Writing Narratives, Winning Praise: Plan II Writing Flag Instructor Coaches Students to Succeed
In the first two years of the School of Undergraduate Studies Student Writing Flag Award, Professor Matt Valentine’s students have dominated the Creative/Reflective category. Entries from his Plan II Writing Narratives class won First and Second Place in 2017, and Third Place and Honorable Mention in 2016.
Asked about his students’ impressive performance, Prof. Valentine attributed their success in large part to his simply urging them to enter the contest. Even though the Writing Flag Award offers substantial prizes ($300, $200, and $100 for First, Second, and Third Place, respectively), he finds that students need a lot of encouragement to submit their work.
Valentine tells his students that knowing their work will be read by judges will help them see their writing more objectively. As a result, they produce better finished work than they otherwise might, so the contest also produces better outcomes for his class overall.
Moreover, entering the contest is useful, he believes, “because for many students it will be their first experience with rejection, which is a healthy thing for writers to encounter early.” Valentine, an author himself, with bylines in The Atlantic, Politico, and the literary journal Cutbank, among other outlets, shares his own rejection letters with his students to help them learn to respond productively to real-world feedback.
Asked why narrative is a valuable genre for undergraduates to study, Valentine responded, “Narrative is an important way in which we understand the world — in politics, in journalism, in all kinds of decision-making. So, thinking about narrative in a deliberate way, including the ways narrative can distort experience, is central to developing critical thinking and communication skills.”
In his class, Valentine has students read and discuss fiction, narrative poetry, lyrical poetry, and creative non-fiction, making connections between them, and considering the applicability of various techniques across genres. For example, they discover that the craft tools of fiction and poetry — the effects of sound, descriptive detail, and so on — can be used to good effect in essay writing as well.
But what is central to a good writing class, in Valentine’s opinion, is simply “reading others’ work with an explicit purpose of studying the craft involved in writing it.” The genres under consideration are less important than the process of identifying the techniques used; how, when, and why; and increasing students’ awareness of the options available to them as writers. This explicit attention to the craft of writing is a hallmark of the Writing Flag program, which provides UT undergraduates with writing-intensive experience in every college and school, providing exposure to writing in fields as diverse as biology, statistics, dance, civil engineering, and government.
Some of Valentine’s students have gone on to careers in professions like journalism, where writing narrative is part of the job they do every day. Others are now using the skills learned in his class in ways they might not have anticipated. Some in the medical professions are finding more effective means of communicating with patients. Valentine’s former students now launched in business careers have found their experience with narrative helps them give more persuasive presentations. Regardless of their career paths, the experience gained in their Writing Flag class is helping them connect and communicate successfully.
Undergraduate students in any Writing Flag class this year may enter work produced for that class in the 2018 School of Undergraduate Studies Writing Flag Award competition. Work may be submitted in one of four categories: Research, Persuasive/Critical, Creative/Reflective, or Collaborative. The contest deadline for 2018 is 11:59 p.m. on December 19, 2018. For full contest details, and to read all the winning entries, please visit the contest page at the Center for the Skills & Experience Flags website.
The Skills and Experience Flags are a unique and innovative feature of all undergraduate degrees at The University of Texas at Austin. The Flags are designed to provide the enriched education that all students will need to become effective future leaders in our society and a constantly evolving workplace.
By Susan (George) Schorn, Writing Flag Coordinator for CSEF
