The writer and the academic hold different positions when it comes to writing. Elbow points out that the writer is egotistical and does everything for himself, while the academic writes toward the audience. This creates difficulties in teaching a first-year writing course because of the transition to college and the reason students are in college. They come to college to become academics, generally. Elbow does not see that society allows for us to be writers while in college but wants it to become that way. *While Elbow and Bartholomae battle to their last breath, the rest of us are left to try and become writers and academics at the same time. We write with our own voice, but write so that the reader will appreciate it. Where the dilemma comes in is ownership of the text, but that is a whole other difference between the writer and academic to be tackled by someone else's reading response.
Posted by zwic7726 on September 4, 2008
Tags Reading Responses
Comments on specific paragraphs:
Click the
icon to the right of a paragraph
Comments on the page as a whole:
Click the
icon to the right of the page title (works the same as paragraphs)