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02/03/2004 Archived Entry: "Harpers"

Harper's lists topics The Princeton Review states students should not write about. On Boing Boing, there's a bit of commentary that the list excludes "virtually every subject of moment, depth or verve that I can think of, guaranteeing that the examples in these tests will be utterly devoid of any interest-grabbing content." Yes. But more troublesome is the idea of standardized writing assessment in general. Writing about rock concerts or drugs is not the issue because the general prescriptive to write about this issues often produces trite or cliche writing. The real issues involve rhetoric and context. Why write about these issues or any issue, for that matter? And how should I write about an issue? These are relevant questions for my 409 class and our reading of Graff. Many of us recognize the limitations of standardized testing or topic assignments, yet we see their wide-scale usage still very much alive. I love to rant about placement exams, but any kind of standard, non-contexual, non-inventive method of writing ("Write about the dangers of smoking") is problematic. Not really a radical position on my part, yet I see this kind of instruction everywhere, in The Princeton Review advice, and in the composition classroom.