Just as our students must have the right to read, broadly and with choice, they also must have the right to write. Our job is to help our students 鈥渇ind their words,鈥� to guide them
鈥淸t]hrough the often messy process of writing. . .[as they] develop strategies to help them come to understand lessons within the curriculum as well as how their language and ideas can be used to communicate, influence, reflect, explain, analyze, and create.鈥�
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The magic of writing, as the with Penny Kittle so aptly demonstrates, is connection to self. We can鈥檛 deny students this.
鈥溾�� points out the importance of having students analyze the language used by Andrea Pinkney in Sojourner Truth鈥檚 Step-Stomp Stride, for example, to learn that
鈥淎ll good writers think very carefully about the choices they make . . . in order to express their ideas in ways that are most powerful and true.鈥�
In her 1995 CCC article “,” Lillian Bridwell-Bowles claims academic writing still needs the upset and complement of alternate writing:
“writing that is not always about later, about jobs and careers, but writing that is about themselves as people, as individuals and citizens of various communities.”