Written Communication Oct 1990

Public Discourse and Personal Expression: A Case Study in Theory-Building

GREGORY CLARK ; STEPHEN DOHENY-FARINA

Abstract

The authors recount their attempt to analyze a case study in terms of two conflicting rhetorics: a collectivist rhetoric that values most the contributions individuals make to an ongoing collective project and an individualist rhetoric that values most the original and autonomous voice. These two rhetorics conflict in the experience of one writer working concurrently in a literature seminar within a university English department and in the public relations office of a reproductive services agency. This conflict, centering on different rhetorical ethics, had less to do with competence than with commitment: the writer's commitment to the individualist ethics practiced in the writing she did in the literature seminar prevented her from valuing the writing she did at the agency that worked toward a collectivist end. The authors then examine how this analysis is problematized by alternative interpretations of this case that demonstrate that the collectivist rhetoric practiced by researchers and theorists of writing itself involves the interaction of conflicting individualist assertions. This analysis suggests that the most useful theoretical insights any case might provide into the question of how writing ought to be taught are embodied in the exchange of interpretations that case provokes and in the confrontation of diverse arguments that emerge from that exchange.

Journal
Written Communication
Published
1990-10-01
DOI
10.1177/0741088390007004002
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Topics
rhetorical criticism discourse analysis qualitative research public rhetoric
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (8)

  1. Schraufnagel (2021)
    Expression and Sympathy in Walter Pater, Oscar Wilde, and Kenneth Burke
    Rhetoric Review
  2. GEISLER et al. (1998)
    Disciplining Discourse: Discourse Practice in the Affiliated Professions of Sof…
    Written Communication
  3. Blakeslee et al. (1996)
    Evaluating Qualitative Inquiry in Technical and Scientific Communication: Towar…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  4. PRIOR (1994)
    Response, Revision, Disciplinarity: A Microhistory of a Dissertation Prospectus…
    Written Communication
  5. CROSS (1994)
    Ethnographic Research in Business and Technical Writing: Between Extremes and Margins
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Show all 8 →
  1. WINSOR (1993)
    Owning Corporate Texts
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  2. WITTE (1992)
    Context, Text, Intertext: Toward a Constructivist Semiotic of Writing
    Written Communication
  3. PRIOR (1991)
    Contextualizing Writing and Response in a Graduate Seminar
    Written Communication

References (19) · 2 in this index

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  4. Bruffee (1984)
    Collaborative Learning and the "Conversation of Mankind"
    College English
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    Counter-statement
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  1. Burke, K.
    A grammar of motives
  2. Clark, G.
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CrossRef global citation count: 15 View in citation network → Build reading path →

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