Argument for Integrated Reading and Writing

Dear English Department,

I think it would be in the interests of our students if we offered an integrated reading/writing course at the basic English level.

As of now, we are offering a reading course and a writing course.  In the last decade or so many composition researchers have convincingly argued that students will become better readers and writers if they are taught these subjects using an integrated methodology. 

In the literature, composition researchers have reported many beneficial effects of teaching reading and writing in an integrated classroom.  Goen and Gillote-Tropp (2003) state that understanding one process can help the learning of the other.  Sandra Stotsky (1984, as reported by Goen and Gillote-Tropp) has noticed that better writers not only tend to be better readers, but also tend to just read  more than poor writers.  Salvatori (1996) has noted that introspective reading has a stimulative effect on IRW students’ writing; furthermore, Petrosky (1982) has noted that practicing writing has improved his IRW students’ reading development.  McCormick (1994), however, has noted that if reading and writing are taught separately, these beneficial effects are lost.

Goen and Gillote-Tropp (2003) report that students who spent a year in an IRW course at San Francisco State University successfully completed the course and the CSU at a rate of 97%, 13% higher than students who attended a traditional course (84%).  Students in the SFSU IRW course also scored higher term final reading evaluations and writing than students in the traditional course.  Beside superior scores, students from the IRW course indicated in self evaluations that they felt more confident in their reading, writing and learning skill.  Further, these students passed second year reading and writing courses at a higher rate than those students who attended the traditional course (97% compared to 90%). In later years, these scores went up even higher, indicating a comprehensive and sustained improvement of student learning outcomes, and perhaps more importantly, student success.

I would like to think that my goal as a composition instructor is not only to get a student to read critically and write convincingly, but also to analyze the way that he or she thinks about the world.  McCormick states that reading should not just be something we do before we write, and writing should not just be something that we do after reading.  We, as instructors, should think of reading

…as an analogue for thinking about  one's  own and  others' thinking, about  how one's thinking  ignites and is ignited  by the thoughts of others, [and] justifies the presence of reading in composition classrooms not as  a pretext but as  a context for writing. (1994)

I hope you will seriously consider my recommendation to establish an basic skills integrated reading and writing course at our institution.  I truly believe it is the best for our students and their future.