photo credit: stamps school of art and design, university of michigan
I wonder what First Year Composition would look like if it was taught to bring about social change. A friend and colleague uses action proposals in his class and has had great success. I saw this photo album shared on Facebook this morning and wondered how writing might change if placed in a genuine social context. My students are still writing to me, and along the lines of the Common Core State Standards teaching a limited capacity for writing (is it a persuasive or argumentative essay, Ms. Lonsdale? Well, it’s neither….), I wonder what this means in terms of creativity and innovation for our future. What if composition was taught as art and design, craft and design, dedicated to fostering conversations and pushing the boundaries of what resources we have?
Hmm… I think this is interesting because I actually really, really support the rhetorical emphasis that the Common Core places on writers. It foregrounds the ideas of audience and purpose in ways that my teachers never did in school (“Write a book report on this book I’ve already read because I said so.”) Yes, saying “persuasive” or “informative” might seem a little formulaic, but it also lays the groundwork to asking questions about purpose. Why are you writing this piece? Is it to convince someone of something? Is it to simply give someone the facts? Your students asking you what “type” of writing you want is actually a good thing, in my opinion, because they are asking what purpose their writing should serve.
But this seems in direct opposition to what you seem to be campaigning for: writing as craft. Craft does not necessarily care about audience or purpose: it does not have to serve either of these things and can exist merely within itself for the purpose of existing. I’m thinking here of a good friend of mine who is a letter press printer. True, she makes things like wedding announcements to make money, but she is truly engaged with the craft when she is working on something outside the demands of clients. She spends long hours in her studio, making careful and precise choices about color and text, each letter a conscious choice, to create something new — which will probably hang on the wall of her shop. To me, the kinds of writing that are akin to this kind of craftsmanship are creative writing and work in advanced rhetoric — neither of which we can possibly touch on in classes where we are faced with the primary challenge of simply getting students to see that they might actually have something to say and that people might actually listen.
And while it might seem particularly pessimistic of me, I’m also not sure we can really teach writing as craft in a class where most of the students don’t actually want to be there, and just required to be there because English is a Gen. Ed. When I think of my friend and her print shop, I know that kind of dedication and precision and interest can only come from intrinsic sources — no teacher could make her think about her work that way.
By and large, I’ve found that my students come into class every semester actually not caring at all about their writing. This is why I teach action proposals — to make them care, to see writing as more than letters on a page existing onto itself. If I am successful, then students become interested more in how the language itself functions, asking important questions about construction in order to serve a wider purpose. Unfortunately, though, that is a rare occurrence. Even at the end of the semester, several of my students still think it’s a sick joke that I’m telling them to send their action proposals out for someone else to read and that they actually have good ideas.
That’s interesting…I view craft as very purpose-oriented. I knit a scarf to be worn by someone. I make a bowl out of clay to be used for food. Craft is very concerned with the end user, which I tie in with social action – making something that should have a real impact, rather than writing to the teacher. So…I don’t think we’re entirely in opposition, though I do understand what you are saying about your friend, and about how the process is different when working to meet specific requirements or expectations, especially when they differ from what you want to be doing internally.
I think there’s room for these two ideas, social change + writing and craft + writing to function together.