That's it. I'm wondering about whether or not or to what extent this
depends on the student's perception of the task--phenomenalism ("a thing
as it appears to and is constructed by the mind" *Randon House
Dictionary*). This is what Russ is saying--maybe--that the situation must
be perceived by the writer as demanding or desiring a response. Burke must
have said something about this--where's Rick Coe?
Roger Graves
Associate Professor
Department of English, DePaul University
On Thu, 16 May 2002, Russ Hunt wrote:
> At the Inkshed Working Conference 19 on PEI last week (more
> information about it, its sessions, the inksheds from the conference,
> and pictures, is available on the Inkshed Web site), one of the
> discussions on Sunday morning was focused on Roger Grave's document
> on the reading table and on my review of _Worlds Apart_ in the fall
> Inkshed Newsletter. After the conference Roger wrote to the
> participants, saying, in part,
>
> > I'd like to talk more about an issue that came up on Sunday am in
> > the response / discussion about what makes a writing task "real,"
> > what counts as a real or "authentic" rhetorical situation. The
> > service learning classes [described in Roger's Inkshed paper] do
> > that, but Russ made the point that any class, at least
> > theoretically, is capable of this. What conditions mark these
> > occasions? Consequences of the writing act? Perception on the
> > part of tne writer?
>
> This is an issue that I'd like to have the help of Inkshedders in
> thinking about. I'd like to begin by putting a slightly different
> spin on what Roger cites me as saying: my main contention is not that
> we _can_ make situations "real" in class, but rather that classes, as
> conventionally constructed, make it extremely difficult and unlikely
> to happen, even though it is possible.
>
> Here's a simple minded example: what I'm writing, right now, as I
> compose this, is _real_, in that my central motive is to use this
> writing to convey an idea to readers whom I want to understand it and
> whom I want to respond to it(Bakhtin says they're the same thing,
> eh?). If I constructed a scenario in class in which I asked a
> student to imagine this situation and write the email, turning it in
> as an assignment, it would _not_ be real. (And we need to remember
> that that kind of simulation rarely happens in class.)
>
> So there's my dichotomy. What makes one real and one not, and what
> are the important differences in terms of language learning? What
> conditions, to use Roger's terminology, mark an occasion when writing
> is "real" or "authentic"?
>
> Is that the issue you were raising, Roger?
>
>
> -- Russ
>
> St. Thomas University
> http://www.stu.ca/~hunt
>
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