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/
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Working within invitational rhetoric for a moment, let’s reframe this context. Can we say, then, that sharing, cooperation, and loyalty are not personal sacrifices but rather indications of willingness to connect, invitations to converse? If these actions create spaces for conversation, are they then worth the effort?

Sonja K. Foss and Karen A. Foss (2009) suggest that “individuals decide to make a change and deliberately use their thinking processes to achieve the desired result—[and] the results...impact the systems of which they are a part” (p. 55). Thus, reconsidering the ways in which we see to connect, even if they seem unconventional and distinct from the norms of academic discourse, can help us change the ways our communications are perceived and received.

If under invitational rhetoric such actions are no longer a sacrifice, will we not make greater progress toward communication and satisfaction in that communicative process?

“Many women refuse to leave commitment, sharing, cooperation, material and emotional obligation, personal loyalty, and a willingness to sacrifice for others at home. They transport these qualities into the workplace.” (Ilene Philipson, 2002, p. 1)

Monday, February 22, 2010

A willingness to sacrifice

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