Tag Archives: teaching

Education, Language, Teaching ideas

On the Desire to Write…

My love of writing has never been this great! I am officially on vacation from my one and a half teaching jobs at Queens College and Hostos Community College. I say officially because I do no have to be on campus for anything. But the truth is I am not on vacation until I have reviewed term papers, tallied my students’ grades, and entered them into CUNYFirst, the platform all CUNY professors and instructors use for their grades. Still, I feel less weight on my shoulders; I am more relaxed, and I feel that I can use some of the time I currently have to revisit the numerous pieces I have written over the past several years, none of which has ever been finalized. Maybe I can even write new pieces. The point is to remain active both physically and intellectually. Consistence has always been my challenge. I tend to procrastinate sometimes, which is why none of the pieces produced over the past few years has not be finalized. But I sincerely vow to take things a little more seriously this time around. I do not have to return to work until the last week of January 2026. Besides, I have just renewed this WordPress account for two years! What can be more motivating than this?

As I gradually segue from work into my vacation, I want to believe that my commitment this time is not just wishful thinking, that it will actually lead to some kind of production. My post-doctoral journal now has 200 pages or more. Maybe something from it can trigger the desire to write a story, a chapter of a book, some research, whatever. This vacation should be different. I am sure I can produce something interesting if I set my mind to it. Will I be able to keep my word? How does one stop procrastinating? How dos one say, okay, this is all the time I have this academic break, and so I have to write diligently as if my entire life depended on it? How can turn my vacation into a productive experience?

Karate practice is another story since I don’t have to think twice before putting on my dogi; it hapens automatically every morning. I cannot function without my daily morning practice. Even when I wake up in a weird mood and don’t want to do anything, I know there is nobody to push me to don my dogi and begin sweating and going through the motions. On this front, I do not need any extrinsic motivation. Practicing Taekwondo from 1977 and Shotokan from 1980, I guess it has all become second nature. It is something that I just need to do, willy or nilly. And the good thing is when I push myself and begin my warm-up, things fall into place. I usually have a good workout, a nice and hot shower afterwards, and then the day feels much brighter than when I woke up in a poor mood.

But that’s karate! Writing should be the same, right? Probably easier said than done. For some reason, I have a difficult time keeping a daily writing schedule although I feel good when I start writing. Like this piece. I don’t feel like I am laboring through something too complicated. Yet, I hadn’t planned to write today, not not on this platform for that matter. I renewed my membership for two years to save a few bucks, and it occurred to me to review my website, and here I am, hitting on the keyboard, seemingly unable to stop. That is the kind of stamina I would like to have every day. I know that I can produce a substantial amount of writing whenever I am triggered. But I am not sure how to trigger myselft, so to speak. I need to think this through so I can write a little daily. I love to read a former professor, who wakes up early in the morning to write for several hours before beginning her daily activities with her husband and two young boys. I have read about Walter Mosley and Ernest J. Gaines and how they write for hours, take a walk or re-read what they had previously written before getting back in front of their laptop or desktop computers to write more. Why can’t I do the same thing? These are all people I look up to for their discipline and their written production. Yet, I keep procrastinating! Look what I have produced here in a short few minutes! And to think that English is not even my native language… and here I am, musing over a possible trigger to write daily. If not the money, at least I can be satisfied that I am usually satisfied and feel better whenever I devote some time to writing.

Tomorrow, I will review my students’ term papers, assign grades, tally their semester grades, and, hopefully, enter their semester graders. Maybe I can spend some time writing before or after I have completed this important task. I am a writing teacher. I may not be a creative writer, but I teach my students how to craft good essays, including research essays. I should be able to write more essays of my own beyond the doctoral coursework and dissertation. I should be able to motivate myself to delve into research mode, read up on writing and reading instruction and contribute to the extent literature in these two areas. Maybe I can write creatively as well. I took a poetry writing class as an undergraduate and completed the course with an A. I also took a memoir writing course, still as an undergraduate, and received a B+, a grade I hated, the reason why I did not take the practical component of the course the following semester. The second part of the course was focused essentially on completing the memoir or autobiography, but I was so pissed that I hadn’t received an A that I stayed away from the second part of the two-semester course, opting for other course. My over-100-page biographical piece has been in store since 2003 or 2004. Maybe I can revive it someday.

