[Teaching_Composition] Drafts and Info Literacy

[Norgaard Rolf]

Dear Phyllis, and all,

Thanks for this wonderful post.  I like how you explore that tension
between simply mentioning the conclusion of another's work (for one's own
purposes, of course) and getting caught up in summarizing someone else's
purposes.

Inherent in this tension is the tug and pull between received voices and
authority and one's own developing voice and authority.  I believe
information literacy instruction works best when it capitalizes on that
tension, rather than when it avoids it, or wishes it away.

An effective teaching essay in this regard is Nancy Sommers' "Between the
Drafts."

Best, Rolf

Dr. Rolf Norgaard                   Environmental Design Bldg., Rm. 1B64
Program for Writing and Rhetoric    Campus Box 317
University of Colorado at Boulder   VOX: 303-492-3605  FAX: 303-492-7877
Boulder, CO 80309-0317              rolf.norgaard@colorado.edu

On Wed, 15 Nov 2006, Phyllis Mentzell Ryder wrote:

> Hi Rolf,
> It's great to hear your voice on the listserv; I've admired your work on
> rhetoricizing info lit.  It's a very convincing argument and has helped
> to generate many productive partnerships between our first-year writing
> faculty and our university librarians.
>
> To answer your prompt: In terms of the drafts I have on my desk, I find
> that one rhetorical move that my students don't yet recognize as they
> use sources is that simply stating the conclusion of someone else's
> article is not enough to convince an (academic) reader that the
> conclusion is valid.  I've been writing on the drafts something like,
> "can you provide some information about the methodology of the study so
> we can see how the author arrived at this position"?  In workshops today
> this seemed like a new idea to some of them.  Others were doing it to
> excess--getting more caught up in summarizing the methods of an article
> than in using that article to advance their own positions.
>
> But more interesting, I think, was a conversation in a peer workshop
> group.  The student author had developed a pretty solid argument,
> mounting her evidence and intertwining her sources--and then in the last
> paragraph she summarized an article that turned everything on its head.
> The final paragraphs revealed her wrestling with this new source, trying
> to downplay it but also interested in what it was saying.  In the group
> workshop, one peer said, "I think you should cut this part."  The author
> said, "but I think I believe it.  It's confusing because I came to it so
> late in the reading and I don't know what to do."  So I said, "maybe
> that article and the problems its causing you are the real starting
> point of the paper.  The goal is not about winning an argument but about
> finding out what you believe."  Those are the moments when teaching
> research is most exciting.
> Phyllis
>
> --
> phyllis mentzell ryder | assistant professor of writing |university writing program | the george washington university |  2100 fox hall road | washington dc 20007 | pryder@gwu.edu | academic center 107 [mt vernon]|fax: 202.242.6669 | 202.242.6667
>
>
> Everything will be okay in the end.  If it's not okay, it's not the end.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Teaching_Composition maillist  -  Teaching_Composition@mailman.eppg.com
> http://mailman.eppg.com/mailman/listinfo/teaching_composition
>
> To unsubscribe, please visit http://mailman.eppg.com/mailman/listinfo/teaching_composition and update your information.
>