Why Write?

By John T. Gage

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

Biography

• Professor of English, University of Oregon

• Fields of research– Rhetorical theory– Composition pedagogy– 20th century American poetry

Publications

• The Shape of Reason: Argumentative Writing in College

• An Adequate Epistemology of Composition: Classical and Modern Perspectives

• Rhetoric and Dialectic in Robert Frost’s ‘A Mask of Reason’

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

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?

Ancient Theories

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

Socrates

• Teacher of Plato

• Philosophy represented in Plato’s dialogues

• Viewed sophistic rhetoric as ‘false art’

• Absolute view of truth

• Dialectic in place of rhetoric

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

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?

Contemporary Theories

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.”

Discuss the Following:

It is apparent in Gage’s 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.?

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’?”

Restructuring Pedagogical Approaches

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.”

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 writer’s responsibility.”

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?

So returning to our original question….

Why Write?

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 one’s 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.”