Box-Logic?

I do not want to sound like I am old fashioned or a kill-joy, but I guess I would be considered a traditional composition kid. I am sure that begs all types of questions of what is the traditional way to teach writing, but I guess what I mean by traditional is I am all for traditional essays. I understand the need to bring in multi-modal forms; most students will deal more with other types of writing than academic writing in their career life, but at the end of the day, I favor the essay model above any other.

Because of how I feel about composition, I did not like the “Box-Logic” article by Geoffrey Sirc. This article, along with a lot of other multi-modal pedagogy, seems to reject the idea that students should be taught to write essays. I do understand there are students like Sirc’s student, Greg White that was obviously not an English major but who could still articulate thought about a topic, but what is wrong with teaching him to write a paper? One of the things that I’ve always had drilled into my head, and that I have passed on to my none English major friends, is that no matter what your major, you will have to write papers; that being said, every student, even Greg White, needs to understand how to write a proper essay in an academic setting. While I see the benefit in the activities Sirc lists and what they teach, I think that they should either be an option in a course or an advanced course, not an introduction to composition course.

I do not want to write off multi-modal teaching because I am getting mad that multi-modal seems to write off traditional writing. I do think that Sirc’s article shuts out the idea that some students might prefer to write an essay. Speaking from personal experience I would much rather write than do anything else. If I am ever given an assignment where I have the option between a paper and a presentation or anything else, I am going to choose to do a paper. I am aware that this is not a typical student, but I think the traditional essay does need to be taught.

I did have a difficult time dealing with the concept of the box-logic. The descriptions of Cornell’s boxes seem to only be a beautiful thing in a world where the television show “Hoarders” does not exist. I do believe that as writers, students need to have a plethora of things at their disposal as possible topics to write about, and in this sense, various forms of media to use and I like how Sirc mentions that Cornell never really sealed his boxes as a way for him to return to his ideas later as a metaphor for the way students need to return to their writing over and over again (120). I suppose I just wish I could be more invested in this way of teaching; perhaps it is not an issue with the pedagogy, but with me being able to connect with it.

One of the things I did like about Sirc’s article was when he spoke about “students-designers, now, not essayists” because it opens up the idea that students are creating, and I think that this can go for essays and projects (121). I think that there is some kind of stigma that’s been put on writing papers that needs to be lifted by composition teachers. I think that supporting the multi-modal pedagogy does not mean that we have to neglect the traditional essay model of learning.