Jen's+thoughts+about+composition

I appreciate the concise quality of Ray's two categories of writing: 1) We write to support life. 2) We write to communicate ideas. However, I think Yancey validly points out that, due to Web 2.0 technologies, we also write to participate. This third type of writing is completely different from the other two. It is a conversation like the ones that used to happen at the barber shop, the lunch counter, the service station, etc. We may well want to persuade and influence with this writing, but it is much more casual than composition. No one expects a neighbor to monitor grammar and conventions when discussing local politics over the backyard fence. Participatory writing, to me, represents informal thought. Yancey points out that she used her blog for pre-writing her article. Similarly, I will often discuss an issue with several people during the pre-writing stage. I know when my ideas are working, or at least on the right track, when I hear them spoken. Both writing to support life and writing to participate can lead to composition.

Both articles stress the importance of focusing on writing as "an object of study". Yancey states, "....through reading, society could control its citizens, whereas through writing, citizens might exercise their own control" (p.2). I think this is a profound statement that resonates particularly with Americans and those who value freedom and the democratic process. The ability to influence individuals and society belongs to those who know how to use rhetoric to persuade an audience. In a free society, educators have an obligation to teach students how to do this. Therefore, students need time to process their own ideas, pulled from writing to support life and writing to participate, and to put those thoughts into written form. The writing workshop seems to be the best way to accomplish this. Ray briefly touched on the issue of time constraints without discussing how much time should actually be devoted to the process. I like the idea of making writing a daily activity in my classroom. Given both a 45 minute class period and a 90 minute block, what does the writer's workshop look like on a daily basis? While devoting 30 minutes of a block schedule to writing seems reasonable and beneficial, I'm not certain much would be accomplished in the 15 minutes that would correspond with the 45 minute period.