As the field of composition studies became more sophisticated in
its understanding of research, the designs and assumptions
underlying the early work were called into question. Researchers
were challenged to design studies that were sensitive to the
varying contexts in which writers write and to the ways their own
roles shaped their investigations. The more comprehensive studies
called for by these critiques are only now beginning to
appear.
This volume presents some articles in which writers and what they
do are at the center of inquiry. The focus is on what actually
occurs as people write and how they make sense of what they are
doing. Choosing such a focus grants human action central importance
and enacts the belief that looking closely at individuals can be a
primary starting point for understanding them and their worlds.
Other papers take the researcher's shaping role into account. The
integrity of such work rests not so much on a lifeless detachment
from the phenomena being studied as on the author's vital
engagement, and on a faithful rendering of what has been observed.
This includes the author revealing his or her own impact of what
has been seen and said.
In the broadest sense, composing is something we all do: the
students and parents and writers and teachers who serve as subjects
of research and those who write the research itself. It is what
each of us is engaged in when we shape our understanding of life
through the writing we do. And it is what can continue to light the
way in composition studies for it illuminates what still makes this
inquiry so intriguing and so rich -- that only human beings have
this capacity tolook and see more, to create new texts and new
work, and in the creating compose their way to new understandings
and new selves.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!