Monday, May 21, 2012

Considering the Merit of "On-the-Fly Jottings of Pop-Crazed Youth"


Sirc, Geoffrey.  "Writing in the Post--"Man-of-Letters" Modern World."  College Composition and Communication 60.4 (2009):  W16-W31.  Print.

Geoffrey Sirc's article revolves around these questions, which he asks himself when designing writing prompts: "what does writing count for anymore, who's doing it, why, what does it look like?" (W16).  He develops his answer for what writing ought to do from a Phi Beta Kappa address given by Allen Tate in 1952.   Tate describes a “man of letters,” who is skilled in communication that is also communion.  This communicative communion ought to have a specific purpose. The purpose of this work is threefold:  to show something new about "an unchanging source of knowledge"; to tell "the false from the true"; and to preserve "the integrity, the purity, and the reality of language" (Tate qtd in Sirc W18).  

It is Sirc's intention to build writing classes that meet Tate's call to action for the modern man of letters.  He hopes that by doing so, he might "give students occasions for writing that truly count for something in their world" (W17).  To identify such an occasion for writing, he turns to iTunes.  Sirc shows how the iTunes reviewer enacts the threefold work of the man of letters.  These reivews demonstrate authentic writing occasions; as Sirc says, "this new genre of and occasion for prose proves to me conclusively that traditional school-sponsored writing is effectively over as an object of both practice and study.  If we want to teach something credible, it must have this genuine occasion of participatory communion, as these new species of pulpit oratory do" (W19).

Sirc suggests that iTunes writing would allow for a kind of classical rhetoric revival in the contemporary classroom that Robert Gorrell calls for.  He explains, “MP3 criticism is a true site of rhetoric, a key scene in the contemporary art of persuasion” (W22-23).  He demonstrates how these reviews might be seen as instances of rhetorical rebirth in particular for their use of contemporary Attic style, using brevity, figures of wit, and metaphor, for example.  Sirc demonstrates the ways in which these short jottings provide the platform for studying a variety of rhetorical techniques.  While Sirc admits that some reviews are “thoughtless raves or rants,” he still maintains that they are worthy genres to consider because so many are engaged in a “speculative, rhetorical search for truth,” (W30) which is much more than we can say for many stilted, artificial genres of the FYC classroom.

Whether the reader of this article concludes his or her reading wanting to adopt the iTunes review as a genre for inquiry and composition in his or her own classroom is not important.  Sirc’s writing reminds us to consider what business we’re in.  Are we preparing students to be men and women of letters?  Those engaged in purposeful communicative communion?  Or are we content to preoccupy them with the busy work of occasionless genres?  As we develop course materials, no matter what the course delivery platform, we must engage these questions. 

8 comments:

  1. Hi, Cheri! Happy to be working with you this week on the group project. Playing with tech, I recorded my thoughts. Let me know if you can't access it. I'm new to this tech: http://snd.sc/LfUtv1

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    1. Thanks for the audio comment, Megan! I really like iTunes reviews as a example genre too. As I commented below to Pat, I think it's starting to loose its currency as Pandora and Spotify are taking over, but it's still a great example of bring authentic writing occasions to the classroom. I think our big challenge is to keep those occasions up-to-date!

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  2. I like your choice of articles and review, Cheri. Especially your question near the end: "are we content to preoccupy them with the busy work of occasionless genres?" Well put! It's great to be in class with you this summer, and I'm very happy to be in the program too, so thanks for your advice :)

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    1. Hey, Jennifer! Thanks. That question is one that is steering my dissertation research! I'm glad you've joined us in the program. It's going to be great to share a program again!

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  3. Cheri,

    Thanks for sharing this article. I have never thought about itunes. Have you ever used itunes? If so, let me know your advice.

    Pat

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    1. iTunes is useful, Patricia. My whole audio library is housed there these days, so I hardly ever hold a music artifact any longer! I think Sirc's point in the article about iTunes is more about the purpose their reviews might hold for composition practices than in the benefits of the actual software. What's interesting for me to consider, in light of this article, is that I hardly ever read iTunes music reviews. I am too much of a music snob to listen to crowd-sourced comments about music. However, I will use Yelp's reviews about restaurants like it's the Bible of food. AND! I'll also trust Pandora to select music I want to listen to based upon my own tastes. It's funny to think about how I relate to these different programs.

      At this point, I think iTunes isn't really being used by folks to get musical recommendations in the same way, so I think the importance of the iTunes review might be lessened. So if you're interested in trying out a new music related technology, I'd recommend Spotify or Pandora more these days...

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  4. I must admit that one of my greatest concerns about my own teaching is that I fall into "the busy work of occasionless genres," so I always appreciate reading insights that challenge my complacency.

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    1. Hey Angela--it's easy to do, isn't it? It seems to me like those assignments are easier to create and put into practice because there are so many examples of them in our field's history to turn to. I believe strongly in moving past these occasionless genres, but then we have to ask ourselves the more challenging question "what does in the class instead?" and "how do we know anything has an authentic occasion once it's contained in a classroom space"? These are the questions that keep me thinking and pushing forward though!

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