Compositional Enlightenment Revisited

I don't know how many of you will read this since the class is practically complete.  However, I just wanted to make a final post that you may catch when nostalgically revisiting the blog someday.  If you don't want to read what I learned from blogging in Eng 529a, then just go to the bottom.  I have a list of thank yous to each person associated with the class (that I can remember).  If I skipped your name, let me know.  I'll put in a thank you :)  So now on to how I've been enlightened in this class...

Things I Learned From This Class 

(This is my enlightenment inspired font choice. Classy looking, huh? )

I find communicating on blogs difficult.

• There's just too much time to think.  I second guess myself in ways that I do not verbally.  If I say something off-putting (as I have been known to do), I know immediately and can try to diffuse it.  However, if I type it into a blog, not only do my colleagues and faculty know I say foolish things, but so does whoever chooses to mosey into our blog.
• When I did write on the blog, I tried to synthesize or compare a couple of readings, all of which were brand new to me.  Perhaps that was engaging well, or perhaps it was overcommitment.  Regardless, it made that part of the blogging process take concerted effort, and thus limited how much I posted.
• In the comments section I had some trepidation too.  Many (though not all) of the people in the class are from the same school. When they talked, there was a familiarity that I knew I did not have.  I felt like I might be intruding on a conversation between friends.

• I do think that writing on blogs has use in that it makes students creatively interact with the readings.  It certainly forced me to read deeply.  I might include it in a class on interpersonal communication to allow students to evaluate the differences between face to face and mediated communication.

Foucault is not always depressing--just usually.  He also looks like Christopher Lloyd

•  Discourses of power own me in my class.  It wasn't until after reading Foucault (again) that I realized how unquestioningly I follow argumentative structures in my classes.  Seriously.  I never even questioned it.

The concept of "voice" is as volatile here as in other disciplines.

•  Voice in composition is analogous to agency in the communication world.  Marx's ideas of structure and superstructure didn't allow enough space for people to choose.  Theorists Burke granted much greater agency to the rhetor.  Giddens created structuration as kind of a middle ground between the two (an extreme oversimplification, I know).
• Interestingly, one of the biggest debates in Theology is Arminianism, vs. Calvinism.  Arminianism states that we choose our faith and we choose our destiny.  Calvinism is much more deterministic.
• All these perspectives ask "Do we make ourselves, or do our surroundings make us"?  The arguments about the maker and the made transcend discipline.  I've come to the conclusion that the made or being made is just a question about the human condition that we will never solve.  I also believe that voice, structure/agency, nature/nurture, Calvinism/Arminianism might just be false binaries.

Bob Flannagan.  Wow.
 

•  Personal, painful performance art in my composition class?  Crip theory?  I found this section to be the most challenging in the class and the most personally condemning.  Why don't I want to use these pedagogical tools in my class?  It has nothing to do with composition and everything to do with me.  I'm too uncomfortable with the human body and all it's variations to do this.  Maybe I will improve in the future.

 The language I use in my syllabus says more about me than about the class I'm designing.  Scary. 

• I will never look at a syllabus the same way again. Personal pronouns are more revealing than I had ever considered.  I wonder if the theory by which I structure my classes is undermined by the very was I position myself in writing in relation to my students.  I just had not questioned this at all either.

The Division between English Composition and Communication had political underpinnings that have only made the division even greater.

• I find it humorous that if you wanted to teach public speaking, or I wanted to teach composition, we would be viewed as interdisciplinary.  The divisions we have made are being proven more and more arbitrary, but the political structure, rhetoric, and economics of the University demonstrate that there will be no reuniting anytime soon.

 The English department has some pretty good folks in it.

• So, looking back on the class and the blog, I think I've discovered much about the theory that is out there, and what I am doing wrong.  So I'll finish with a round of thanks to everyone in class.  If I skip anyone, I apologize, I'm going on memory here, and my brain is full.

 

The Official Thank You List

Thanks, Dr. Rouzie, for reeling me in when I went adrift, and for directing me to WAC.  I think this discourse will inform my scholarship for years.

Thanks Dede, for working with me on my late draft.

Thanks Brianna, for letting me know when I'm not funny and being nice to me anyway.  Also, thanks for your website.  I plan to actually use it to figure out that Twitter thingee.

Thanks Matt squared.  The double Matt powerhouse kept the conversation interesting, and gave me someone to commiserate on living with grad school and young kids.

Thanks Amanda, for promoting Appalachia, and for directing my emails to the appropriate people.

Thanks Sarah, for always asking the questions that I couldn't pretend to answer.

Thanks Ashley, for letting me know I did not make you (entirely) angry 

Thanks DC for writing about topics that I am utterly uninformed about.  Bifflebonk my friend.

Thanks Kate, for voicing your opinion about what needs to be treated with caution.  Just because an analogy works, does not mean it is wise or helpful.

Thanks Hillery, for always excellent and clear presentations.  You know what you think and why you think it.  That level of articulation never ceases to amaze me.

Thanks, Jonathan, for showing me how blogging is done.  I am impressed with how you use this medium.

Thanks Simone, for commenting on my blog posts and identifying with my concerns.  It made me feel more a part of the class, and I really appreciate it!

Thanks, James for introducing me to Postman.  I know its hard to believe, but I'd previously read nothing from Postman.  My future in argumentation will be drawing a bit upon him.

Yours Truly…

(The Now Enlightened) Aaron Duncan