Date:  Mon, 6 May 1996 17:14:27 -0400

From:  "Bethany K. Dumas, U of Tennessee" <dumasb[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UTKVX.UTK.EDU>

Subject: Re: Linguistic Autobiography



On Mon, 6 May 1996, Jeutonne Brewer wrote:



> Interesting coincidence. This semester I used a linguistic autobiography

> assignment. (I had used a different variant of the assignment in earlier

> semesters. This semester's effort worked better than in the past.)

> During the first few weeks of the semester, I had students read Richard

> Gunter's "Linguistic Autobiography of and American," <snip>

> Gunter's article is one model (but not the only model) they could use.

>

Students always ask for a model. So far, I have resisted providing one,

primarily because I think my students do more creative work if they don't

have a model to follow. I do not think models are bad, just that my

students tend to follow them slavishly. How do you get around that,

Jeutonne? Or is that a problem? I will not even show them previous

students' essays (even with the previous students' permission!). (I have

not read Gunter's essay yet.)



Bethany

Bethany K. Dumas, J.D., Ph.D.  | Applied Linguistics, Language & Law

Dep't of English, UT, Knoxville | EMAIL: dumasb[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]utk.edu

415 McClung Tower        | (423) 974-6965 | FAX (423) 974-6926

Knoxville, TN 37996-0430    | See Webpage at http://ljp.la.utk.edu