complementary ideas

Charles Bazerman (bazerman who-is-at humanitas.ucsb.edu)
Sun, 4 Apr 1999 10:28:22 -0700 (PDT)

Mike,
While I think I also have a kind of synthetic/eclectic desire to
appropriate everything useful, and while I also find that many authors are
talking about the same, related, or compatible ideas in different
language, I am also currently finding it useful to sort out which
direction which authors go in. The seeming contradictions or diofferences
are often because of different issues foregrounded or different problems
addressed. But then that suggests that the conceptual vocabulary and
research studies of one may provide more useful tools for certasin kinds
of applications and problems, and the conceptual vocabulary of another may
be a better fit for others. So it is useful to sort out, who does what.
Further, if we want to use the conceptual vocabularies of both within the
same project, study, or task, it becomes useful to see what work each is
doing and how they can be intelligibly coordinated.

Chuck