NCTE Sunday General Session, November 23, 2008

Kathleen Yancey, Presidential Address "The Impulse to Compose and the Age of Composition: Four Quartets"

From the Declaration of Independence drafted by "thirteen white men" to the election of Barack Obama (and his many writings from books to text messages) "by a landslide," writing is an important part of the political landscape, as Yancey makes eminently clear. Yancey used a split screen for her presentation, and I couldn't help but notice that the Declaration of the Independence was on the screen to the audience's left, while Obama was on the screen to the audience's right. (I actually mentioned this to her after the presentation, suggesting that perhaps many of us would think this was a reversal of the "proper" order! She responded that she always found it interesting to consider the multiple ways the audience "reads" these kinds of things; while she was presenting it as chronological, some of us were intent on "reading" it as political. Heh.)

At any rate, Yancey presented the forecast of English composition as a social problem: "We are literacy educators," she asserted in four quartets:

1. An impulse to write, tested
   
2. An impulse to write, scaled and experienced
   
3. An impulse to write, processed, and
   
4. An impulse to write, electrified, networked
   

In Quartet 1, then, she discussed the history of "writing," from an emphasis on teaching children penmanship, with the focus on children as readers and listeners. As Deborah Brandt notes, writing was labor intensive (messy ink smudges, penmanship, manual typewriters that took LOTS of muscle to pound).

Citing Mark Richardson's recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education (http://chronicle.com/weekly/v55/i11/11a04701.htm if you have an account), Yancey discussed the old Harvard writing exams and the birth of our current writing curriculum, which was note even based on anything to do with writing per se, but instead of ensuring that students could discuss literature in a "paper."

Thus we come to Quartet 2 (okay, okay, I'm leaving out so MUCH good stuff, but these are notes, for goodness' sake!). Science and progressivism reared their heads and "writing became a phenomenon to be measured," beginning, says Yancey, in 1909 with measuring ratings of, what else—handwriting! At any rate, the tests "tested pupils, but they also tested teachers." (Sound familiar??). In 1935, NCTE developed a proposed curriculum, and there was something about a "Report: Testing Unfair, Unwise" by Robert C. Small, Jr., Assoc. Press. (Okay, these are ROUGH notes. Whaddya want? You should have been there in person to hear Yancey speak for yourself!)

The 1930s-40s saw the influence of science and the absence of theory in composition. "Teaching behavior and responsibility through composition" rather than creativity and critical thinking. Hmmm, this reminds me of the many, many, many texts that were used in my old typing class in high school (as well as the many typing tests that were administered to job applicants) WAY back in the 60s and 70s) that didn't just provide text for typing practice/testing, but that actually were about writing business letters or business etiquette or other "professional" practices in the work place.

In response, of course, we later began to see research in the field (for instance, research into composing processes leading to the process movement, NCTE's statement on student's use of language in 1974, etc. And of course, portfolios…. (now genre, activity theory, situated learning).

So, what was left? Teacher as examiner—a model still in effect today.

Transformative: personal computer (even before the Internet) as desktop publishing can inspire creativity, visual composing, etc.

So, Kathleen Yancey included "Beebo" in her list. I was seated next to Michael Day and neither of us had ever heard of this term, so I looked it up in Wikipedia:

Bebo is a popular social networking website, founded in January 2005. It can be used in many countries including Ireland, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia. A Polish version was launched recently, which uses a different user database. There are plans for French, German and other versions. Founded by husband and wife Michael and Xochi Birch, Bebo had a major relaunch in July 2005.^]

It was bought by AOL on March 13, 2008 for $850 m (£417 m).

"Bebo" is an acronym for "Blog early, blog often".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bebo

So, now we've come to Quartet 4: Enter digital technology and Web 2.0 – and writers are everywhere. Students are sharing; they are both creators and recipients for news. We have what Deborah Brandt terms "self-sponsored writing" and what Kathleen Yancey terms the "Age of Composition." A new era – digital technology.

Yancey makes it clear that students now want to have at least some control over their learning: she tells the story of the AP exams where students used social networking sites to join forces (over 30,000 strong) to write "This is Sparta!" (crossed out so it wouldn't count against them) somewhere in their AP exams! Posted to Wikipedia (but removed about a month later), this story deftly illustrates the power of social networking (among other things!). So, asks Yancey, "How can we build on" students' knowledge of composing in a digital, connected era? Web 2.0 allows for "communication, conversation, connecting, and community," she says (is this, I wonder, a possible new meaning for CCCC?).

"Today," says Yancey, "if you're writing at the screen, you're writing on the network." Noone is writing alone anymore. "Through writing, we are." This brings us, then, to

 

"A New Agenda, A New Composition" – a new kind of citizenship – with

1. New models of composing and composition (apart from testing!)
   
2. New audiences
   
3. New definitions of "writing" (is it a verb or a noun?)
   
4. And new models for teaching (heh, she used a "wordle" for her slide!)
   

In conclusion, she stressed, "We need to become serious about helping students become (citizen) writers instead of good test takers." Amen (or is it "ah women?") to that!