Process theory of composition

Last updated

The process theory of composition (hereafter referred to as "process") is a field of composition studies that focuses on writing as a process rather than a product. Based on Janet Emig's breakdown of the writing process, [1] the process is centered on the idea that students determine the content of the course by exploring the craft of writing using their own interests, language, techniques, voice, and freedom, and where students learn what people respond to and what they don't. [2] [3] Classroom activities often include peer work where students themselves are teaching, reviewing, brainstorming, and editing. [2]

Contents

History

The ideas behind process were born out of increased college enrollment thanks to the GI Bill following World War II. Writing instructors began giving students more group work and found that, with guidance, students were able to identify and recognize areas that needed improvement in other students' papers, and that criticism also helped students recognize their own areas to strengthen.[ citation needed ] Composition scholars such as Janet Emig, Peter Elbow, and Donald Murray began considering how these methods could be used in the writing classroom. Emig, in her book The Composing Processes of Twelfth Graders, showed the complexity of the writing process; this process was later simplified into a basic three-step process by Murray: prewriting, writing, and rewriting (also called "revision"). [2] In her 1975 study, Sondra Perl demonstrated that college writers who had been labeled as "unskilled" or "basic" writers nonetheless engaged in sophisticated and recursive writing processes. However, those processes sometimes became unproductive when the writers became too worried about editing errors. [4] Perl later developed her theory of embodied writing process, grounded in a "felt sense" that writers can learn to access to guide their writing process. [5]

Process theory had many philosophies behind it following its creation. From the 1970s to the early 1990s, scholars such as Richard Fulkerson and Nancy Sommers, have explored ways to teach their students more effectively and studied the guidance needed for the teachers to improve their students' writing. [6] [7]

Process also gained prominence in the collegiate world as a reaction against the formalism composition methods, sometimes called "current-traditional" methods, that encouraged adherence to established modes of writing, such as the five-paragraph essay.

Teaching methods and implications

Process can be taught using a variety of methods intended to strengthen the relationship between students and instructor. In other words, classroom discussion and activities center on students' ability to mimic what has come before in hopes that they will understand what good writing is and learn to mimic it. Some of the methods include:

Critiques of Process

Thomas Kent argues that process theories insist, “writing can be captured by a generalized process or a Big Theory,” and that process theory makes three central claims about writing: “(1) writing is private; (2) writing is not up for interpretation; and (3) writing can, and should be, highly organized.” [8]

When writing is conceived of and taught as a prescriptive and generalizable “process,” according to Gary Olson, useful implications arise in the creation of a Theory of Writing, a master narrative that attempts to “systematize something that simply is not susceptible to systematization.” [8]

Similarly, George Pullman positions the writing process movement as a rhetorical narrative, positioned in history as a result of writing as an undervalued, utilitarian skill that could be universally transmitted in higher education (17). This emerged from “current traditional rhetoric” that originated at Harvard in the 1880s and peaked in the late 1960s. Writing became a highly scientific affair, rooted exclusively in empirical observation. Post-process theorists argue, however, that if the writing process “were really the way all successful writers write regardless of context, then unless all writing is somehow supportive of a single ideological system, there would be no obfuscatory ideological baggage attending the process." [8]

Theorists continue to discuss pedagogical and systemic implications of both process and post-process approaches to composition.

Process theorists themselves have had to identify and work around certain constraints the process method brings with it; namely:

Constraints for students

If papers are not graded throughout the semester, students don't have any idea of the grade they are earning. Also, students might not be inclined to take control of the class content and decide what they want to explore; they may expect the instructor to provide material for them. Additionally, students may not improve their grammar and other writing conventions if content is emphasized over form.

Constraints for composition instructors

Composition classes are often overfilled, so instructors have to spend much of their time reading through drafts. Power can also be a struggle, for if student grades depend on a portfolio, then instructors have to find ways of encouraging and/or enforcing attendance. And if there are no rules as to what students may and may not write about, instructors have to be well-versed in a variety of discourses and ready to deal with conflict that may arise when two or more discourses meet (sometimes called a contact zone). Instructors must also find ways to encourage each student to explore and bring content to the course and must deal with diversity and a range of opinions on what should be done in the course.

