Theory Camp / Scholar Representation Assignment

 

Submission:

November 18/20: In class presentations/discussions of either Theory Camp/Scholar OR Tech Tools. Each student should prepare to speak for ~5 minutes. Presentations should be informal, but prepared.
Monday 11/30, 9am: OPTIONAL Theory Camp/Scholar Draft for Instructor Feedback
Monday 12/7, 9am: Final Draft Due

currenttraditionalismOverview:

According to James Zebroski in Thinking Through Theory, “theory” has six traits.

  • Theory is a view, a vision of the world.
  • Theory is a guide to action as well as an action.
  • Theory is unavoidable (resistance to theory is a theory).
  • Theory is created and can be changed.
  • Theory moves (in sometimes strange and subtle ways) into practice, and practices invigorates and reinvents theory; the movement between the two can be termed Praxis.
  • Theory is both reflective and active. (270)

In an effort to better understand the three main theory camps and the most influential scholars of the past 50 years or so, you will create a written or visual “representation” of a camp or scholar.

Your Task:

Summarize and synthesize the contributions your camp or scholar, focusing on influential ideas and positions. What is the camp’s/scholar’s positions on the nature and purpose of writing/FYC, the writer/reader/text, truth/knowledge, student/teacher/classroom, etc.

Possibilities:

  • You may write a few pages of informed (but informal) text
  • You may write creatively or in non-traditional (non-essay) genres, including dialogue, poetry, short story, limerick, parody/satire, vignette, etc.
  • You may create a visual essay, or an audio (and/or) visual representation

“Picnic with Flowers and Hayes”
Michael Linder & John Hazard

Verse 1
Writing starts right in the brain
Plant a flower / water with Hayes
Hierarchy forms a network
lays the syntax / from concept to draft

Chorus
This is the theory / its called cognition
Writing’s recursive / its not repetition

Verse 2
Purpose of writing / the task at hand
Seek solutions to problems
One’s goal to understand
The teacher, the student
The mind’s own text
Start the process of writing
The product complex

Informal Presentations/Discussion:

On November 18/20, you will informally present your Theory Camp/Scholar Representation to the class.

Presentations should be informal, but prepared. In other words, you are expected to do more than just talk about what you did — you should discuss the distinctive features and contributions of the camp or scholar and provide information on their positions.

Those who are creating visual responses should either make copies for the class or should have access to an electronic copy that you can show on the projector (preferred). If you need copies made or items scanned, please let me know. Please provide a paper copy to me in class.

Criteria for Assessment:

Completeness of representation/presentation, grounding in scholarship, and effort in good faith.

Camp/Scholar Suggestions

Camps: Current Traditional, Expressivist/Expressionist, Social-Epistemic

also: Cognitive, Feminist, Critical, Radical, Eco-Composition, Literature & Composition, New Media, ESOL, WID/WAC, Online/Hybrid, Service Learning/Community Engagement

Scholars: Bartholomae, Berlin, Elbow, Faigley, Lauer, Murray

also: Bizzell (contact zones), Hairston (process, WPA), Vitanza (history of rhetoric from postmodern perspective), Shor (critical pedagogy, cultural studies), Selfe (technology and composition), Royster (gender), Rose (research methods/ethnography, Lives on the Boundary), Gere (WAC, collaboration, gender), Flower & Hayes (cognitive), Burke (invention), Bazerman (activity theory, workplace writing)

Further (Recommended) Reading:

Mack, Nancy. “Representations of the Field in Graduate Courses: Using Parody to Question All Positions.” College English (2009): 435–459.
mack

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