Sherwood's article on the potential dangers of exercising censor touched me deeply. It is indeed true that although we are taught to pay the utmost respect to students and their writings, we as writing consultant also seem to share a common idea of what is and is not acceptable in academic writing. Either through our training or our absorption of academic values, we are always concerned about expressing ideas that could be potentially offensive, sexist or racist etc... Yet it is important to notice that NOT all good writers uphold such notions equally. I've read papers that are very, very well written but contain full of politically/religiously charged bias. That, however, doesn't mean that we can feel free to take away their freedom of speech. By doing so we are violating one of humanity's most natural rights. Although we are "trying to help the student" because we think that such writing would give them into a lot of trouble, we should also remember that more often than not, the students who are confident and reckless enough to write such things are also confident and reckless enough to accept criticism the world can throw at them. Sometimes it is the best form of learning. Holding students back from expressing their beliefs could be detrimental to their academic development.
This reminds me of my Vietnamese education and of my primary reason to come to the United States. Back home, teachers act as constant and watchful overseers and enforcers of the state's doctrines. They ensure that students will only say what they are allowed to say, and that revolutionary ideas are suppressed with extreme prejudice. I remember well the frustration of such mental imprisonment. Consequently, I would not travel half way across the Earth to enact such censorship on students again.
It is true though that sometimes students are not sure of what they are saying and thus they put much faith in writing consultants. In such case I think the best course of action is to inquire a little deeper to see if the students' beliefs are adamant enough to hold up on their own. If yes, we should do what we are supposed to do: helping them articulate their ideas. If not, we could offer a more careful approach and encourage students to go deeper in their beliefs. By doing so we eliminate the risk of censorship and we encourage pro-active learning.
Is it better for a writing consultant to tell/give the student warning on writing what could be seen as an offensive standpoint in a paper or is it not the consultants responsibility and doing so would impede on the writer's first amendment rights? I think we need a balance between these two standpoints. It is not our job as consultants who tell a writer if a paper is offensive and to change it, but instead we should bring up our concern to the writer and ask them to go to their teacher for continual help on the matter. I think this is a nice balance between not raising the issue at all and impeding on what the writer wants to convey to his audience: first raise our concern to the writer in session and then allow them to go to their professor to get feedback if the material is indeed offensive or not.
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