Writing personality

Bean points out some interesting ways in which “assigning different genres can draw out the strengths of different kinds of learners and may provide cognitive benefits revealed by recent research in brain imaging” (p. 59). Most striking to me of these discussions were the results of research by Jensen and DiTiberio (1989) which “used the Myers-Briggs inventory to reveal different assignment preferences among writers” (p. 62). It frequently happens that some students greatly enjoy and learn from a particular writing assignment while others do not. Rather than searching for writing assignments that all students enjoy, perhaps it would be better to provide choice within a given writing assignment.

In a course that I teach for future educators and service professionals on how to interact with non-native English speakers, I ask students to write a persuasive letter advocating for a type of instruction for English Language Learners (ELLs). This type of writing appeals to me because I’m an N (intuitive) type who “[rebels] against prescribed patterns and [likes] looser assignments that give them room for their own unique or creative personal touches” (p. 62). I choose a letter as a genre because it was more flexible and interesting than a five paragraph essay and it seemed both more approachable as a genre and more likely to be used by students in future writing. It had not occurred to me that the lack of structure of the assignment might make some S (sensing) types feel uncomfortable. I wonder how I could change this assignment to make it appealing to a wider range of students, while still engaging the material (different approaches to the education of ELLs).