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ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Assembling the identity of "writer"

Sloan, Philip J
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1416523281

Abstract Details

2014, PHD, Kent State University, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of English.
This dissertation examines the ways that teachers of writing conceptualize and employ the term “writer.” The field of Rhetoric and Composition has a long history of prioritizing the writer in the writing process; a steady stream of scholarship has called for students to “see themselves as writers,” and the central issues of the field have long been associated with—sometimes even defined by—various conceptions of what a “writer” ought to be or do. This project responds to calls across the discipline for a more comprehensive understanding of both the writer and its place in scholarly conversations. Through two qualitative studies of writing teachers—a series of 10 multi-tiered ethnographic interviews and an interactive focus group—I explore various notions of "writer" and their pedagogical ramifications. Data were gathered and analyzed using a constructivist methodology (unstructured interviews and inductive coding) and contextualized within observed trends in Composition scholarship. Results reveal widely disparate notions of writer amongst participants, but also some shared assumptions. The coding process resulted in eight data-based categories: four broad types of writer and four overarching characteristics of writer. These categories, while discrete, interconnect in intriguing ways, and the observed tension between them suggests that the word “writer” cannot be viewed in singular terms. The most pronounced disjuncture is between identity and activity; that is, notions of writer based on the act of writing tend to clash with the mythologized “figure” of the writer. Results further suggest that even as Composition pedagogies evolve in the 21st century, the term “writer” tends to be associated with neo-romantic and anachronistic ideas of writing and literacy. In light of these results, I argue that the identity of writer may be too tenuous and unstable to serve as a pedagogical goal. In a broad sense, this research illuminates the implications of competing discourses, looking at how individual and disciplinary conversations can form implicit definitions that shape the pedagogical approaches of both students and teachers.
Sara Newman, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
290 p.
Communication; Composition; Curriculum Development; Higher Education; Literacy; Pedagogy; Rhetoric; Teaching
writer; writing process; identity; expressive; pedagogy; interview; focus group; teacher talk; agency; being a writer; types of writers; characteristics of writers; categories of writers; romantic; identity of writer; discourse; rhetorical; academic; risk

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Sloan, P. J. (2014). Assembling the identity of "writer" [Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1416523281

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Sloan, Philip. Assembling the identity of "writer". 2014. Kent State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1416523281.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Sloan, Philip. "Assembling the identity of "writer"." Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1416523281

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

kent1416523281
840
© 2014, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Kent State University and OhioLINK.