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Why Write?

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Why Write? By John T. Gage Bibliography From The Teaching of Writing , edited by Anthony Petroskey and David Bartholomew, first published in 1986 Often ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Why Write?


1
Why Write?
  • By John T. Gage

2
Bibliography
  • From The Teaching of Writing, edited by Anthony
    Petroskey and David Bartholomew, first published
    in 1986
  • Often referenced
  • Commonly read in Freshman and introductory-level
    composition courses

3
Biography
  • Professor of English, University of Oregon
  • Fields of research
  • Rhetorical theory
  • Composition pedagogy
  • 20th century American poetry

4
Publications
  • The Shape of Reason Argumentative Writing in
    College
  • An Adequate Epistemology of Composition
    Classical and Modern Perspectives
  • Rhetoric and Dialectic in Robert Frosts A Mask
    of Reason

5
The Question
  • Pedagogical inquiry
  • If we assume the answer, we are in danger of
    forgetting that justifications for writing depend
    on different assumptions about what education is
    for, and these will yield different pedagogies
  • Methodologies Ideologies

6
Discussthe following
  • For what other reasons is this question of the
    motivations behind writing important? Do the
    reasons differ dependent upon the context? If so,
    how and why?

7
Ancient Theories
8
Sophists
  • From the Greek sophos, meaning wisdom
  • Traveling teachers of various subjects
  • Relativistic views of truth
  • Conceived of rhetoric as epistemic
  • Art that creates rather than reflects knowledge

9
Socrates
  • Teacher of Plato
  • Philosophy represented in Platos dialogues
  • Viewed sophistic rhetoric as false art
  • Absolute view of truth
  • Dialectic in place of rhetoric

10
Aristotle
  • Student of Plato
  • Rhetoric(360-334 BCE)
  • Positive aspects of rhetoric
  • Creates community and goodwill
  • Expository rather than dialogic
  • Treats specific cases
  • Relies on psychology as well as logic

11
Discuss the following
  • What answers might we attribute to the ancient
    Greek thinkers in response to the question why
    write? Or, perhaps, in reference to certain
    thinkers, why not write? How much validity do
    these responses possess in terms of a
    contemporary dialogue?

12
Contemporary Theories
13
Pedagogies
  • Competency
  • assumes that writing can be mastered by
    learning what the attributes are and by
    practicing them in exercises, apart from real
    writing situations.
  • Process-approach
  • emphasizes the stages of composing by offering
    students procedures that will help them in
    choosing topics, gathering information,
    organizing their thoughts, composing and
    revising.

14
Discuss the Following
  • It is apparent in Gages discussion of these two
    models that there is something inadequate in
    their pedagogical approach. Outside of the
    classroom, what effect do you think these
    pedagogies might have on the writing students
    will have to produce in the workplace, etc.?

15
Utility Vs. Responsibility
  • Two primary questions
  • If technical approaches to writing are justified
    by the goal of competency, what justifies
    competency as an end of education?
  • If competency is not a valid end of education,
    and instead the idea garners primacy, what makes
    an idea good?

16
Restructuring Pedagogical Approaches
17
Ideologies
  • Relative nature of truth
  • Writing as thinking-made-tangible
  • Writing as process of discovering and structuring
    ideas
  • Ethics
  • Writing is the search, not only for the right
    words in the right order, but for the right
    reasons.

18
Pedagogical Reforms
  • Writing class must be a place where students
    encounter ideas and where they are free to
    respond to them honestly and critically.
  • Students must know that they do not write
    exclusively for the teacher.
  • Thoughtful revision should be taught as a
    writers responsibility.

19
Discuss the following
  • These pedagogical reforms fundamentally alter the
    traditional approaches to teaching writing. How
    do you think these pedagogical changes will
    affect the writing done by students outside the
    classroom?

20
So returning to our original question.
  • Why Write?

21
Why write?
  • ...because writing, more than any other task
    brings one face to face with important human
    responsibilities. These include the
    responsibility to clarify and structure ones
    ideas. More importantly, these include the
    responsibility to continue the inquiry and argue,
    toward the truth as we are able to discover it
    through the shared means of discourse, even while
    knowing that the whole truth will always be
    beyond our means.
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