When I was first introduced to composition theory I had a lot of questions. What was writing theory? I had an idea of what theory itself was but I wasn’t sure what people theorized about when it came to writing. After realizing that social scientists theorized about why people write they way they do and why we consider some writing better than others, I saw that writing theory was just trying to get to the root of why people think the way they do about writing. After grasping the concept of writing theory, I began to think critically about the theories we discussed in class; some were a bit hard to understand. In the very beginning it was difficult for me to think of writing as a technology. After I got over that basic hurdle my mind was more open to what composition theory had to teach me. “Writing is a Technology that Reconstructs Thought” by Walter Ong was one of the articles that made me realize how groundbreaking writing really is. That reading made me realize there is really nothing natural about writing. In his piece Ong compared literate cultures to oral cultures. He explained how writing changes how the mind works. Writing allows for deep analytical reflection, something that Ong claimed was missing from oral cultures. When there is a written word it is possible to make connections and explore thoughts; oral tradition doesn't allow for that, most of the energy is spent remembering stories and passing them on. Ong also explains that writing “initiated what printing and electronics only continued, the physical reduction of dynamic sound to quiescent space, the separation of the word from living present, where alone is real, spoken words exist.” With the invention of writing human beings created a technology that changed how the mind works. That amazes me, and as a writing major I find that significant. I never knew the power of writing extended so far. All writing majors can benefit from reading Ong. Writers need to understand theory so they know exactly what they are doing when they write. Another piece that influenced my knowledge about theory and it’s relevance to writing majors is Richard Faulkner’s piece “ The Four Philosophies of Composition.” In this piece Faulkner describes the the four philosophies that guide teachers in their expectations and influences their grading. This reading introduced me to to expressive, formalists, mimetic and rhetorical theory. Faulkners main argument was that teachers had the tendency to ask for something that implies they value one theory but grade as if they actually valued another. A concept that I found interesting in this piece was teachers being the one at fault. For example in the article Faulkner describes being in a classroom where the teacher criticized a student for not sounding like himself in a paper, the student replied “I didn’t know I had to sound like myself.” That teacher clearly values expressionistic values but she didn’t specify that when giving the assignment. As a student in the American school system I never thought I would see an official writing theory scrutinizing teachers. It seems as if we operate in an “the teachers always right” system. As a writing major this reading definitely benefited my view on grading. I realize that I have the vocab to describe the style in which a teacher conducts class and how they grade. Lisa Ede and Andrea Lunsford talk about the relationship between a writer and their audience in their piece “Audience Addressed/ Audience invoked.” The main question the authors address in this article is, should writers write with the audience in mind or write seeking an audience? This article couldn’t be more relevant in my opinion, for writing majors. We have to ask ourselves that question every time we write an essay or short story. We want our work to be good and part of good work is addressing the things an audience is interested in. We also want to write for ourselves, what we as writing majors are interested in. “When writers read their own writing, as they do continuously while they compose, there are really not one but two contexts for rereading: there is the writer-as-reader’s sense of what the established text is saying as of this reading; and there is the reader-as-writer’s judgement of what the text might say or should say…” The quote is spot on, for not just writing majors but anyone who cares about their writing. Social culturalists theory is compatible with Vygotsky’s theory, both are based on social interaction. “Rather than viewing the knowledge as existing inside the heads of individual participants or in the external world, sociocultural theory views meaning as being negotiated at the intersections of individuals, culture, and activity.” Vygotsky believed people gained knowledge by interacting with others and gaining new experiences. Socioculturists believe teachers using tools such as venn-diagrams and the MEAL acronym improves writing. The teacher is also a tool and part of the reason socioculturists believe teaching to be a social interaction. In the reading the authors mention that students can learn from each other in a classroom setting which is also a social interaction.
Our first project in composition theory was to write about our personal literacy narrative. We looked into what Brandt calls sponsors, which are basically people or whatever institutions and policies responsible for getting you where you are in your literacy education. After writing my literacy narrative I realized all that it took for me to get to Ithaca College. All writing majors can benefit from taking and in-depth look at how they came to be writers.
My five chapters are based on the focal questions of the course and my other interests. Based off the readings we did in class I am going to try to answer them to the best of my ability.
Chap.1: How is writing technological?
Chap.2:How is writing a political, social, cultural, historical activity?
Chap.3: Revisions and what I've learned.
Chap.4: Projects
Chap.5: Application of learned material
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