What is English?

The argument between the two basically boils down to this: the definition of English; what is it? Both Bartholomae and Elbow are trying to figure this out and teach courses accordingly so that students can have a better sense and knowledge; and this is where the conflict begins. Bartholomae comes down on the side of skepticism, whereas Elbow comes down more on the side of credulity as the governing idea in the undergraduate writing course. Bartholomae wants to teach his students in a way that they form a certain criticism or mistrust to language and writing. Elbow takes a different approach where he wants his students to trust language and writing.
Elbow and Bartholomae aren't so far apart in their views. Elbow feels that academic writing as a major part of an undergraduate training isn't feasible or desirable in a one semester introductory course, but that it needs to take longer so it can in turn benefit those who take it in the long run more than just taking it in lower level courses. Bartholomae disagrees. They are not so far apart on their stances, it's all about defining English and how best to teach it. It's an ongoing battle/argument which is old and seems never ending.....why? Because what really is English?

Scissortail Festival

I attended the Friday, April 3rd 9:30-10:45 reading. The authors were suppose to be Melissa Morphew—Sam Houston State U. Wedding Borges’ Garden. Gordon Greene—Midwest City, Oklahoma Why Don’t Elephants Play Tennis?, And Alvin Turner—East Central University Hanging Men. However, Melissa Morphew couldn’t attend, so Dr. Mark Walling, from ECU English Dept., filled in for her. Dr. Walling read first and this was interesting for I’ve had Dr. Walling in three classes before and am very familiar with him. So hearing him read his own work was different from hearing the other authors because I know him, and that was cool. If Dr. Walling’s book was turned into a movie it would get an ‘R’ rating. In movies if you use the ‘F’ word more than 3x’s it automatically gets an ‘R’ rating. He likes the ‘F’ word I noticed. But his story was very raw, very good. I was tempted to ask him if it was for sale, I really enjoyed it. He concluded his story right at a scenes climax, leaving the audience hanging. I wanted more. The next author was Gordon Greene. He read a short story, two poems, and a short essay. During his reading of his shot story Why Don’t Elephants Play Tennis? He really got into it. The story was really griping and had a few tearjerker moments. Some people in the audience even drew tears. Gordon actually started crying while reading. It became really real. He is a great public speaker. The last and final speaker was Alvin Turner. Now poor Alan, this guy put me to sleep. He was a cute little old man, and made a few of the audience chuckle, but he as mono tone and I yawned too many times. I tried to keep from it but this story was more like a bedtime lullaby then an interesting award winning tale.
On a side note I’m very glad that you assigned this extra credit assignment. Normally I wouldn’t have even tried to go. All the times listed were either during one of my classes or interfered with my work schedule. With this assignment being worth extra credit it motivated me to rearrange my schedule to go to this. Now that I have I’m really glad I did. I enjoyed this experience and had a pretty good time. There is nothing like watch an author reading their own works, seeing the pride in their faces as they speak, and hearing a story come to life. If I had to pick a favorite, even though Gordon Greene had the best speaking voice for this kind of thing, Dr. Mark Walling’s story was the most enjoyable. Now I don’t know if this is because I’m biased because I know him that I feel this way, but his story was really enjoyable and I wanted to hear more. If a story can make you yearn for more than you know it must be good. I found myself feeling like I was in the story and apart of the scenes. It came alive to me and that was well worth going to this festival. If one book can come alive for you and let you enter an alternative world, than its well worth it to have this festival and now I’m a fan and a supporter of the Scissortail Creative Writing Festival and will continue to go to these reading as much as I can now. Thanks for assigning this to us, it was cool.