Genre And The Invention Of The Writer: Reconsidering the Place of Invention in CompositionIn a focused and compelling discussion, Anis Bawarshi looks to genre theory for what it can contribute to a refined understanding of invention. In describing what he calls "the genre function," he explores what is at stake for the study and teaching of writing to imagine invention as a way that writers locate themselves, via genres, within various positions and activities. He argues, in fact, that invention is a process in which writers are acted upon by genres as much as they act themselves. Such an approach naturally requires the composition scholar to re-place invention from the writer to the sites of action, the genres, in which the writer participates. This move calls for a thoroughly rhetorical view of invention, roughly in the tradition of Richard Young, Janice Lauer, and those who have followed them. Instead of mastering notions of "good" writing, Bawarshi feels that students gain more from learning how to adapt socially and rhetorically as they move from one "genred" site of action to the next. |
Contents
The Genre Function | 16 |
Inventing the Writer in Composition Studies | 49 |
Genre and the Invention | 78 |
Copyright | |
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activity system agent analyze argue assume assumptions author-function Bazerman become calls chapter classroom cockfight cognition communicative composition studies conceptual constitute context conventions creativity Crowley cultural D. H. Lawrence defined describe desires detective fiction disciplinary discursive and ideological enact English studies example exigence explains first-year writing FYW course Geertz genre analysis genre function genre studies genre theory genred positions genred sites Giddens habitats heuristic identify individuals interaction Karen Burke Kenneth Burke language literary locate means Miller negotiate organize participate particular PMHF positions of articulation potential process movement readers recognize relations reproduce response rhetorical situation Rohman role scholars shape and enable sites of action situated cognition situation type social action social and rhetorical social motives social practices speech structure student essay student writers subject positions syllabus tagmemic teachers and students texts textual tion topoi union address writers invent writing course writing instruction writing prompt