Well, this is it for today. I think I have been writing for a little over 30 minutes. Gotta keep my fingers cross for a similar inspiration tomorrow. It doesn’t matter if it is before or after completing the semester paperwork; I just want to make time for profuse writing. May the reading and writing gods be with me all along this 2025 holiday break!

I give you this piece, raw, without revisions, just musing!!!

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Education, Language, Teaching ideas

Do Writing Professors Have to Publish?

The question has crossed my mind many times. I teach freshman composition but do not consider myself an accomplished published scholar. In fact, I haven’t published much of anything apart from a few doctoral assignments edited and submitted to a college magazine, The Hostos Capstone. I have published two such articles in this magazine and an article about the use of the French language in the USA in a US-based French magazine (although the piece is in English), but nothing beyond that. I am always prepared for class and think I do a good job of conveying to my students the essence of what they need to know about writing to be successful college students. However, the lack of time (having to work two jobs at two colleges) has negatively impacted my ability to conduct research for publication in my second field, composition, the first being ESL. This begs the question of whether writing teachers or instructors need to publish in their field.

I began teaching freshman composition at a CUNY college several years ago, but I am currently employed as a part-time English faculty member at Fordham University, where I have been since September 2021. This responsibility consists of feedback on my students’ responses to the assigned readings and on major writing assignments. My students read various articles on race in the US and respond to each article. They are encouraged to use their responses for in-class participation. I typically do not collect the journals; at least, I haven’t for several years (I decided to collect them at least once this fall semester to ensure that the students are completing their work as expected.) Another area of intervention is when students complete a major assignment like one of the three required semester essays. These essays are accompanied by a scoring rubric, and students receive feedback from their peers before submitting each essay. I also take the time to provide actionable feedback on each essay in addition to checking off, on the rubric, student’s areas of improvement. Because of this, reviewing and scoring essays for my freshman courses sometimes takes up to two weeks from the day an essay is submitted. What else do I need to do beyond the above?

Many scholars have spoken and written about the connection between reading and writing. In most of the literature, we learn that we need to read to improve our own writing. Peter Elbow, the inventor of freewriting, quoted Epictetus as saying, “If you want to become a writer, write.” I am also reminded a chapter that I have my freshmen read every semester. The title is “How to Read Like a Writer” by Mike Bunn. The gist of Bunn’s advice is to notice what he calls the writerly choices, that is, the choices an author makes while composing a piece of writing, a little like how an architect designs and a home builder puts the pieces of this puzzle together, so to speak. Clearly, good writing ought to be used as a model. However, just considering the model is not enough. What we do with it matters as well, maybe even more. This is where Epictetus’ statement makes a whole lot of sense. I can spend days, weeks, months, and even years reading good literature, but unless I try my hand at writing my own piece, there is literally no way for me to gauge my own progress as a writer. It is only by writing, by developing and adhering to a daily writing routine, that I will begin to truly make sense of Epictetus’ statement.

Now, let me return to the initial question: Should a professor of writing be a published author? I have colleagues who have taught writing at the college level for many years but don’t have a single publication. Some even hold MFA degrees in writing. Being a published author certainly attests to a writing professor’s skill level as a professional. I do not think, however, that a good writing teacher necessarily has to have publications. Don’t get me wrong; I am a firm believer that we need to adhere to what we preach. If we are serious writing teachers, we should be able to produce publishable writing and lead our charge, our students, by example. It only shows that we do not just teach students skills gleaned from books; we are also capable of representing our profession on a deeper level than just serving students recipes of good writing and providing actionable feedback. How about we attempt to publish so we can be on the receiving end of feedback? That should help us, teachers of writing, see things from our students’ perspectives and help us be better teachers.

If you are a teacher, instructor, or professor of writing, including creative writing, I would appreciate your perspectives on this issue. Please be as candid as you would like; it will only enrich the conversation.

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