The Social Life of an Essay

Written Communication Jul 2003

Margaret Sheehy University at Albany, State University of New York

Abstract

Standardization discourse is dominantly linked to tests; yet standardization occurs in practices of everyday social life, too. This research seeks to understand standardization processes involved in the writing done by a class of seventh grade students, half of whom did not do well in school or on tests. Acting as participant observer in a classroom where a civics project resulted in the writing of an essay, the author collected audiotaped classroom and group discussions, student writing, field notes, and texts (a history booklet, a neighborhood-planning book, two videos, census data) students drew from to write a speech which their language arts teacher taught as an essay. One essay/speech was delivered to the school board. The author examined the exchange of ideas, across the 8-week project, to consider how standardization as a process of production, consumption, and distribution played in students' writing. The author found that standardizing forces involved direct teaching, genre memory, and several strategies employed to bring cohesion and unity to diverse ideas.

Journal: Written Communication
Published: 2003-07-01
DOI: 10.1177/0741088303257279
Open Access: Closed
Topics: multilingual writers

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Cites in this index (2)

FARR (1993)

Essayist Literacy and Other Verbal Performances

Written Communication
Trimbur (1990)

Essayist literacy and the rhetoric of deproduction

Rhetoric Review

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