Selina Pea

Reading Response #9
A Stranger in Strange Lands: A College Student Writing Across the Curriculum
by Lucille P. Mccarthy

Text
McCarthy, Lucille P. A Stranger in Strange Lands: A College Student Writing across the
Curriculum. Research in the Teaching of English 21.3 (1987): 233-65. Print.

Summary
In the article A Stranger in Strange Lands: A College Student Writing across the
Curriculum by Lucille P. Mccarthy, the author explains how a setting can affect a students
writing. The article explains Mccarthys experiment where she uses observation, interviews,
aloud protocols, and text analysis. For her experiment she uses Dave (college student), his two
friends, and her professors to show how different settings affects students writing. In addition,
the author focuses on Daves Freshman Composition, Introduction to Poetry, and Cell Biology
courses to explain how writing for each course is different. By using Dave, it allows her audience
to see how his courses affected how he wrote.
Claim
The most important idea a peer outside this class would benefit from, is knowing that
different social settings can still have similar writing tasks.
If students are aware that different social settings have similar writing tasks, they will be
able to use their previous writing skills when doing a new written assignment.
Data
Thus in all three courses Dave's task or informational writing for the teacher-as-examiner.
All were for their purpose of displaying competence and using the ways of thinking and
writing appropriate to that setting. And in all three courses Dave wrote a series of similar
short papers, due at about three -week intervals (242)
Connection
In the article, the author uses Dave to show that even though he had different courses,
(Freshman Composition, Introduction to Poetry, and Cell Biology) they all had similar writing
tasks.The most important idea a peer outside this class would benefit from, is knowing that
different social settings can still have similar writing tasks.
If students are aware that different social settings have similar writing tasks, they will be
able to use their previous writing skills when doing a new writing assignment. In the article the
author states that all of Daves courses had similar tasks. The similar tasks are that the writings
are all informational, purpose is to display competence, are all short essays, and are directed to
the same audience. Using Dave as an example, helps prove that even though the settings are
different, they can still have similar writing tasks. Therefore, this proves that if students were to
enter a new setting, they will still be able to interpret the writing assignments.

Vocabulary
1. Corroborate: confirm or give support to (a statement, theory, or finding); Findings from
this study corroborate the notion that learning to write should be seen not only as a
development process occurring within an individual student(234)
2. Pseudonyms: a fictitious name used by an author to conceal his or her identity; pen name;
In the descriptions of these courses that follow, I use pseudonyms for the teachers.(238)
3. Monolithic: consisting of one piece; solid or unbroken; First, this study adds to existing
research that suggests that school writing is not a monolithic activity or global skill.(256)