Student-Centered Writing

We have a discussion ongoing on our program listserv, about student-centered writing. From that came a discussion of the I-Search paper, late of Ken Macrorie. While I agree that this type of paper has a lot of potential, a quick search of the Internet shows that it is being used in grade schools. It seems to me that if students are likely to have that experience early on in their education, maybe--just maybe--we could raise the bar a bit.

As I thought more about the postings, it seems to me that we have to take into account the natural writing students do today, and how different that is from what they were doing back at the time Macrorie conceived this approach to research writing. Students have more than a few opportunities to practice student-centered writing--in IM chats, emails, and blogs. In fact, I think that well-researched blogging is sort of the contemporary equivalent of the I-Search.

At any rate, I sense the usual defensiveness--attempting to elevate by denigrating other approaches to writing. It's so counter-productive because the various approaches can complement each other.