Abstract

In the first section, the author addresses the most theoretical criticism of private writing as a false or misleading concept—that writing is inherently or essentially social. The author distinguishes and explores the various forms or senses in which this claim is true; in doing so, the author explores the limitations of certain kinds of totalistic forms of argumentation. In the second section, the author also addresses criticisms that acknowledge the existence of private writing but asserts that it is misguided or harmful. In the final section, the author suggests possibilities for empirical research that might not only throw light on theoretical disputes about the nature of private writing but also provide some concrete help to teachers of writing.

Journal
Written Communication
Published
1999-04-01
DOI
10.1177/0741088399016002001
CompPile
Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access
Closed
Topics
Export

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (5)

  1. Technical Communication Quarterly
  2. College English
  3. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  4. Rhetoric Review
  5. Rhetoric Review

References (35) · 1 in this index

  1. How to do things with words
  2. The dialogic imagination: Four essays
    Slavic Series, No. 1
  3. When a writer can't write
  4. 10.2307/358870
  5. The anxiety of influence: A theory of poetry
Show all 35 →
  1. Literacy as involvement: The acts of writers, readers, and texts
  2. College English
  3. A short course in writing
  4. Rhetoric of motives
  5. Sound, speech, and music
  6. Art as experience
  7. A map of writing in terms of audience and response
  8. Writing with power: Techniques for mastering the writing process
  9. Writing without teachers
  10. 10.17763/haer.47.3.404u11453465264r
  11. Reader-response criticism: From formalism to post-structuralism
  12. Expressive discourse
  13. A teaching subject: Composition since 1966
  14. Interpretation, an essay in the philosophy of literary criticism
  15. Invention as a social act
  16. A book of one's own: People and their diaries
  17. Mind, self, and society from the standpoint of a social behaviorist
  18. The barbarian within: And other fugitive essays and studies
  19. The new rhetoric: A treatise on argumentation
  20. Speech acts and literary theory
  21. Reader-response criticism: From formalism to post-structuralism
  22. 10.1017/CBO9780511803284
  23. 10.2307/358932
  24. After Babel: Aspects of language and translation
  25. Stover, A. (1998). Diaries and “techniques of the self”: An exploration of the relation…
  26. Perspectives on research and scholarship in composition
  27. Thought and language
  28. The maturational processes and the facilitating environment
  29. Teaching composition: 10 bibliographical essays. Revised and enlarged edition
  30. Teaching composition: 12 bibliographical essays. Revised and enlarged edition