I Think Therefore It's Mine

"Intertextuality and the Discourse Community"

I found Porter's article incredibly helpful and insightful. I feel that his analysis of intertextuality and how it might aid in composition pedagogy to be a missing piece of the discussion in what we have read so far this semester. His ideas seem to go hand-in-hand with many other theorists I and others have mentioned in class. Granted, writing in 1986 he was probably taking part in the scholarly debate that has shaped much of my composition theory education thus far.

While I recognize this particular vein of thought to be twenty years old, I still can't help but feel as if it is the best solution to the problem of teaching writing that I have seen yet. I feel this is the case because scholarship has consistently proven the truth of discourse communities and their affect on readers and writers. It seems from my own teaching experience and much of what I've read, that the best (perhaps only) way to give students the opportunity to enter into these discourse communities is to teach to the awareness of discourse communities.

This doesn't mean meaningless phrases like "think about your audience" or "don't use I in your paper" but offering assignments and (grading them accordingly) that give students the chance to enter into the discourse communities. Situations where they use their own writing as text or something similar that allows them to think about their own thinking in a reflexive way that allows them to "first [become] socialized [and] learn what it means to write within a social context" (44). I still believe that if this is accomplished they will be in a position to move between discourses and that is the knowledge that will stay with them after 101 ends. That knowledge will also allow for improved writing across the curriculum because it is exactly this ability to enter into discourse and manipulate it accordingly that is writing. At least, that is still what seems to be the case to me.

"Plagiarism, originality, assemblage"

If I had the time or inclination I would totally make this response an "assemblage" of the piece. I just want you all to know that I thought about being brilliant and then decided against it.

I think there are some incredibly and interesting ideas in this article. The idea of reevaluating plagiarism and the binary that supports modern academic attitudes about it is, I think, an important one to discuss. Also, the idea of having students writing assemblages instead of "original" pieces is also something worth thinking about. Before I continue allow me to state that I understand they do not advocate the complete replacement of typical 101 curriculum with assemblages but instead offer one or two assemblage assignments along with more traditional writing assignments.

I think there is a place in education, our world, what have you, for the assemblage. I think as an upper level class in an of itself it would be a great idea. I don't think composition should include more than one assemblage assignment, however. My reasons for this have nothing to do with plagiarism, but very specifically to do with the fact that non-traditional media has its place and use, but will not get the students where they want to be most of the time. I'm considering many other art forms (music, art, movies, writing) that engage in what appears to me to be like the assemblage described. Many are brilliant (many more are not) and offer something to the field. But they are still not the popular media of choice. For this reason, if no other, we need to continue our quest for teaching "basic writing" more effectively.

And, I disagree that in anything you create it is all someone else's. The reason for this comes from Bakhtin's internally persuasive discourse versus the authoritative discourse. I think that all language you create is half-yours and half-someone else's. This allows me to agree with the thesis of this article even as I see the possibility for the loss of critical thought if one used the ideas here naively.