Process rose to prominence in composition classrooms during the late 1960s and enjoyed its status as the gold standard method of teaching through the 1980s and into the 1990s. Many of its tenets are still used today; however, its popularity and methods have brought criticism from different composition theorists, such as post-process theorists, who charge that:

Amir Kalan (2014) has explored the pedagogical potentials of post-process theory in an article entitled "A Practice-Oriented Definition of Post-Process Second Language Writing Theory". [10]

See also

Related Research Articles

Ecocomposition is a way of looking at literacy using concepts from ecology. It is a postprocess theory of writing instruction that tries to account for factors beyond hierarchically defined goals within social settings; however, it doesn't dismiss these goals. Rather, it incorporates them within an ecological view that extends the range of factors affecting the writing process beyond the social to include aspects such as "place" and "nature." Its main motto, then, is "Writing Takes Place".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Writing process</span> Process in which words and phrases are formed to produce a text

A writing process describes a sequence of physical and mental actions that people take as they produce any kind of text. These actions nearly universally involve tools for physical or digital inscription: e.g., chisels, pencils, brushes, chalk, dies, keyboards, touchscreens, etc.; these tools all have particular affordances that shape writers' processes. Writing processes are highly individuated and task-specific; they often involve other kinds of activities that are not usually thought of as writing per se.

Cognitive rhetoric refers to an approach to rhetoric, composition, and pedagogy as well as a method for language and literary studies drawing from, or contributing to, cognitive science.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Composition studies</span>

Composition studies is the professional field of writing, research, and instruction, focusing especially on writing at the college level in the United States. The flagship national organization for this field is the Conference on College Composition and Communication.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First-year composition</span>

First-year composition is an introductory core curriculum writing course in US colleges and universities. This course focuses on improving students' abilities to write in a university setting and introduces students to writing practices in the disciplines and professions. These courses are traditionally required of incoming students, thus the previous name, "Freshman Composition." Scholars working within the field of composition studies often have teaching first-year composition (FYC) courses as the practical focus of their scholarly work.

Commonly called new media theory or media-centered theory of composition, stems from the rise of computers as word processing tools. Media theorists now also examine the rhetorical strengths and weakness of different media, and the implications these have for literacy, author, and reader.

Cognitive science and linguistic theory have played an important role in providing empirical research into the writing process and serving the teaching of composition. As for composition theories, there is some dispute concerning the appropriateness of tying these two schools of thought together into one theory of composition. However, their empirical basis for research and ties to the process theory of composition and cognitive science can be thought to warrant some connection.

Feminist theory in composition studies is the application of feminist theory to composition studies. It considers the influence of gender, language, and cultural studies on composition in order to challenge preexisting conventions.

Prewriting is the first stage of the writing process, typically followed by drafting, revision, editing and publishing. Prewriting can consist of a combination of outlining, diagramming, storyboarding, and clustering.

Efforts to teach writing in primary and secondary schools in the United States at a national scale and using methods other than direct teacher-student tutorial were first implemented in the 19th century. The positive association between students' development of the ability to use writing to refine and synthesize their thinking and their performance in other disciplines is well-documented.

The Story Workshop Method is a method of teaching writing originated in 1965 by John Schultz. The Story Workshop Institute was founded to bring the method to elementary and secondary classrooms and other forums for writing instruction. The former Fiction Writing Department at Columbia College Chicago used this methodology in its core writing course progression, and Hair Trigger is its award-winning annual of student fiction and creative nonfiction writing.

Theories of rhetoric and composition pedagogy encompass a wide range of interdisciplinary fields centered on the instruction of writing. Noteworthy to the discipline is the influence of classical Ancient Greece and its treatment of rhetoric as a persuasive tool. Derived from the Greek work for public speaking, rhetoric's original concern dealt primarily with the spoken word. In the treatise Rhetoric, Aristotle identifies five Canons of the field of rhetoric: invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery. Since its inception in the spoken word, theories of rhetoric and composition have focused primarily on writing

The study and practice of visual rhetoric took a more prominent role in the field of composition studies towards the end of the twentieth century and onward. Proponents of its inclusion in composition typically point to the increasingly visual nature of society, and the increasing presence of visual texts. Literacy, they argue, can no longer be limited only to written text and must also include an understanding of the visual.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital Writing and Research Lab</span> Promotion of twenty-first-century literacies

The Digital Writing and Research Lab (DWRL) is a research lab at The University of Texas at Austin, United States, dedicated to the identification and promotion of twenty-first-century literacies. These literacies range from navigating online newsfeeds and participating in social networking sites to composing multimedia texts that require producing, sampling, and/or remixing media content.

