How would you feel if you took a college writing class, and the instructor put certain topics off limits?

Question

For example, let's say the instructor is sick of reading essays on abortion, gun control, death penalty, etc. So, the instructor tells students that they cannot choose to write about that topic.

Here's another example: let's say the instructor has a very passionate view on abortion and knows that he/she is unable to objectively grade essays on the topic. So, the topic becomes verboten. Is this better or worse than the previous example?

How would you react? Would you feel like the instructor is being unfair, unprofessional? Or would you understand the instructor's position for making the topic(s) off limits?

Answer 1

That's actually a really good Question. On the one hand, the instructor IS in charge of the class, so simply put, whatever he says, goes. Consider it just another class requirement, like a #2 pencil or a scientific calculator.

This sounds like an example of "less is more". Rather than telling you which topics are off-limits, the instructor ought to simply provide you (the students) with a list of topics to choose from. The instructor can then omit whichever topics he chooses. Whatever his/her reasons for omitting particular topics, the instructor is keeping his/her views or opinions to him/herself.

I think that would be a more "fair" practice. You (the students) shouldn't have anyone's beliefs imposed on you.

Answer 2

First of all, and to be completely honest, when a professor sets a limit on a topic, I respect the limit. Maybe I'm a tool, but the professor has the right to set parameters.

If a professor is fully aware of his or her own bias, I can respect that. He/She should be a bigger person than to allow his or her own opinions to interfere with reading your work objectively, but if he or she is not, then I completely respect that kind of self-awareness.

As far as taking certain topics off the table, there are a lot of topics that have just been hashed and rehashed, about which you've probably even written a few papers. I think he/she recognizes that you have stores of essays on gun control, or that there are millions of death penalty essays on the internet already. Perhaps the professor wants you to expand beyond these topics.

Another reason may be the fact that you too have passionate views on these subjects. The paper wouldn't actually stretch your writing or thinking. Moreover, people hold very strong opinions on these subjects that truly aren't their own. People are after all products of their cultures, families, religions, governments. Maybe he or she is trying to make you find a new topic and form a new opinion. It's discourse, and I respect that too.

Answer 3

I think it makes sense to me. In the first example, not only is the professor sick of reading those essays, but for the students, most already have a strong opinion one way or the other, so the paper isn't going to be as challenging as one on a topic they have to think about a lot to form an opinion.

The second example does seem unprofessional. A professor or instructor should be mature enough to grade papers based on their writing quality, not on whether they agree with the opinion. However, it does happen, like to a friend of mine who took a pro-Isreal stance in a pro-Palestine teacher's class. But forbidding the topic in question is perhaps an acceptable way to deal with the problem. It would be better for the instructor to see beyond his or her own views and grade papers objectively, but that is not always going to happen.

Answer 4

It's very common for professors to limit the topics. It's their class and they have the option to set the curriculum (within university requirements). Most have never even read an essay on those topics you listed, but they don't WANT to because those topics have been rehashed over and over and over. They're also very passionate subjects where it would be extremely difficult to keep an objective view of the topic.

What's worse than having a professor telling you what topics you can't write on is one that gives you a list of topics and you must pick one. There are usually only 5-10 options and you're lucky if 1 even remotely interests you. I'd much rather have one tell me what I CAN'T do than what I HAVE to.

AFA bias coming into play regarding grading, it's unfortunate, but it happens. At least he/she is realizing that they could not be fair and are acting accordingly. I've actually written papers that directly contradict what the professor taught about a particular work and they LOVED it (granted, it was on a piece of Literature, but it was still diametrically opposed to what they said the work "meant").

Answer 5

I would think the instructor is being unfair and unprofessional if he/she let you write about the topic and then let their personal bias affect the grade.
He/she is after all the one who is grading your paper. It is his/her class. I would respect what they wanted and find a different topic.

Answer 6

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