Can writing be taught? This is one of the central questions driving “composition studies”, at least in pedagogically-minded corners of the field. As a writer, I’m skeptical; but then, the entire question hinges on our definition of terms. My ego-boosting definition of “writer” is anyone who has been paid at least $100 for his/her work, … Continue reading
If our field had a Catechism, it would probably include something like the following: “All claims to truth or knowledge are cultural constructs; objective truth does not exist; we cannot escape the bounds of individual or communal subjectivity. This is most certainly true.” Undoubtedly, there is a great deal of truth to this denial of … Continue reading
Siete meses atrás, empecé a estudiar Español; ha leído muchos cuentos en Español a fin de aprender mas del idioma. En esta semana, leí algo de los cuentos de Borges en Historia Universal de la Infamia. Por supesto, no sé todas las palabras en el libro, pero intento leer sin un diccionario o una traducción … Continue reading
Criticizing Emig’s study would be easier than putting socks on the right feet; after all, her sample is miniscule, the time spent with her subjects is inadequate, and the design of the study itself is highly artificial. What’s more, there seems to be a certain hubris to Emig’s Introduction and Conclusion. Despite a problematic research … Continue reading
An interesting thing about books: you always know when they’re going to end. You can’t say the same about movies or songs. Unless you’re fastidious enough to check the running times before watching or listening, the end of a movie or a song does not present itself before the fact, the way a book’s does. … Continue reading
The field in which I work is known as “rhetoric and composition” or “composition and rhetoric”, depending on whom you ask. However, if you ask me, rhetoric is the more important of the two. Traditionally, rhetoric was concerned with spoken discourse, but even in the Hellenistic era, its application to written discourse was obvious. (Plato’s … Continue reading
As I’ve been saying, the standard’s form is an accident of history. Whichever group had the money, power, and education was always going to be the group that wrote. From the spoken dialect of the wealthy, educated group came the written standard because only the wealthy (and, I should add, the educated priests) had the … Continue reading
Here is an oddity: the field of composition was founded on the value of standard written English, and yet, in certain corners of the field, the least sexy thing you can do is to talk about the value of standard written English. You can praise the vernacular (which I certainly do); you can defend the … Continue reading
Wittgenstein hat geschrieben: Das Verstehen eines Satzes der Sprache ist dem Verstehen eines Themas in der Musik viel verwandter, als man etwa glaubt. Jetzt, eine Übersetzung . . . The understanding of a sentence in Language is more like the understanding of a theme in Music than one may think. This is said about spoken language, … Continue reading
I jumped at the bit to enroll in a course called Rhetoric, Composition, and the Digital Humanities. I’ve heard about ”digital humanities” in the past, but I’d never bothered to look up what it is or who is involved. Turns out, I’ve been missing some good shit. What is digital humanities? It is an amorphous field among … Continue reading
