This morning, I woke up to a heated discussion on the WPA (Writing Program Administration) listserv around Rebecca Schuman’s latest article, “The End of the College Essay,” on Slate. Essentially, Schuman thinks instructors hate grading college papers just as much as how their students hate writing those papers:
So you know what else is a waste of time? Grading these students’ effing papers. It’s time to declare unconditional defeat.
She suggests the end of papers in “required courses,” one of those (as mentioned in her tweets) in which Engineering students need to take to fulfill a core requirement in their major. She also recommends bringing back St. John’s-style tribulations (oral-based evaluations) to avoid subjective grading.
Since I cannot repost the content from the emails, I have curated some responses from the Twittersphere, starting with Schuman’s announcement of her new article.
This may be the first @pankisseskafka essay with which I disagree. But, then again, I’m paid to care. – http://t.co/OeLK6DyP5K — Jonathan Rees (@jhrees) December 13, 2013
@pankisseskafka What I have to say about this requires….(I’m sorry) an essay. — Ho Ho Hen (@OhPipeDown) December 13, 2013
@pankisseskafka What I have to say about this requires….(I’m sorry) an essay.
— Ho Ho Hen (@OhPipeDown) December 13, 2013
.@pankisseskafka RC work shows that multimodality serves students. Your case against the essay is a case for multimodal pedagogy! Love it.
— Roopika Risam (@roopikarisam) December 13, 2013
Grading essays for required courses is like taking an exotic volunteer trip. It helps one person: the instructor, to feel less guilty. — Rebecca Schuman (@pankisseskafka) December 13, 2013
.@pankisseskafka This argument as you’re phrasing it seems like the first draft of a pitch to just shut down humanities colleges entirely. — Gerry Canavan (@gerrycanavan) December 13, 2013
Then she dropped the F-bomb.
DO NOT USE THE FUCKING WORD SNARK TO DESCRIBE ME. I don’t do snark. I do rage. It is very different.
— Rebecca Schuman (@pankisseskafka) December 13, 2013
@pankisseskafka the problem is your tone
— Enron (@CeoEnron) December 13, 2013
Please, Tenured Tone Police, tell me more about my tone. I am very interested to hear about how I will never make it in academia. — Rebecca Schuman (@pankisseskafka) December 13, 2013
Look at the emails of any CEO. SUB. MOTHERFUCKING. LITERATE. Nobody cares. I’m just being honest, and I’m sorry if it hurts your fee-fees. — Rebecca Schuman (@pankisseskafka) December 13, 2013
@pankisseskafka Our CEO (of a Fortune 200 company) has an English Lit degree!! 🙂
— Loren Thacker (@ThackerX) December 13, 2013
@ThackerX And yet, I would imagine even his/her (who am I kidding HIS) emails sometimes have errors, and nobody cares.
— Rebecca Schuman (@pankisseskafka) December 13, 2013
@pankisseskafka The CEO is actually a beautiful (and genuine) communicator, both in writing and orally. Also thoughtful and brilliant.
— Loren Thacker (@ThackerX) December 13, 2013
@ThackerX OK FINE HERE IS YOUR PROMOTION.
— Rebecca Schuman (@pankisseskafka) December 13, 2013
So, fellow teachers of English and composition, what are your opinions on Schuman’s proposal to eliminate essay from the humanities?
Jason Tham, Ph.D. 
On the WPA Listserv, it wasn’t much of a debate, and it wasn’t much of one on Twitter, either. She has the entire field of rhet/comp against her, and her only supporters are umm…cough other bad teachers.