Re: language as a cognitive parser

Dale Cyphert (DXC20 who-is-at PSUVM.PSU.EDU)
Wed, 8 May 96 09:26 EDT

Judy, I think I might just be defining voice and presence more broadly
than a writing teacher would. Broad in the sense that I aim for a
physical sense of self under the gaze of others (a frightening thing in
the face-to-face context, less so when text, time and geography shield
one from an audience), and a sensitivity to the processes whereby people
match their implicit knowledge schemas. The various uses of language that
a writing teacher might discuss to develop 'voice' and 'presence' are
also applicable to a speaking situation, but the language itself is
a minor part of what I'm teaching. Kairos is the third part of my voice/
presence/kairos triumvirate; in speaking it has to be a real-time set of
decisions, not something that can be done with those slow explicit processes
that writing depends on.
dale