After the discussion we had last Monday night in class, I have not been able to stop thinking about how our classrooms are not teaching about all cultures, so reading Community I find myself asking even more questions and thinking on an even different level.
The first point that I want to bring forward is, "We write not as isolated individuals but as members of communities whose beliefs, concerns, and practices both instigate and constrain, at least in part, the sorts of things we can say. Our aims and intentions in writing are thus not merely personal, idiosyncratic, but reflective of the communities to which we belong." I had never really thought of writing in this sense. Just reading this point help me to understand why voice is such a struggle for so many writers. I had never thought through the fact and/or idea that a person's community truly affects what they say and more importantly what they don't say. Especially if a person is considered to be someone of importance in that particular community they are definitely going to make sure what they say reflects their community in the way they want the outside to see this collective group of people.
The second point I am bringing forward is, "The task of the student is thus imagined as one of crossing the border from one community of discourse to another, of taking on a new sort of language." I had never thought about how much during my university career I always would focus on certain communities when writing papers. Also, when looking at papers from my years prior to college, it is amazing how much my language has changed. It is very much so like I have taken on a whole new language and sometimes I do not even recognize my language in current writings. I am beginning to realize that I do not use the same language I learned while growing up. This is making me question (like is brought up in this section of the book) how do I combine my university language with my natural language? How do I make my voice stronger by connecting these languages? Can I write some of my papers in my voice/language I learned and used while growing up or must they all consist of this new university voice/language I have learned?
All in all what I am saying is this chapter has brought some very strong points to my mind. These points have thus led me to question my own writing. Secondly these points have also made me question communities I belong to and how would they want me to use my voice and language when I write or speak of them.
Rene, I had a lot of similar reactions as I read. Well, let me rephrase: you helped me to realize some reactions I had but did not/could not articulate.
ReplyDeleteI really like what you had to say about how university discourse has the power to change one's language and even voice. I kind of touched on the language part in my blog, but I didn't talk much about the voice part. You are so right! I mentioned in my response to this chapter that Harris pointed out that students tend to write for their instructors and speak their language. That quote reminded me of many things that coincide with your arguments. I thought about the Engfish article that we read earlier this semester and how writing for someone else (a professor or your university) could be considered Engfish. This totally goes along with your argument about Voice. When you begin to write for others, or in the case of the Engfish article, when you stop writing from experience or stop writing the truth, you lose your voice in your writing.
Along with voice, I also thought about how this idea of writing for the university and/or writing in the language of the university could change a writer's audience. As students we are constantly instructed to determine to whom and for whom we are writing. If we are writing with a fear of potential reactions from professors and changing the way in which we write because of that fear, are we not changing our audience? Are we not writing to our university at that point instead of our intended audience? It seems that our target audience gets pushed to the background as we change our language and style to get a desired grade or reaction for the reader and judge of our work.
Just some thoughts. I really like what you brought to the table about this chapter.