[Teaching_Composition] Academic Discourse

[Thelin,William]

Hi Laura,

Yes, I've done what you talk about below.  As I indicated a couple
months ago, it takes a very careful and democratic pedagogy to enact
writing as a change agent.  A lot of this strand of thought springs from
Freire.  I'm glad you're interested in it.  Could you talk about what
you're doing in your classroom along these lines?

Bill



One of the areas I've become interested in lately is writing as a change
agent on the individual and societal level. I'm sure all of you have had
students write papers that seemed to come from some gut level indicating
the need for catharsis or awareness of a greater societal problem. From
what I've been able to find out from studying the uses of writing in
cognitive behavior therapy and neuroscience, what written and read
language do to the brain is powerful stuff in effecting changes in
behavior. It seems to me we could add that kind of writing to our
composition classes as well. Has anyone done that in their classes?

Laura Card, PhD
English Department
Brigham  Young University