The New Work of Composing

Edited by Debra Journet, Cheryl E. Ball, & Ryan Trauman

Book overview. This edited collection explores theoretical and practical questions about multimodal, digital production through lenses of rhetoric/composition, digital writing studies, English studies, and the humanities.
- Computers and Composition Digital Press
- Utah State University Press
Not Your Mother's Argument

Morgan Gresham and Roxanne Kirkwood Aftanas

Abstract. This chapter explores how identity and expectations change audience responses to our work as scholars. Using our own compositions as a point of departure, we argue that authors cannot use the master's tools of traditional argument to look at the new work of composition scholarship. As our discipline transitions to new compositions, we see the increasing expectation of a "second shift" of work that requires remediation into traditional argument if our work is to be viable. We push against this expectation, using our digital compositions to create feminist identities and scholarship.

APA Citation: Gresham, Morgan, & Aftanas, Roxanne Kirkwood. (2012). Not your mother's argument. In Debra Journet, Cheryl E. Ball, & Ryan Trauman (Eds.), The new work of composing. Computers and Composition Digital Press/Utah State University Press. http://ccdigitalpress.org/nwc/chapters/gresham-aftanas/
Metadata

Something important to remember, as suggested by a fellow GenX faculty member:

“If you want to pole vault over it [the tenure hurdle], you go right ahead, but no one here is going to back up the Brinks truck and start dumping all this cash on you, simply because you’ve decided to work like you have three jobs.” (Helms, 2010, p. 10)

It is important to remember that no one outside us values the decisions we make the same way we do when we make them. What looks important to us may not be the best or only or even the expected way to answer the call. We are responsible for the choices we make and we are the ones who must ultimately account for them.

From a recent COACHE study, one GenX faculty member summed up: “I want some stability. I want a place to call home. I want to put some deep roots in, and fully invest, and commit, and serve a community.” (Helms, 2010, p. 6)

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

A mother and a child examining a large tree trunk

What GenXers Want: Stability and Community

The New Work of Composing

Edited by Debra Journet, Cheryl E. Ball, & Ryan Trauman

Not Your Mother's Argument

Morgan Gresham and Roxanne Kirkwood Aftanas

Metadata