Written Communication Jan 1990

Narrative Knowers, Expository Knowledge

ANNE DiPARDO

Abstract

Occasional dissent notwithstanding, “expository” prose—usually conceived as depersonalized and decontextualized—continues to be the main focus of most writing instruction at the secondary and college levels. This article critically examines the opposition of objectified exposition and personal narrative posited by rhetorical tradition and maintained by most composition texts and syllabi today. The liveliness of recent cross-disciplinary discussions regarding the narrative as a uniquely rich mode of thought and discourse contrasts rather sharply with the negative and often impoverished assumptions about storied prose held by most composition theorists and teachers. Unsupported by empirical evidence, such assumptions reflect a cultural bias that prefers abstractions to stories and fails to grasp their dynamic interplay. Where writing instruction is concerned, narrative and exposition are best perceived as poles of a dialectic, with personal experience informing one's interest in abstract knowledge beyond the self, the understanding self becoming enlarged as it “takes in” what is “out there.” The best thinking and writing, it is argued, are at once personal and public, both infused with private meaning and focused upon the world beyond the self.

Journal
Written Communication
Published
1990-01-01
DOI
10.1177/0741088390007001003
Open Access
Closed
Topics
writing pedagogy multimodality multilingual writers

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (2)

  1. Smart (1999)
    Storytelling in a Central Bank
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  2. RENTZ (1992)
    The Value of Narrative in Business Writing
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication

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