Writing to Bridge Cultures

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From the Instructor's Manual for The Flexible Writer, by Susanna Rich.

Here are some provisos for you to consider as your students explore similarities and differences between cultures in their writing.

Don't feel you need to have a mix of major cultures (ethnic, racial, or religious) in order to work with this topic. Any group will be concerned with issues of being an outsider, or with issues of gender and age.

Allow students to choose those issues they feel most ready or willing to approach.

At times, when a student becomes too embroiled in one perspective it may be interesting to invite the student to entertain another point of view. Ask the student to reflect on her or his reaction to doing so.

Students can write not only serious pieces but humorous ones, as well.

Sometimes considerations of audience are secondary as a student first explores a particular perspective. Don't force students to define for whom they are writing before they have written enough to understand their own point of view.

This chapter may raise some serious and important cultural concerns over which people have intense reactions. Don't feel that you have to negotiate or solve the issues. Be an attentive listener.

Some of the Explorations may result in papers that are not particularly geared towards bridging cultures, as for example, a paper on mechanical engineering. Allow these papers to take their own natural course, and don't try to force students to fulfill the major purposes set out by the chapter. However, you may want to notice the direction a paper has taken and ask the student what purpose it is fulfilling.

Avoid turning writing class into a forum for direct political action. It could alienate students who don't agree with the majority.

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