ABSTRACT

This chapter opens by counterposing Brecht’s Little Rose, which: “Hit the mark, despite not aiming for it”, with the concept of ILOs (Intended Learning Outcomes) employed by Higher Education Institutions in the UK. It then examines the fall-out from this opposition through sections dealing with the practice of composition teaching: Modelling Results v. Modelling Behaviour, Conscious Action and Unconscious Awareness and Why Style Doesn’t Matter, Except when It Does. After A Footnote on Style, in the Form of an Interlude, where assistance is sought from Seamus Heaney, John Berger and others in clarifying what the aims of composition teaching might be, the chapter closes with reflections on Who are the Students and What Are We Trying to Encourage in Them? and a passage from an essay by C.M Grieve (the poet Hugh MacDiarmid) in which he considers “The difference between a Dadaist and a respectable product of the Scottish Educational System….”