Four Things

I thought it was interesting that Fulkerson placed Peter Elbow in the Rhetorical area of composition, since he is usually placed in the Expressivist corner. This made me consider where I overlap as a composition teacher and a writer. The fact is, I find all four corners important inside a classroom and within my own essays.

Formalism, though frequently given a bad name because it focuses on the outfit of an essay as opposed to the heart of the essay, is still a crucial part of any composition classroom. I also disagree that Formalism is the "science" of composition. To be honest, I don't feel that "science" is a correct opposition to "art." Jacob Bronowski in The Creative Mind argues that all art can become a science if the creativity is taken out, and likewise, all science can become an art as soon as creativity (such as when forming hypotheses) appears. The definitions become problematic. My point is, sentence structure, diction, and language devices can be incredibly artful, and important for establishing ethos. However, formalism comes after a student has discovered something to say. Grammar means nothing if the essay isn't saying anything.

Mimesis is also a crucial part of the composition classroom because it provides a context for the students. One needs to be a great reader in order to discover what needs to be written. A student needs to research in order to formulate their own educated opinions on their subjects. A student needs to be introduced to other people talking about their subject in order to join the conversation. Imitation is a crucial part of the artistic process of finding your own voice. There is no need to reinvent the wheel, but once you know how the wheel works, it enables you to change the way the wheel is used or what it's made of.

Expressivism balances the potentially robotic Engfish that may result from mimesis. It isn't enough to read how others write--students need to find their own voices, too. However, expressing oneself is often easier after activities categorized under mimesis because students can learn about themselves by seeing not only who they are like, but who they are different from. It isn't enough just to learn how to imitate, however. Students need to learn to speak. They need to be able to create their own ideas and make their own connections, and to be able to phrase their words in a style that is theirs. Otherwise, they can never be true skeptics.

I would say that I learn more towards Rhetorical than any of the four, however. I think that's why I remember liking Peter Elbow from my earlier graduate studies; Elbow tries to work self-expression into a rhetorical situation where the audience is #1. For me, that's what composition boils down to: being able to reach your audience with something you want to say.

That said, my top four things are as follows (Note: this a rough, rough draft...not anything I would copy and paste into a teaching philosophy):

1. (Rhetorical) Audience is number one. Students must learn to imagine their audience members as they write. Ideally, they should write to a real audience and receive real feedback (oral presentations, sending letters to real recipients, online blogging or posting).

2. (Expressivist) Revision is the key to staying true to your own voice. Process counts, and it begins with free-writing. Internal critics need to be shut off, and students need to learn to explore in their writing, not being afraid to sound dumb, change their minds halfway through, or write a bunch of garbage before churning out some gems. The first few drafts will only partially say what they mean.

3. (Mimetic) Research is necessary for all types of writing. Even personal narratives should require some checking of facts or interviewing others involved in the story. Students need to learn that research isn't always as formal as they imagine, and they use research methods every time they look up a pizza menu online. Research should be as natural to their writing process and using spellcheck.

4. (Formalist) Style, diction, and grammar count. In order to speak what you feel, in order to reach your intended audience, and in order to join a conversation of outside authors, the form and functions of your essay need to be appropriate and correct. The art of writing exists in its form. Just as you wouldn't serve a piece of cake to someone on the lid of a garbage can, you wouldn't want to showcase your critical thinking under a smattering of comma splices and hanging modifiers. It shows respect to the audience, to yourself, and to your subject to clean it up. Even if you don't wear deodorant or shave your face or your legs in real life, you ought to at least make your writing respectable. You'll reach a greater audience that way.