To quote one of Salvatori’s student texts, I found reading The Elements (and Pleasures) of Difficulty extremely difficult.” Well perhaps not extremely, but difficult. So to utilize the Salvatori’s instructions, I will create a difficulty paper in which I catalog the difficulties, explain why I found those points difficult, and then explore what I can learn from those points.

To begin, I found the writing style itself to be difficult. The numerous parenthetical insertions that did little more than rename (explain) the previous (preceding) word were distracting (off-putting), especially for a composition instructor who is always red-penciling (commenting on) student essays that commit (contain) that particular onerous (tedious) mistake. The text also seemed to jump from place to place and idea to idea with little or no connection joining the thoughts. There are two possible explanations for this difficulty: Salvatori is a poor writer, or she had a purpose for this style. Accepting that the difficulty is with the text and not with me, I will also accept that there is a reason for this presentation. Actually there may be two. Perhaps this is the style of writing that would appeal to Salvatori’s intended audience of beginning readers. It is also possible that by giving students a “difficult” text to deal with, Salvatori is giving them a non-literary text on which to practice the skills that she discusses within the pages of the book. This was certainly the effect on me as evidenced that I have chosen the format of a “Difficulty Paper” in which to discuss the book.

The second difficulty I perceived was the content of the discussion. The idea of embracing difficulties rather than avoiding or denying them seems a very basic idea that Salvatori discusses ad infinitum from the perspective of different genres. This almost brought the book to the point of “long and boring” texts. Conversely, there also seemed much that was left out of the text. What level were these students? How far along in the semester were they? What experience did they have before enrolling in this course? What prompts had Salvatori given in preparation for this assignment. Were these students typical or atypical? For the answers to these questions, I turned to “Difficulty: The Great Educational Divide,” a shorter, earlier version of the book. This essay describes the case study in with which Salvatori began her research for the dealing with difficulty in the classroom. This essay explains much of what is left out of the longer text. So here I guess I learned the value of making connections between readings.

My final difficulty is the one that gave me the most trouble. I had difficulty relating to the proposed audience of this text. There were references to “students such as yourself” that really seemed to make the reading intangible for me. This issue was finally resolved when I realized that Salvatori was not really addressing students like “me.” She was addressing beginning readers. By this I do not mean to elevate myself to the level of an expert. However, Salvatori’s projected audience is definitely different than the one I am trying to be a part of. When I finally placed myself in the skin of a beginning reader the book began to make sense, and the other difficulties resolved themselves. Finally, I had taken the step Salvatori wanted me to. I had embraced a difficulty, wrestled with it, and thereby gained a better understanding of the text in question.

While I did not complete all the exercises that Salvatori gave the students throughout the text, I did practice these steps on the contents of the book itself. I found it to be an interesting exercise to be frustrated by a text, something that does not happen very often for me. Yet this frustration with a simply written piece of prose exemplifies the very idea of Salvatori’s work. This is possibly something that I could not have experienced from reading a piece of “literature” because I have dealt so often with those “difficulties.” While Salvatori’s concept seems simple on the surface, it is a revealing exercise to practice.

Edith

Tags: difficulty, salvatori, reading