Historically, professional writers recognize the necessity of social writing. Famous and successful writers formclubs, gather together at writing conferences, or converse one on one about their latest work. One of the most famous social writing clubs was called the Inklings. David Downing in his article, “Who were the Inklings?” explains that the Inklings were a group of about a dozen British men, who were also aspiring writers. They wanted to have weekly meetings so that they could listen to each other’s work, critique it, and then offer encouragement the writer. Two of the Inklings’ prominent members were C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien (par. 2). Both of these men are well known for their creative writing and some of that credit goes to the Inklings for their social support. Without this group, Tolkien and Lewis would not have had the criticism to make their work better, nor the encouragement to continue writing. These successful writers placed great value on discussion, but somehow the current