Steinberg, Michael. “Writing Creative Nonfiction: A Personal Narrative.” Writing on the Edge, Vol. 18, No. 1, Regents of the University of California Press, 2007.
This article, the personal narrative of Steinberg’s career, outlines his journeys as both writer and teacher, and the ways in which those two journeys are intrinsically intertwined. While especially not prescriptive in its approach, Steinberg purports that the teaching of creative non fiction may complement and improve upon the teaching of composition. Through personal anecdote, Sternberg takes his reader through the trajectory of the teaching of composition and the multitude of pedagogical approaches that have come and gone with the decades. Particularly resonant for me is Steinberg’s idea that “writing teachers should be people who write,” as well as the nonlinear journey he took to becoming a writer and teacher of creative non-fiction.
Early in his career, Steinberg was charged with implementing an experimental (for the time) writing program with a focus on personal writing. He notes that his students responded well when, “freed… from the prescriptions of topic sentences and traditional rhetorical forms,” an idea encapsulated by an included quote from John Boe, who said “if we try to get students to write according to models we normally give them in composition anthologies, invariably we end up teaching creative nonfiction.” Writing in first person singular generated enthusiasm in his students, as did writing about subjects of personal significance. Though the experimental writing program did not last due to its unquantifiable results, similar modes of teaching composition have since entered the pedagogical lexicon.
