Shaughnessy, Mina P. Errors and Expectations: A Guide for the Teacher of Basic Writing. New York: Oxford UP, 1977.
“For the BW student, academic writing is a trap, not a way of saying something to someone. The spoken language, looping back and forth between speakers, offering chances for groping and backing up and even hiding, leaving room for the language of hands and faces, of ptich and pauses, is generous and inviting. Next to this rich orchestration, writing is but a line that moves haltingly across the page, exposing as it goes all that the writer doesn’t know, then passing in the hands of a stranger who reads it with a lawyer’s eyes, searching for flaws.” (7)
I was hoping for more from this book, but after flipping through it, it doesn’t seem to have much to offer me (pertitent to my topic, that is; it does seem like a good book). I’ll pass it on to someone else.
