On October 3, 2006, the University Writing Center hosted a lecture by Jon Olson, an expert on teaching writing and the director of the Center for Excellence in Writing at The Pennsylvania State University. In “Error and Improvisation” he focused on how we might approach error in student writing. In preparing this lecture, Dr. Olson noted: “In thinking about students’ writing, what kinds of errors bother us, and what should we do about those errors?”

The trumpeter Miles Davis proved instructive to Dr. Olson. When a member of his band made an error, hitting a wrong chord, Davis improvised and took the music in a new direction—he made what may have seemed wrong, right. This, Olson claims, provides a lesson for all of us teaching writing. Error, he reminds us, is in many ways a variable thing—we no longer worry, for example, about distinguishing between shall and will, who or whom. Given the changeable nature of language, and the differences we find among various types and styles of writing, we may well be wasting our time to be too picky about error. Naturally, we want student writing to be readable and presentable, but there is wide disagreement about many of the conventions that govern writing.

Olson suggests we spend as much or more time on content and on helping students write cogent and critical prose as on hunting down errors. As Miles Davis teaches us, students who don’t take risks may write correctly, but their bid for safety could also mean they don’t stretch their minds, don’t take on new voices, and don’t develop to their potential. Error can be distracting, or it can be a step in a new direction.

For Olson, then, teacher attitude is the starting point. Do attend to error. Don’t tell students you will grade for content only. Do hold them accountable. But also be sure you let them know what you consider an error, and be flexible—make sure you are reasonable about what is and is not “incorrect.” Perhaps you learned that a sentence can’t start with “but,” or that a writer should avoid contractions. Most editors don’t abide by those rules, however. (And if you check the last two sentences you’ll see I fit into this group.)

I know it’s all rather confusing, so I have created some guidelines that you can use to provide your students with your bottom line. These fairly widely accepted conventions for edited American English are available in the Pedagogy section of this web site: Punctuation, Grammar, Style, & Usage: Twelve Guidelines can be accessed by your students as well.

Error does matter, but make sure you let your students think on paper before you let them proofread for error. And don’t get too hung up on the “rules” you learned in school. Writing is so much more than that.

A COMMENT BY W. F. Krueger, Retired Professor of Poultry Science

This is indeed a good [idea for a] seminar. I always insisted that my students write paragraphs on examinations rather than make dots. It took me longer to grade the papers, but I found out who could write sensible sentences and who could not. A fairly high percentage of our Aggie students cannot write complete sentences. A friend of mine, after giving a written examination, asked a poorly performing student where the noun was in a sentence which he chose at random. The answer was, “What is a noun? I never heard of it.”

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO CONTRIBUTE A COMMENT OR ASK A QUESTION ON THIS OR ANY WRITING TOPIC, email me at V-balester@tamu.edu.