digital digs: the desires of the teaching of writing
Steve Krause
· 1 year ago
I think this is interesting in relation to a couple articles that CHE ran last night about how MLA is trying to reach out to teaching, technology, and even community colleges. I blogged about it here, for what it's worth. From my point of view, the MLA has either ignored or has been downright hostile to an emphasis on these things, so I find it rather curious that all of a sudden these things are important.
To me, it's a sign that our colleagues in literature are starting to see what folks in writing have seen for a while now: the power is shifting away in English departments away from "literature" types to "writing" types, and MLA/literature in the know are trying to stay viable. Too little too late, IMO.
So I too would bet on the hammer, and I would also bet on the kind of folks who are more likely to attend the CCCCs or C&W or the Watson Conference to be able to work with and not against that hammer.
Charles
· 1 year ago
I want to address a side issue. Multimodal writing and its attendant culture seems to be a natural part of a writing studies program. But when and how should it be introduced? Some argue as early as freshman comp. But there's only so much time in one semester. If different modes and tools of writing are introduced into FYC, then something else is taken out. What's your take on this?
Mark Bernstein
· 11 months ago
Twenty years from now, if you want to learn about physical organic chemistry, you'll do it by reading. You may be reading hypertexts; you'll probably be reading on the screen (or what replaces the screen), but you'll be reading.
And if you want to explain something new about physical organic chemistry, you'll do it in writing. The journal may look bloggish by 19th century standards, but it'll still be a journal. (And some of those journals will still be called "Letters", even though chemists don't primarily publish through circular letters anymore. And some will be called "Transactions", even though hardly any chemists report their results in after-dinner speeches to a club meeting upstairs at a tavern.)
digitaldigs
· 11 months ago
Thanks Mark. I agree. I don't see anything in the way of graphic or video communication that would replace text for the purposes of communicating technical knowledge in any discipline. Indeed, we are so wedded to text, it is difficult to imagine anything that would supplant it as a compositional or communicative technology.
Yet, as you suggest, the text could be combined with any number of media, as we are already beginning to see. And this could alter the way text functions. Further, the collaborative potential of networked media might change the way we share information. As you say, "letters" aren't letters anymore. The future relationship between author and audience in a specialized academic community might shift. If I only have a couple hundred readers for my research anyway, maybe we collaborate on our scholarship rather than tossing finished products back and forth.
All Comments
To me, it's a sign that our colleagues in literature are starting to see what folks in writing have seen for a while now: the power is shifting away in English departments away from "literature" types to "writing" types, and MLA/literature in the know are trying to stay viable. Too little too late, IMO.
So I too would bet on the hammer, and I would also bet on the kind of folks who are more likely to attend the CCCCs or C&W or the Watson Conference to be able to work with and not against that hammer.
And if you want to explain something new about physical organic chemistry, you'll do it in writing. The journal may look bloggish by 19th century standards, but it'll still be a journal. (And some of those journals will still be called "Letters", even though chemists don't primarily publish through circular letters anymore. And some will be called "Transactions", even though hardly any chemists report their results in after-dinner speeches to a club meeting upstairs at a tavern.)
Yet, as you suggest, the text could be combined with any number of media, as we are already beginning to see. And this could alter the way text functions. Further, the collaborative potential of networked media might change the way we share information. As you say, "letters" aren't letters anymore. The future relationship between author and audience in a specialized academic community might shift. If I only have a couple hundred readers for my research anyway, maybe we collaborate on our scholarship rather than tossing finished products back and forth.