Faculty Lunch: The Writing Instructor's Dilemma

Date: 

Tuesday, September 24, 2019, 12:00pm to 1:00pm

Location: 

50 Church St. 3rd Floor

Michael Pollan Michael Pollan, Lewis K. Chan Arts Lecturer and Professor of the Practice of Non-Fiction

Teaching students to write well is one of the most fundamental goals of a university education—and yet it has proven to be one of the most challenging and, for many instructors, elusive parts of the job. While many universities provide first-year students with expertly staffed and sequenced writing courses (like Harvard’s own Expos), much of the writing done there—and, indeed, throughout the entire undergraduate curriculum—is geared toward genres that are either heuristic constructs or limited to the confines of disciplinary conventions. In this lunchtime talk, Michael Pollan will share his own approach to working with students on the next phase of their growth as writers, one in which he is less the instructor than his students’ editor, and in which they are invited to pursue an apprenticeship in the craft to which he has dedicated his own career. Don’t miss the opportunity to learn more about how Pollan develops his students’ potential and to come away with specific advice that you can use in creating and grading your own writing assignments.

Highlights from Michael Pollan's Lunch