Conceptual Overview and Insights on Writing

When I began reading the text Naming What We Know:Threshold Concepts of Writing Studies by Linda Adler-Kassner and Elizabeth Wardle, I understood that it was a book about what we are doing when we write or teach writing. At times, I found the points to be painfully obvious, such as the idea that we write to pass knowledge or the idea that all writers need practice. I mean, who doesn't know that? But, the book explained itself to me conceptually in this very question: how would we know what we were up to in writing and teaching if no one ever writes it down and says it? The book articulates the knowledge that writing articulates knowledge--well played, Adler-Kassner and Wardle.

Part 1 of the book focuses on five concepts that break down what it means that writing is both a thing we do and an object produced. In each concept, I found bits of wisdom that excited me, because the book reads like a philosophical discussion about teaching composition, and I love a philosophical conversations about nearly anything. I will outline my favorite bits from each concept here. 

Concept 1: Writing is a Social and Rhetorical Activity

I believe this concept was best described by the term rhetorical triangle (20). Writing involves three entities: the reader, the audience, and the text. As a writer, the act of writing helps me to think and to communicate my thoughts and ideas to the audience through the medium of the text. Writing isn't about the author, because the audience and the text are separate but involved parties in the production of meaning. The author brings her own insights, ideas, and history with her to the text she produces; the audience brings their own insights, ideas, and histories with them when the read the text; and the text brings with it cultural influences, denotations, and connotations. All three entities produce meaning, no matter what is on the paper. In this way, writing is a relationship with oneself, others, and the cultural norms surrounding our words. 

Concept 2: Writing Speaks to Situations Through Recognizable Forms

When we are taught to write in the school setting, often we think that the way it is done there is THE WAY IT IS DONE. The text speaks to the "five paragraph essay" concept that is often taught in schools to help students efficiently address the needs of essay writing in standardized tests. But, this can lead to becoming very narrow in thinking about writing. I can attest to this, as I certainly recall being taught the "genius" idea of the five-paragraph essay and relying heavily on it for all my writing for years. And in school, it works! But it can be a rut that stunts creativity and disconnects writers from the real reason they are writing; to convey their ideas to an audience. A formula is not enough, in my opinion. A formula is helpful when what you need is just a tool to use. But when what you need is authenticity and to let writing do work that only vulnerability can produce, perhaps less tool and more touch is the answer. I loved this quote: "But because words are such thin and frail communicators, writers must work hard to make them do the best they can do" (38). Words will always be a shadow and a whisper of what human beings can think and imagine, and our ability to convey those things is dependent on our use of the text. Words can produce action, knowledge, thought, and growth, but only insofar as they are effective and clear in their aim. So, what we teach in composition isn't always formulas for a magical thesis, but maybe it is also providing opportunities to hear one's own voice and find one's own magic. 

Concept 3: Writing Enacts and Creates Identities and Ideologies

Just the title of this concept piques my interest. I am fascinated by the ways that writing is used to push ideologies, whether in the media, the school, even the church. It is fascinating. But one question at the beginning of the chapter made me write "OHHHH..." in the margin: "What sort of social group do I intend to apprentice the learner into?" (48) The idea that when I teach, I need to consider first what I am am seeking to help my students feel part of really resonated with me. When I teach first year composition--as I hope to do someday--I am hopefully going to help students feel part of the community of higher learning. I hope to get the opportunity to help them find their own voice and give it form through text and provide time to practice a skill that will serve them as they become part of this community that is education. What an amazing thing, to help students see themselves as part of a particular community (51). But, what happens if we don't consider this question when we teach? Or if our answer is too narrow? What if we apprentice them to writing only the way we like to write, or we apprentice them to a community of inauthentic voices? The simple question of apprenticeship opened my eyes to the weight of this thing we do when we teach--particularly when we teach composition.

Concept 4: All Writers Have More to Learn

I love this concept, because it embraces the art of failure. Years ago, I read a book called Failing Forward by John Maxwell. Maxwell asserts that failing is only a problem if it doesn't propel you forward into learning. Failure is actually an opportunity to innovate! So the idea of a "quality of failure" or a "pedagogy of failure" resonates with me (63). What if it was safe to just TRY? There is this idea that we cannot enjoy something, or even try something, if there is a risk that we will be "bad" at it or not successful according to a certain standard. But what if we created a pedagogical environment where students (and teachers, for that matter) feel comfortable showing up to just try and accept that failure can be part of the process. I feel like so much performance pressure comes off me as a prospective teacher and even as a student when the idea is to expect to not always meet the "standard" and even invite questioning of the standard. To invite taking risks, needing revision, accepting help--these are the ways to create an environment in which people are willing to externalize their thoughts into text. It is a personal thing, this putting our minds into ink on paper, and we might just do it more if we weren't so scared of doing it wrong.

Concept 5: Writing Is (Also Always) a Cognitive Activity

Writing takes our whole attention in a way that few other things do. It is totally cognitively engrossing, but it also requires the use of our bodies to read and type or otherwise engage the tools of transcribing ourselves into text. I was reminded of how many times I have been frustrated by my own inability to put into text what was in my mind--the limits of language and of my own articulation are sometimes too much for me. I will yell, "What is a word that means, like when you..." Blubbering, nonsensical searching for that one word that will give the right picture. It takes careful thought, research and commitment to get it right sometimes, this thing we call our language. We have to think about our thoughts (metacognition) and we have to examine our work and see if they come close to one another. If they don't we have to be willing to try again. I once read about a man who, in writing is first book, took each sentence one at a time and revised it until he felt it was precise enough to convey his meaning. That is some serious metacognition and revision! But what better way to learn his own voice, than to listen to it and try over and over to make the text reflect it perfectly? Writing is hard and meaningful work, for students and teachers alike. 

I come away from Part 1 of the text with a new appreciation for this practice we call composition. It is important in composition studies to know exactly what we are up to and what our practice does to add value to the lives of readers and writers and the community of human beings. What I take from this beginning reading is that sure, writing is a discipline and a valuable tool, but it is also an exploration--of self, of ideas, and of the very nature of being. What a path to choose, as one who writes and one who aims to teach writing; what a glorious way to do work in the world.