"Labor by Labor," An Essay by Anisha Hossain
An essay by Anisha Hossain
Former First-Year Writing Student
Arizona State University
posted 11 Oct 2022
Labor by Labor
How does focusing on the labor of an essay over the result affect the way I write it?
When I first read the grading contract for this class, I remember thinking “Thank god.” There were several aspects of the contract that elicited this response, but the main one was the lack of subjective grades. Instead of being graded on the content of our assignments, we were to be graded on the effort we put into them–the labor. For years, I would spend a frustratingly large amount of time and stress on deciphering the many varying rubrics of my English teachers. It would take a couple of tries, a few low grades, before I finally figured out how that particular teacher liked to language, and how I could cater my writing to their preferences to receive the best grade possible. Instead of building upon my skill set each year, every new class felt like I was starting from scratch, learning a new set of rules that would earn me the “A” I desired. When I read this grading contract, though, I felt myself relax.
The main reason I liked the grading contract was because I felt like I was finally free from playing the annual guessing game that was predicting my English teachers’ expectations. I remember in my junior year of high school, my English teacher told us that we should have an interesting hook to start our papers, whether it be a narrative, shocking quote, or statistic that was attention-grabbing. The following year, my senior year English teacher expressed to us that she hated “wishy washy” introductions and told us to get straight to the point of our essay within the first sentence. In comparison to classes like math, which usually didn’t change much, language arts classes made me feel like I was getting whiplash. With this contract, though, I immediately felt excited to have the freedom to write the way I find to be effective. Whether or not others consider it to be “good writing” didn’t matter, and I appreciated the opportunity to finally have agency in how I write.
My feelings seem to reflect the feelings of many students that are enrolled in classes that use labor-based grading systems. Anthony Lince, a first-year writing teacher, conducted interviews with his students after implementing a labor-based grading contract in his classroom. Lince finds that there were three common themes among his students’ interviews: “(1) students perceived labor-based grading to lead to less stress in the writing classroom; (2) students perceived to have freedom with their writing in a labor-based course; and (3), a small number of students felt like labor-based grading was more open to language diversity” (5). Removing traditional grading in classrooms removes the rigidity from student writing expectations, and thus allows students to feel more freedom to write the way they enjoy. This creates a less stressful environment for students to grow as writers, rather than being stagnated by the pressure to fulfill their teachers’ requirements. Mikenna Leigh Sims, another first-year English teacher corroborates that implementing a labor-based grading contract has given her the “opportunity to enact compassionate, antiracist assessment practices” (2). By removing grades that are necessarily standardized, there is no requirement to engage in the White supremacist teaching habits that are characteristic of traditional classrooms. Teachers in Ontario that have similar gradeless classrooms have found “tremendous benefits for [their] students, including a newfound appreciation for intrinsic learning, a more robust approach to revising, increased conversation, and more authentic student teacher relationships” (Whitmell 34).
Although students seem to enjoy this freedom, they also may feel discomfort stepping away from their preconceived notions of what English assignments are supposed to look like. Dr. Inoue writes that in his classes, he provides students with labor-based instructions instead of instructions that describe the product, and that many students are confused by this. He writes, “Part of my students’ confusion comes from how I assign things. I pay careful attention to the process of labor I want them to engage in. The instructions are written as step-by-step processes. They are more minimal in describing what that labor produces, since I don’t know what it will produce exactly for every student” (41). He encourages diversity in his students’ writing, unlike traditional classrooms that encourage conformity. The work students create while following Dr. Inoue’s instructions are usually more personal in the way they interact with texts, and it is difficult for students to adjust and to engage in a process that doesn’t necessarily have a defined “final product.”
I myself have experienced this confusion and discomfort while engaging in the labor processes defined in this class. Even our first assignment, reading the syllabus, was stressful because I naturally resisted the process that was outlined for me. I remember reading the instructions and being thrown off by the first step being, of all things, a mindful breathing exercise. Breathing exercise? Why would I need to do a breathing exercise? For this first assignment, I ignored this instruction (sorry, Dr. Inoue). When it came time to write our first essays, I was a nervous wreck. The previous relief I felt from the lack of explicit requirements evaporated as I grasped at straws for some sort of direction. I didn’t know what Dr. Inoue liked, and despite the guarantee that I didn’t need to cater my writing to his preferences, I still wanted to, a desire that stemmed from the years I was inadvertently taught to do this as a literacy student. After staring at a blank page for several minutes, I finally came to the novel conclusion that I should probably just follow the labor instructions that were provided to me. I did the breathing exercise. It was (shockingly) helpful in clearing my mind, but it was also uncomfortable. In fact, every step of the instructions were uncomfortable. What do you mean my brainstorming can be in any form? What kind of essay am I even writing? The process didn’t come naturally to me and the freedom I so craved was suddenly my worst nightmare.
Despite this initial discomfort, my writing process evolved significantly throughout this term. Before I wrote my first paper, my attitude about writing hadn’t changed much. When I read the labor instructions, the way I completed each task was still entirely focused on the product. I would brainstorm and engage with texts in a way that was looking for an argument and evidence to support it. Despite the fact that I was reading texts that were personal and anecdotal in nature, my essay was an analytical, almost argumentative paper. I was writing about a very specific and evidence-based topic that had little to do with my own experiences as a writer. I stuck to the same structure I had always used and essentially regurgitated the same conclusions the texts I had been reading presented. However, when I wrote my second essay, I took a more labor-focused approach. I posed a personal question that arose naturally from my engagement with the texts I was reading. When I researched further, it was in curiosity that my experiences were reflections of others’ experiences. My second essay, thus, was a more conversational and anecdotal piece. I intertwined my own stories with the experiences of others that I was reading about. Instead of forming a conclusion before starting the paper and arguing it unambiguously, I followed my natural train of thought to a conclusion as I wrote the paper itself. When I submitted the paper, I honestly had no idea what to expect. I had never engaged with a process like this and I didn’t focus on the product more than rereading it once. Whether or not this process created a product that was “better” than my first paper is subjective, but I do know that I feel more proud of it than anything else I’ve ever written.
Throughout this class, I have discovered a newfound enjoyment for the process of writing. I’ve always said this, but I never used to like writing. It was scary, stressful, and took a long time. It still takes a long time, but my mental shift away from trying to create a good product to trying to engage in a thoughtful process makes me want it to take even longer. Dr. Inoue tells the story of how his mother gave him his own appreciation for languaging as a labor when she read books to him as a child, writing “For her at that moment, the point was the labor of reading itself. And this was the first gift of literacy she gave me, the gift of appreciating the labor of reading, the practice of it, of noticing how much fun and engaging it is as you do it” (165). My time in this course has shown me that focusing on writing as a practice rather than a means to a result is what makes it fun and less daunting. Reveling in the process of reading and writing is the single most important experience I have taken away from this class. Who knows? Maybe I will start that zombie novel…
Works Cited
Inoue, Asao. An Antiracist Literacy Argument from a Boy of Color. Utah State University Press, 2020.
Lince, Anthony. “Student Perceptions of Labor-Based Grading in First-Year Writing Courses.” San Diego State University ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2022.
Sims, Mikenna Leigh. “Labor-Based Grading Contracts in Online First-Year Writing: A Case Study Approach.” California State University, Sacramento ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2021.
Whitmell, Theresa Elizabeth Tusz. “Teachers Navigating Their Experiences of "Going Gradeless" in Ontario, Canada.” University of Toronto (Canada) ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2020.