This is Erlyn Baack, owner of ESLBEE.COM, which is Advanced Composition for Non-Native Speakers of English at http://eslbee.com. I'd like to begin by saying it's fairly easy to tell the new school year has begun in many places because ESLBEE.COM set a record for the number of hits last month! Additionally, this newsletter has gotten many new subscribers as well. Welcome!

I'd like to open a free website space for the improvement of English Composition, a space called INQUIRY INTO ISSUES at http://eslbee.com/academy. I would like to open this space to everyone within a month (by November 1, 2010), but first, and for the next week or two, I would like to make an appeal to the English teachers who MIGHT be interested in enrolling their class(es), especially if the new research space does what it is designed to do.

I would ask all English teachers, ESL teachers in the US or any other English speaking country and EFL English teachers from anywhere to send me a letter at http://eslbee.com/email.htm explaining (1) where you are from, (2) the number of students who might enroll, (3) specific ISSUES you might like to see in the research space, and (4) any other specific objectives you might like to accomplish within ESLBEE.COM.

As I said at http://eslbee.com/academy, research shows that inquiry leads to the greatest gains in composition, especially inquiry into issues about which students are interested.  I've mentioned issues such as global warming, effects of watching television, and free trade, but there are MANY other issues, and what I am looking for in letters from teachers is a comment about other important topics as well.  In addition, it MIGHT be possible to begin a forum within the space for discussion about current events, possibly a new set of events every week about US News, World News, Politics, Sports, Social, etc.

I've noticed that many forums in many papers last about a day, and for the most part, comments don't usually get read or responded to, but the research space, INQUIRY INTO ISSUES, will be a space that can allow more time for writers to respond (fewer stories though).

In general, and for your information, http://eslbee.com/academy will be open ONLY to subscribers, NOT to the general public or "guests," and it will be open ONLY to ESL/EFL students and teachers, basically, from around the world.  The first policy is RESPECT for different customs and cultures. 

Yes, there will be different viewpoints, but different views must be expressed from an ACADEMIC perspective, always with a positive push for better understanding.

I have seen many times how individuals from various language groups and cultures can promote both encouragement and mutual understanding, and it is a wonderful site to behold.

This is why I am asking that TEACHERS please write to provide some input about what YOU are most interested in accomplishing with your students in this space.  Please write to me at http://eslbee.com/email.htm .  PLEASE NOTE:  To send the email, there is a CAPTCHA image (four letters and or numbers) which must be entered into the text box.  If you do not include the CAPTCHA image, I will not get your letter.

Finally, in this space, this blog, both teachers and students can respond.  In what types of classes would you like to participate? 

This message contains information about a site update in the ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY section of ESLBEE.COM.

May 4, 2010, is the FORTY YEAR ANNIVERSARY of the Kent State Shootings, an event in which the Ohio National Guard shot 67 rounds into Kent State University Students over a period of 13 seconds, killing four students and wounding nine others, one of whom suffered permanent paralysis from the chest down.

May 4, 1970, was a period in US history when outrage against the Vietnam war was near its peak. Only a week earlier, then President Richard Nixon had announced extended bombing runs into Cambodia.

This link, http://eslbee.com/calendar/may.htm, contains a brief summary of the Kent State Shootings plus links to a CNN News report, an audio interview with John Filo, the student who took the photo of then 14-year-old Mary Ann Vecchio kneeling over the body of Jeffrey Miller, killed instantly when hit by a bullet fired by the Ohio National Guard, and a link to a Wikipedia article containing over 70 more links to original source material for those interested in further research into the Kent State Shootings. In the aftermath, for example, student riots across the country forced over 450 campuses to close with both violent and non-violent demonstrations.

Maybe you will see US Television News Reports about the forty-year-anniversary of the Kent State Shootings, but probably not.

To those of us who lived through it, those were turbulent times.

I have recently seen an extreme surfing video of Laird Hamilton who is considered the best big wave surfer of all time.  The video itself is incredible as is the dialog that accompanies it.  Listening carefully, the dialog contains many examples of parallel structure such as (1) ...I'm arriving at this level because I'm being driven by these guys to this level, (2) ...so treacherous and so outrageous..., (3) ...so powerful and cylindrical..., (4) ...extremely shallow, razor sharp..., (5) mass, power, and ferocity..., (6) ...neither Laird nor Derek Dorn..., (7) ...you've seen Pipeline, you've seen Off the Wall, you've seen Waimea, you've seen everything..., (8) ...Where and what is that?..., (9) ...what I've been able to have, experience, do....

Because the dialog in this video goes quickly, most instances of parallel structure are included above, but an attentive listener can probably pick up more instances of parallel structure. 

Enjoy this video!  Click HERE (will open in new window).

Finally, what example of parallel structure can YOU find online?  If you would like to make a contribution, please respond with an example of parallel structure and the http link where the parallel structure was found.  (The link will be converted to a live link automatically.)

Writing for Peace (PDF file will open in new window) is a chapter from Barrel of a Pen: Resistance to Repression in Neo-Colonial Kenya by Ngugi Wa. Thiong’O.  In this brief essay, Ngugi describes the economic, political, and cultural imperialism that dominated Kenya 22 years ago (during the Ronald Reagan administration). 

Writing for Peace is as important today as it was when it was written, especially for high school and university students in third-world countries, politely referred to as "developing countries" as Ngugi says in his essay.

