As a professor, I want to be perceived as a teacher who is respected and thought of
as intelligent. I also want to be seen as someone who sets up a positive,
comfortable, and fun learning environment. How exactly does one achieve this?
How do you walk the fine line between being too aggressive and strict and too
passive and nice? How do you preserve the formality of face-to-face learning in
an online setting, especially in a course about writing?
This week Warnock
discusses that even when teaching online, teachers have a distinct voice and
persona. In turn, how instructors choose to present themselves can affect the
behavior and work performance of his or her students. Warnock explains that
teachers develop a personality—how students perceive them—when they teach (2).
Depending on what that personality type is, it may have either a positive or
negative effect on the students and their learning experiences.
Personas to avoid
Warnock outlines a few of the personality types that instructors may want to avoid in an online learning setting:
- Unapproachable sage
- Apathetic drone
- Chum
- Fool
- Harsh Critic (4-6)
Warnock’s personas
are exactly what they sound like. The unapproachable sage stifles student
contribution because the students feel they have nothing worthy to add,
compared to the comments made by the instructor (4). Apathetic drone describes
a teacher who comes across uninterested in the course, content or students
themselves (5). The fool makes mistakes that may be viewed as unforgivable by
students, and the harsh critic strongly criticizes the students (5-6). And then
there’s the chum. This particular
persona intrigues me because I feel it relates back to our bigger question:
Where should we draw the line between formality and informality in an online
writing class?
The
Chum
As Warnock
explains, the chum is someone who allows excessive informalities into the
online discussions (5). When does informality cross the line and hinder the
students’ ability to learn and become better writers? With social media,
e-mail, texting, and yes, even blogging, new developments in our language and
how we communicate have emerged. For each of these technological writing
platforms, it’s very natural to use informalities, shortcuts, and creative
language. However, should they be deemed appropriate for an online class about
writing? From reading about Warnock’s description of the chum, I found myself
asking several questions regarding writing style in an online setting:- Are informal acronyms such as LOL appropriate?
- Does punctuation matter?
- Is it okay to use creative spellings such as u for you and thnx for thanks?
- Are emoticons appropriate?
- Is it okay to use some curse words?
The
Bottom Line
Now, the answer to
these questions may seem obvious in the context of an online class about
teaching writing. However, when considering the writing style used by most
people in electronic media, the answer may not be so simple. The NCTE advocates
that it is important for writing to be correct, but that it is also important
for writing to have a purpose and be suited for the intended audience. With this
in mind and taking Warnock into consideration, I think it’s important to teach
students that there’s a time and place for informal writing styles. Some may
disagree with me, but I think for the most part, an online writing class should
try to follow typical writing conventions: punctuation, grammar, spelling, and
mechanics. There seems to be a time and a place for overlooking punctuation and
creative spelling, like when texting, commenting on Facebook, or sending an
e-mail to a friend. Depending on how teachers present themselves in an online class, students may feel it's appropriate to disregard punctuation or even enage in cursing. I don't think emoticons or acronyms are bad. In fact, I myself use informalities on Facebook, in texts, when writing e-mails, and while tweeting on Twitter.
I think students should feel a sense of responsibility for what they write and how they write--This is why I agree with Warnock and want to avoid looking like a chum. The bottom line: students need to understand that these types of informalities probably will not be acceptable in academic, formal, and professional writing.
What do you think? Should these informalities be allowed in an online setting? Or, do they hinder students' abilities to write for a professional/formal audience?
Works Cited
National
Council of Teachers of English. NTCE Beliefs about the Teaching of Writing.
1998. Web. 30 January 2013.Warnock, Scott. Teaching Writing Online: How & Why. Urbana: National Council of Teachers of English, 2009. Print.
