Patricia Bizzel begins her article with the assumption that problems in student writing can be traced back to problems in student thinking. She cautions us against taking for granted the fact that we are teaching ways of thinking and therefore seeing the world as well as ways of writing. She argues that approaching problems of writing with the assumption that there is one absolute and correct way to write, while erasing the importance of community and relationship in writing will create two problems. The first problem she outlines is that students still will not recognize the "why" of writing and the second problem is that we, as writing instructors will not disguise ethical questions about writing within the guise of scientific fact. She goes on to outline Flower and Hayes studies on the processes of writing. She does not discredit Flower and Hayes altogether, but argues that their approach assumes that thinking proceeds writing and that writing is purely communicative. Their studies also do not account for where writing conventions come from and how students can engage more actively with the ways in which ideas of writing are generated. Bizzel concludes by looking at Vygotsky and the things his theories can add to and Flower and Hayes. She adopts the theory of discourse communities and finally argues that we must see writing as something formulated in and with those communities. I find her arguments compelling overall and certainly agree that we must use theories that force us to ask ethical questions about writing instruction.
Posted by winn0044 at February 22, 2005 1:25 PM