Writing for Peace is especially appropriate writing classes because different writers have different responsibilities according to Ngugi Wa Thiong'o.  For example, the writer from Europe has a "special responsibility" defined by Ngugi Wa Thiong'o as follows:

He must expose to his European audience the naked reality of the relationship between Europe and the third world.  He has to show to his European reader that, to paraphrase Bertolt Brecht, the water he drinks is often taken from the mouths of the thirsty in the third world, and the food he eats is snatched from the mouths of the hungry in Asia, Africa, and South America.

In addition, writers from developing countries have a responsibility to their own people according to Ngugi.  Of their responsibilities, Ngugi says, 

But the responsibility also belongs to the writer from the third world.  From Kenya to South Korea to South America the third world is ringed round by US nuclear and conventional military bases.  The United States supports the most repressive regimes in the third world.  Uncle Sam sits on the backs of millions in the third world and loudly calls for stability.  The third world writer must be on the side of the struggles of those sat upon.

Finally, all writers have a responsibility according to Ngugi:

Writing for peace should at the very least mean raising human consciousness to an uncompromising hatred of all exploitative parasitic relations between nations and between peoples within each nation.  In our world today, this would mean continued exposure and opposition to imperialism currently led by the US.  "Get off our back!" should be the unanimous cry of all the democratic forces of peace, for we must all struggle for a world in which one's cleanliness is not dependent on another's dirt, one's health on another's ill-health, and one's welfare on another's misery.

Ngugi Wa Thiong'o's essay, Writing for Peace, is just three pages, an essay written about the economic, political, and cultural imperialism that existed in Kenya 22 years ago during the Ronald Reagan administration.  Today's readers of Writing for Peace cannot help but notice the fact that not much has changed.

The book from which Writing for Peace is written is old and out of print, but the bibliographic information is below.  The essay, Writing for Peace, is available here with the permission of Ngugi Wa Thiong'o.

Thiong'O, Ngugi Wa.  "Writing for Peace." Barrel of a Pen:  Resistance to Repression in Neo-Colonial Kenya.  Trenton, Jew Jersey:  Africa World Press, 1983.  71-75.

Some essays are made for English Composition classes, and Why Write? (PDF file will open in new window) is such an essay.  Why Write? is Chapter Two of the book, Teaching English Composition, Principles and Techniques, by Jane B. Hughey, et al., and I first became acquainted with the book about 1993-94 during graduate studies.  The book was old and out-of-print then and is harder to get now which is why I will probably choose a few more chapters to put online in this blog.

I would like to explain a few reasons for using Why Write? in my classes.  First the chapter itself is an excellent model for organized writing, and almost always students write their own essays very much like the organized chapter they are writing about.  Second, the dichotomy mentioned in the first paragraph and the reasons for writing in the successive paragraphs are reminders to students why they write and further reasons for writing.

In the introductory paragraphs to Why Write?, Jane B. Hughey presents a dichotomy between two types of writing, which she calls meaningful writing and meaningless writing.  The meaningful writing is that which is done for self.  Meaningless writing is that which is done for others, sometimes teachers.  This is writing that does not necessarily represent the real view of the author, but it represents a "supposed" view or the view of the teacher for a grade, nothing more.  This is writing that goes to the trash when it is returned to the student, sometimes when the student is walking out the classroom door.

The four reasons for writing are easily identified by students.  One of the most important reasons for writing is that "writing is for critical thinking and problem solving."  I believe this is especially important, first, because writing ideas requires the writer to think about an issue before committing it to paper.  Ideas written should be organized, which requires thought.  Then, once something is written, it is possible to read it from the perspective of a third person.  It is possible to say "This is what I thought then."  Having the ability to hold an essay or an idea in one's hand gives the writer the ability to see as BOTH writer and reader, which is the ability to see from two perspectives, not just one.  This in itself is the crux:  Through writing, writers develop consciousness, something not possible (or at least extremely difficult) for those who do not or cannot write.

Another important reason for writing is that "Writing Helps Us Control Personal Environment."  The personal environment of a university student may be his/her immediate family, extended family, neighborhood, school or university, community, state, and country, and the larger the "personal environment," the less "control" the writer would have.  However, it is the writer's responsibility to "choose" the environment in which he/she would have the most impact.  While a student writer could not necessarily greatly influence the foreign policy of his/her country, the writer may have some influence in a decision whether to open a Walmart in his/her neighborhood.  Non-native speakers (NNS) of English should also consider writing to control personal environment from their perspective.  Often NNS have a unique world-view that permits them to push toward their view of a better world, which is what they should do given their ability to write in English for a larger audience.

In sum, the way the semesters are divided in Mexico, which is into thirds, each lasting about a month, I always distribute this essay to students at about week two, and during their first in-class exam, students write their responses to this essay.  In ALL cases, the essays contain six paragraphs, an introduction within which they respond to the "dichotomy" question, then four paragraphs within which they respond to "examples" from their own writing in English or Spanish, and then a conclusion in which they offer a brief summary of their essay.

Interestingly, when I hand the exam back with my comments and their grade, I ask the class to think about the dichotomy, and then I ask this quesion:  "Would you call this essay (1) meaningful writing or (2) meaningless writing?  The responses are always "interesting."

It is possible to download Why Write? HERE, and the following text is like a "study guide" that students may use to prepare for an in-class discussion or an in-class written exam:

Possible Discussion Topics:  (1) In the introduction, Jane Hughey presents a dichotomy between two types of writing.  What two types of writing does Hughey present, and what are their differences?  (2)  What are the four purposes for writing according to the authors?  Give an example of each, either in English or your first language?  (3)  What is the fourth reason for writing, and why is it significant?  What are some examples of "personal environment" for university students?  Suggest instances in which control of personal environment is important both now for university students and in the future for independent business representatives serving the interests of (your country)?