Writing about Writing (WAW) is a method or theory of teaching composition that emphasizes writing studies research. Writing about Writing approaches to first-year composition take a variety of forms, typically based on the rationale that students benefit when engaging the "declarative and procedural knowledge" associated with writing studies research.

Feminist pedagogy is a pedagogical framework grounded in feminist theory. It embraces a set of epistemological theories, teaching strategies, approaches to content, classroom practices, and teacher-student relationships. Feminist pedagogy, along with other kinds of progressive and critical pedagogy, considers knowledge to be socially constructed.

Collaborative pedagogy stems from the process theory of rhetoric and composition. Collaborative pedagogy believes that students will better engage with writing, critical thinking, and revision if they engage with others. Collaborative pedagogy pushes back against the Current-Traditional model of writing, as well as other earlier theories explaining rhetoric and composition; earlier theories of writing, especially current-traditional, emphasizes writing as a final product. In contrast, collaborative pedagogy rejects the notion that students think, learn, and write in isolation. Collaborative pedagogy strives to maximize critical thinking, learning, and writing skills through interaction and interpersonal engagement. Collaborative pedagogy also connects to the broader theory of collaborative learning, which encompasses other disciplines including, but not limited to, education, psychology, and sociology.

Multimodality is the application of multiple literacies within one medium. For example, understanding a televised weather forecast (medium) involves understanding spoken language, written language, weather specific language, geography, and symbols. Multiple literacies or "modes" contribute to an audience's understanding of a composition. Everything from the placement of images to the organization of the content to the method of delivery creates meaning. This is the result of a shift from isolated text being relied on as the primary source of communication, to the image being utilized more frequently in the digital age. Multimodality describes communication practices in terms of the textual, aural, linguistic, spatial, and visual resources used to compose messages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sondra Perl</span> American academic

Sondra Perl is a Professor Emerita of English at Lehman College and director of the Ph.D. in Composition and Rhetoric at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She is the founder and former director of the New York City Writing Project. She writes about the composing process as well as pedagogical approaches to implementing composition theories into writing practices in the classroom.

Janet Emig was an American composition scholar. She is known for her groundbreaking 1971 study The Composing Process of Twelfth Graders, which contributed to the development of the process theory of composition. Her article, "Writing as a Mode of Learning" (1977) is also frequently cited and anthologized by the Writing Across the Curriculum movement.

References

  1. ↑ Emig, Janet. The Composing Processes of Twelfth Graders. Urbana: NCTE, 1968.
  2. 1 2 3 Murray, Donald. "Teach Writing as a Process Not a Product." 1972. Reprinted in Cross-Talk in Comp Theory: A Reader. Ed. Victor Villanueva. 2nd ed. Urbana: NCTE, 2003.
  3. ↑ Elbow, Peter. "Writing Without Teachers." Oxford: Oxford UP.
  4. ↑ Perl, Sondra (1979). ""The Composing Processes of Unskilled College Writers"". Research in the Teaching of English. 13 (4): 13 (4): 317–336 – via ISSN 0034-527X. JSTOR 40170774.
  5. ↑ Perl, Sondra (2004). Felt Sense: Writing with the Body. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook.
  6. ↑ Fulkerson, Richard (1990). "Composition Theory in the Eighties: Axiological Consensus and Paradigmatic Diversity". College Composition and Communication. 41 (4): 409–429. doi:10.2307/357931. ISSN   0010-096X. JSTOR   357931.
  7. ↑ Sommers, Nancy I. (1979). "The Need for Theory in Composition Research". College Composition and Communication. 30 (1): 46–49. doi:10.2307/356749. ISSN   0010-096X. JSTOR   356749.
  8. 1 2 3 Kent, Thomas. "Post-Process Theory: Beyond the Writing Process Paradigm." Southern Illinois University: 1999.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Tobin, Lad. "Process Pedagogy." A Guide to Composition Pedagogies. Ed. Tate, et al. Oxford UP: 2001.
  10. ↑ Kalan, Amir. "Practice-Oriented Definition of Post-Process Second Language Writing Theory." TESL Canada Journal [Online], 32.1 (2014): 1.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.