University Daily Kansan, April 10, 1985
CAMPUS AND AREA
Page 10
Clear writing a must, Harvard director says
By PATRICIA SKALLA Staff Reporter
The next time people tell you they know all there is to know about anything, ask them to put it in writing.
"Writing is the best measure, maybe the only measure, to determine whether a person has authority in an area of knowledge." Richard Marius, director of expository written by Harvard University, said yesterday.
Marius is on campus through today to stress to faculty that the ability to write well should be emphasized in every discipline, Haskell Springer, director of freshman and sophomore English, said yesterday.
People can claim to demonstrate their authority on a topic by talking around it, but only through writing can someone really demonstrate knowledge of issues and make interpretations from them. Marus said.
"It's a slow process, and you never will convince everybody," Marius said.
But making faculty and students understand the importance of writing is difficult, he said.
PROFESSORS THINK teaching students to write well means teaching grammar, Marius said. What it really means is teaching students to write a coherent paper using quotes from authorities, facts and inferences from facts.
"Teaching of writing is nothing more than asking that papers make sense," he said.
Too many teachers still operate on the 'empty bucket' theory of teaching. Marius said. According to the theory, students represent buckets that teachers are supposed to fill with knowledge without regard to how much information the students retain.
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When teachers realize they have a responsibility not only to give information, but also to receive responses from students, they will turn to writing, he said. Writing will begin to teach people to control information, not just recall it.
The writing center will be a place where all faculty can go for help, he said. Professors and graduate teaching assistants will be able to seek advice, attend workshops and participate in team building, can teach their students how to control the information they write about.
SPRINGER SAID HE hoped KU faculty would begin to emphasize writing in their fields by taking advantage of the writing center scheduled to open this fall in Wescoe Hall.
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Marius said students would begin to understand the importance of controlling information when they were forced to write something that must be understood.
"Write a good memo, and the world will beat a path to your door," he said.
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