week 3 eng 658

Week 3 Eng 658

In Charles A. Hill’s essay “Reading the Visual in College Writing Classes,” we read about the extinction of books as a resource and the further utilization of other means of research and curriculum. Hill comments that this is an inevitable occurance and that instructors should become more accustomed and more knowledgeable with the use of more visual means of teaching the curriculum. The visual means are not meant lower the cognitive processes but further develop an understanding of how to analyze and interpret. In a society that has become reliant on these visual tools, it is necessary to manipulate the curriculum in a way that students understand and can apply the material to their existence. The ideas that are represented are the same as they were in the textual representation, but this time they include images that can also be interpreted and analyzed for communication purposes. Hill also discusses the need to relate the material to the cultural aspects of society. By enabling students to recognize the visual aspects that they are already familiar with, they can develop an understanding of the many methods of persuasion and representation through the eyes of an artist instead of an author. This will broaden and encourage growth for the students when they begin to try to develop the methods in their own writing.

week 2 eng 658

Week 2 Eng 658

In the introduction in “Visual Rhetoric in a Digital World,” the assumptions and the writing curricula are challenged. There is a clear differentiation between what is concrete and those things that are abstract when writing. One of the essays also addresses the issues with the constitutional curriculum that has become too traditional and no longer meets the needs of the society it is meant to serve.
In “Opening New Media To Writing,” by Wysocki the issue of cultural and historical expectations and developments are met with some resistance. We have not been practicing what we have been teaching, however. Wysocki explains that just as the curriculum demands students to look at more resent developments and further studies that may have been newly introduced, the same approach must be used when teaching the actual curriculum. “Textual materiality” is another one of the topics addressed. We have a demand to own or find material value to our text. Wysocki explains that the book takes a further look at the issues that arise form “new media.”

week 2 eng 609

Week 2 Eng 609

Under Construction’s Introduction by Farris and Anson addresses the many conflicts that arise from having several authors with varied points of view contribute to composition and theory. One of the problems with developing a coherent theory for composition is the reaction to new technologies and the inclusion of these technologies in the curriculum. Theories also arise when trying to determine the ways in which theory can be practically applied. Another conflict is the quality of writing that theorist believe is appropriate and “good writing.” Other writers explain that we are too quick to stay with what we know and not address the needs of the students represented in our society. We are not only addressing cultural differences, we are also addressing those who the material can find relevance. And finally, there are new theories that have yet to be addressed in the scheme of composition which demand further research and study.

week 1 eng 658

Week 1

As Lanham states in “The Implications of Electronic Information for the Sociology of Knowledge, we have transitioned from the more traditional “codex book” to the newly modified version of text in the hyperspace of technology. As often as we resist the textualization of the internet and technology of the like, we also find ourselves relying on a text that is extremely different than the book. We can no longer lay claim to the text as we were once able to. Lanham also points out that, “A multimedia ‘page’ can manipulate printed text not only in visual scale but in conceptual scale” (459). Lanham also gives the technological example of musical advancement. We no longer have the tape or the record, we have become accustomed to the new improved CD or even further to the MP3 or the Ipod. It has become an inevitable outcome of new experiences and techniques, enabling not just the advancement of language, but also the expansion and manipulation of textual language.
Craig Stroupe comments in “ Visualizing English: Recognizing the Hybrid Literacy of Visual and Verbal Authorship on the Web,” that there needs to be some agreement made in the English department of whether or not we find the use of the internet as a means of publishing and making more available a text or as a means to distort and displace the true meaning of authorship. There is too much in the way of a disagreement and not enough unity on the topic of technology use, which may lead to problems in the English community. One must understand that the technology relies heavily on the means of past communication and learning. Someone can’t simply go onto the internet and develop themselves as a true author. They have to develop a voice and a persona. The characteristics of literature still apply even though the material is being presented in a different fashion.
Both authors touch on the issues with technological advancements and the lack of support from the English scholars who have become too accustomed to the ways of the past. They aren’t able to see the wave of the future as means of publishing what they would normally would have done in a more physical way or the fact that the material will become available to more than those who are eager to buy their book.

week 1 reading

Week 1 Eng 609

In Susan Romano’s, “Tracking Composition Research on the World Wide Web,” she explains how the research curriculum should be studied more thoroughly to include utilizing the internet and technology. She mentions, “What research activities currently are underway among compositionists? What alterations in topic, procedure, and presentation are in progress? How does one go about locating on the World Wide Web a body of research on writing instruction?” (182) Romano also discusses the purpose of using the internet for not only producing textual research, but also as a research topic. Again she examines the transition from completely textual materials to using what could possibly be a more complete mechanism and strategy for the purpose of researching. The call to action is to encourage growth within the educational institutions to research how the world wide web can contribute and build upon all of the texts that we might find on the library bookshelf. Now that researchers and scholars have become more used to using the internet, Susan Romano also encourages research and new approaches in the classroom environment.
In the “Epilogue: The Scholar in Society,” by Bruce Robbins, we see what he calls an upcoming and progressive crisis within the humanities department of upper division learning. He comments that the funding from these programs, the ones that have only enabled the variety of other departments and professions, has been drastically and unconventionally cut. Critics have begun to try to “legitimize” the humanities and what they do. Many say that English doesn’t work to change the environment; but think about the cultural literature that is represented in our libraries and all through the internet. It seems that no one debates that English is necessary for communication, but doesn’t fulfill the needs of the students who wish to be inspired and intrigued, as a disciplinary study.