Dobrin’s ideas cast the separation of writing and composition in a beneficial light; he speaks of writing as something that goes somehow further then composition ever could. Yet at the same time, he seems to be arguing that composition should remain synonymous with writing, should take on a definition greater than itself in order to start to mean something more than it already does: that is, to be closer to “writing”. One way I can see a benefit in separating writing from composition lies in the potential usefulness of repurposing of those words. When I speak to my students in class, I do not tell them we are “composing.” I tell them we are writing. They think they are writing. They are writing. Composition is, in many ways, an antiquated term that needs rejuvenation in order to be pertinent again. To the students, the real stakeholders in this discussion, composition is not what they are attempting to do. They are attempting to get enough words out on paper to complete an assigned task. For most of them, this is writing; and who is to say that they are wrong? I might go further for some of them, and say that a few are attempting to write so that their ideas will be deemed convincing, or even “worthy”. Are they composing an argument, though? Not in their own minds. Creating one, perhaps. Writing one? Certainly—at least as far as they are concerned.
That is not to say that composition should not have its place as a term. If we could find a way to use composition in ways that go beyond the conventional, that certainly go beyond freshman classes, it would go a long way to redefining the word in student’s minds. However, in terms of drawbacks, it is perhaps easy to see this redefining of a word as unnecessary muddying. Why not leave composition and writing as interchangeable concepts? I don’t believe they truly are interchangeable though, and haven’t been for awhile. Practically speaking, they don’t have the same meaning to the students that they do to the teachers. How very post-process. As was pointed out in class, the term “composition” rarely survives as a label beyond freshman-level courses. Is it only in our beginning stages of learning that we are “composing”? Are we no longer composing once we take on a thesis, or tackle a major academic project? When does composing become less relevant as a metaphor for our writing experience and (dare I say it) process?