JCBohn

Thomas Hardy (author of Tess), is a personal favorite. His writing can get a bit tedious, which is true of most Victorians, but it’s worth it! Tess is a great choice.

Can’t say I’ve read Adam Bede. I did read and enjoy Middlemarch by George Eliot, though. I’ll have to check out Adam Bede!

Such a good point. “Disposable TV content” is the perfect term for what Netflix (and company) churns out. I’m embarrassed to admit that there are *so* many shows of which I’ve binged full seasons and then moved on without a second thought. They were simple background fodder while grading papers or household chores.

On the other hand, I watched both The Sopranos and The Wire for the first time over the past couple of months. The juxtaposition of going from mindless, crappy binge shows to those heavy hitting, dense, and renowned series was striking. It really made me think about the content I’ve been consuming.

This has been my exact experience with streaming, and I wholeheartedly agree that the current model is unsustainable.

I am quite late to the party as I just joined this site, but I enjoyed this piece a lot. I am an adjunct college writing professor who spent many years as a tutor prior to finishing my MA and becoming a professor. While tutoring, I gathered experiences with every level of student–from phonics, to SAT prep, to students of all ages with learning differences, to ELL adults, to undergrads across myriad disciplines, to grad students, etc., etc.. My tutoring experiences afforded me the opportunity to understand student-writer mind more clearly. In the role of tutor, I was never a “grader,” so students felt more comfortable discussing their worries, concerns, and (self-proclaimed) inadequacies with me.

A consistent trend throughout my various tutoring gigs and sessions was that students recognized terms like “outline,” “rough draft,” and “proofreading/editing,” but rarely were they taught the proper way to utilize those tools and skills to develop a recursive and effective writing process. Instead, it seems like a lot of their writing teachers either assumed that the skills were already taught and grasped or assumed that students would figure it out since the terms seem to be self explanatory. Some of these students did figure it out on their own with little problem, but to many others, the writing process felt like nothing more than a daunting compilation of busy work. Of course, this is a generalization, and it would be to my own detriment to suggest that *all* writing teachers make this mistake, but I came across this issue too many times to ignore.

To your article’s point, I appreciate the way you approached the writing process in a simple, step-by-step guide rather than just shouting “IT’S RECURSIVE!!!” and calling it a day. It is also so important that you pointed out that there are many campus resources (tutors, prof. office hours, librarians, etc.) to help with this process. I currently teach the exact same class (introduction to college writing) at both a private, four-year liberal arts college and a community college; I see wealthy, prep school students and high school dropouts alike struggle with the writing process in similar ways. My favorite line from your article addresses this point. You said, “It is much more likely that time constraints, content difficulty, and issues with class structure or instruction style are the real obstacles to performing well in English courses than any sort of personal inadequacy.” I find that, when students of all backgrounds, levels, and abilities do the work and practice the writing process, there is a lightbulb moment during which the realize how effective it really is.

All of this is to say, I am so glad to see the writing process broken down and explained in this way. Thanks for sharing.

Wholeheartedly agree.

I don’t think Frankenstein could be included in this thesis because it is not a Victorian text; it was written in 1818 by Shelley, who was a notable Romantic. You are absolutely right that it is important to discuss/consider Frankenstein in context with these three texts, though, since the Romantic focus on the grotesque and the sublime most definitely paved the way for these pieces.

Poe has some really fantastic works, and it is quite interesting to read him alongside his European contemporaries. “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Raven” are great places to start and become acquainted with his style.

Another subgenre to check out is American Southern Gothic (William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor are great to start with). The Southern Gothics use similar techniques but focus on the natural world in a more Realist style.

Happy reading!