"Teach
students to write" is an injunction subject to a range of interpretations.
My essay focuses on genre, but we might also note that the injunction begs the
question, "Write how?" As I was
revising this essay, I noted Bob Jakubovic's pertinent comment on NCTE's
College-Talk listserv:
So, at one point during my work at Youngstown State, a political science professor asks me, "why can't my students write?" I ask what he means...."they can't cite sources. Why can't they write?"
Bob
drew conclusions: one, that students forget what they've learned in composition
courses, and two, "each professor has his or her own standards and they
judge writing by those
standards."