Eternal Writing from the Linear Mind OR To be Linear or Not to be Linear... (could not decide on the title)
"We can't afford to make assumptions about our students'
"intuitive" grasp of language and rhetorical effectiveness."
- Bonnie Lisle and Sandra Mano
Globalization continues to make the world seem smaller. When I read the articles in The Times of India application on my cell phone much of the nation's news is includes major news in the US and in other countries. As quickly as my CNN and GoogleNews apps update their national and international news, so do the foreign news sources. As a digital immigrant I find myself still amazed at how instant media can go viral. The intermingling of American news in India reminds me of the tossed salad of culture and languages that exist in the US. Educators are continuing to, voluntarily or under requirements, prepare themselves through literature, workshops, and observations for the growing number of students who they will successfully teach that have different language and ethnic backgrounds from their own. The preparation has transferred to literary texts for instruction as well. According to Bonnie Lisle and Sandra Mano (1997) in the article "Embracing a Multicultural Rhetoric" multiple discourse communities, social construction, intertextuality, multivocality, and heteroglassia; publishers advertise a new "multicultural" text in every issue of College English. The purpose, to establish connections for nonnative students who are required to read the same texts and successfully achieve the same objectives as their native peers. However, after researching and examining numerous texts it has been found that, "Most rhetoric texts remain ethnocentric, ignoring the particular needs and interests -- and sometimes even the existence -- of culturally diverse students. Some make unwarranted assumptions about students' linguistic and cultural backgrounds" (p. 12). The writing can become irrelevant and alienating for students that identify as having same-sex desires, for multiracial and multilingual students, and any other student whose culture is not represented in a single text.
In addition to this dilemma, there is this notion that writing in American Standard English is better than or the best way style to write in. Personally it has always been challenging for me to write in a linear manner, as that is not the way my naturally brain functions. I enjoy my writing to unfold like a Quentin Tarantino film - starting in the middle, jumping to the start, moving closer to the end, and so forth; it is much more exciting (to me that is). Native American Writer, Leslie Marmon Silko describes the Pueblo writing tradition as a resemblance of a spider’s web – with many threads radiating from a center. In the article “The Politics of Difference: Toward a Pedagogy of Reciprocity,” Mary Soliday (1997) communicates the multiethnic quilt of writings we can build when we learn to embrace the multiple voices that exist within a singular class/environment. Diversity in writing incorporates more people and is true representation of the diversity that is American culture. In the workplace we are asked/required to collaborate with our coworkers to create mission statements, guidelines, policies, contracts, etc.; we attempt to make everyone’s voice heard (or at least everyone who wants to be heard). Of course we should be teaching students to do the same, as early as possible. Yet, Soliday (1997) reports that, in response to the clash of styles some teachers seek to minimize discordance by teaching students the conventions typically preferred by the academic discourse community. In 2012, the academic discourse community is still sluggish in its evolution to relate to the pupils teachers presently (and will in the near future) stand before. To place hierarchy on spoken and/or written language obviously is a form of discrimination and minimizes the identities of those who do not or cannot adhere to the dominate language. It is also ignorant, considering that American English is a morphed language that has “borrowed” a number of words -- from German, Italian, Spanish, and French languages (to name a few) -- that are now common American terms. The segregation in text and in writing standards is doing a disservice to everyone, not just those who the bias directly affects.
Ask yourself: How would you feel if an entire system tried to regulate the style in which you write/speak?
- Bonnie Lisle and Sandra Mano
Globalization continues to make the world seem smaller. When I read the articles in The Times of India application on my cell phone much of the nation's news is includes major news in the US and in other countries. As quickly as my CNN and GoogleNews apps update their national and international news, so do the foreign news sources. As a digital immigrant I find myself still amazed at how instant media can go viral. The intermingling of American news in India reminds me of the tossed salad of culture and languages that exist in the US. Educators are continuing to, voluntarily or under requirements, prepare themselves through literature, workshops, and observations for the growing number of students who they will successfully teach that have different language and ethnic backgrounds from their own. The preparation has transferred to literary texts for instruction as well. According to Bonnie Lisle and Sandra Mano (1997) in the article "Embracing a Multicultural Rhetoric" multiple discourse communities, social construction, intertextuality, multivocality, and heteroglassia; publishers advertise a new "multicultural" text in every issue of College English. The purpose, to establish connections for nonnative students who are required to read the same texts and successfully achieve the same objectives as their native peers. However, after researching and examining numerous texts it has been found that, "Most rhetoric texts remain ethnocentric, ignoring the particular needs and interests -- and sometimes even the existence -- of culturally diverse students. Some make unwarranted assumptions about students' linguistic and cultural backgrounds" (p. 12). The writing can become irrelevant and alienating for students that identify as having same-sex desires, for multiracial and multilingual students, and any other student whose culture is not represented in a single text.
In addition to this dilemma, there is this notion that writing in American Standard English is better than or the best way style to write in. Personally it has always been challenging for me to write in a linear manner, as that is not the way my naturally brain functions. I enjoy my writing to unfold like a Quentin Tarantino film - starting in the middle, jumping to the start, moving closer to the end, and so forth; it is much more exciting (to me that is). Native American Writer, Leslie Marmon Silko describes the Pueblo writing tradition as a resemblance of a spider’s web – with many threads radiating from a center. In the article “The Politics of Difference: Toward a Pedagogy of Reciprocity,” Mary Soliday (1997) communicates the multiethnic quilt of writings we can build when we learn to embrace the multiple voices that exist within a singular class/environment. Diversity in writing incorporates more people and is true representation of the diversity that is American culture. In the workplace we are asked/required to collaborate with our coworkers to create mission statements, guidelines, policies, contracts, etc.; we attempt to make everyone’s voice heard (or at least everyone who wants to be heard). Of course we should be teaching students to do the same, as early as possible. Yet, Soliday (1997) reports that, in response to the clash of styles some teachers seek to minimize discordance by teaching students the conventions typically preferred by the academic discourse community. In 2012, the academic discourse community is still sluggish in its evolution to relate to the pupils teachers presently (and will in the near future) stand before. To place hierarchy on spoken and/or written language obviously is a form of discrimination and minimizes the identities of those who do not or cannot adhere to the dominate language. It is also ignorant, considering that American English is a morphed language that has “borrowed” a number of words -- from German, Italian, Spanish, and French languages (to name a few) -- that are now common American terms. The segregation in text and in writing standards is doing a disservice to everyone, not just those who the bias directly affects.
Ask yourself: How would you feel if an entire system tried to regulate the style in which you write/speak?
Sources:
Soliday, M. (1997). The Politics of Difference: Toward a Pedagogy of Reciprocity. Writing in Multicultural Settings, 261-272.
Lisle, B., & Mano, S. (1997). Embracing a Multicultural Rhetoric. Writing in Multicultural Settings, 12-26.
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