The Message is the Massage

Written Communication Jan 1989

DEBORAH BRANDT

Abstract

This essay reappraises conventional distinctions between oral-like and literate-like discourse, particularly Tannen's (1985) distinction between involvement focus and message focus. Rather than seeing message in tension with involvement, this query treats message as an embodiment of involvement. Cohesion particularly is treated as an aspect of a developing writer-reader relationship, an outgrowth of a thickening commitment to a mutual orientation. Speculations are offered for rethinking what is called “literate orientation.”

Journal: Written Communication
Published: 1989-01-01
DOI: 10.1177/0741088389006001003
Open Access: Closed
Topics: body and rhetoric

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (3)

Skains (2017)

The Adaptive Process of Multimodal Composition: How Developing Tacit Knowledge …

Computers and Composition
KAUFER et al. (1994)

Some Concepts and Axioms about Communication

Written Communication
BRANDT (1992)

The Cognitive as the Social

Written Communication

Cites in this index (3)

Porter (1986)

Intertextuality and the discourse community

Rhetoric Review
BRANDT (1986)

Toward an Understanding of Context in Composition

Written Communication
DYSON (1985)

Second Graders Sharing Writing

Written Communication

Also cites 3 works outside this index ↓

10.2307/356600

↗
Nystrand, M.

The structure of written communication

↗
10.2307/357609

↗

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