Re: language as a cognitive parser

Judy Diamondstone (diamonju who-is-at rci.rutgers.edu)
Thu, 9 May 1996 09:03:45 -0400

Dale, I can appreciate your perspective on writing, when writing
is conceived as something that begins when we put pen to paper and
ends when we put the pen down. But I, and I am not alone, don't
see writing in those terms. The act of writing is only one act
within a larger system of activities to which the purpose of
writing must be referred, and as a participant within the larger
system of activities within which writing makes sense (which
might include all sorts of interactions proximal & distall), the
writer's sense of self is very much at stake, and it is only when
the writer is situated with that larger activity system as a
legitimate participant that "voice" and "presence" can be expected
in texts, oral or written. Granted the writer's identity is not the
authorial presence, but the inteconnections between these terms
are what pedagogies for performances of all kinds are all about for
me.

- Judy

At 09:26 AM 5/8/96 EDT, you wrote:
>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
>
>
>

Judy Diamondstone
Graduate School of Education
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
10 Seminary Place
New Brunswick, NJ 08903

diamonju who-is-at rci.rutgers.edu
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