Following Aristotle’s topoi, I am going to try and weave a similar string between Bruce Robbins’ “The Scholar in Society” from Intro. to Scholarship and Deborah Mutnick’s “Rethinking the Personal Narrative” from Under Construction. Where the two essays seem to share a bond is in their notion that individuals willing to have an open and positive outlook can help composition flourish. Looking to Robbins, although his essay at times touches on the somewhat redundant, worrisome, and negative thinking that pervades aspects of theoretical composition (i.e. there are no jobs and there is no pay for teachers), he also brings to his argument positive aspects. At one point, Robbins focuses on the notion of inspiration and the fact that he believes students deserve to be inspired by those teaching them. He states, “Students want a demonstration that the mountain of material before them is not merely, like Everest, to be climbed because it is there but worth studying because it is significant” (317). Indeed, unlike investors investing in commodities on Wall Street, students deserve more of a guarantee that the return on their investment will reap rewards. How to stock the odds in their favor? As Robbins says, “Teachers stand up for something they believe, attesting by their investment of time, energy, and emotion that to them, personally, the subject matter matters” (317). Truly, a valid point. As students, teachers, and human beings, we sense when someone cares. Moreover, we can sense when a teacher (or student) is, to use the term Mutnick’s uses a few times, self-reflective enough to stand back and see if their investment is paying off for them.
Similar to Robbins, Mutnick is passionate about composition’s continued existence, overall health, and growth. Mutnick’s essay focuses on the debate about whether or not to use personal narratives in composition classes. Mutnick feels it is too easy to dismiss autobiographies as not ready for collegiate discourse (80). She builds her argument on students who have come from different cultures - Russian, Latina, suburban ghettos’, and shows how writing autobiographies helps students make “sense out of complex experience” (80). The positivity of her quest culminates with the essay’s last segment, which focuses on The Journal of Ordinary Thought. This publication involving parents of elementary school children in Chicago has as its motto “Every person is a philosopher.” The editor, Hal Adams, calls himself the “outsider from the university,” and Adams’ intent is to give dignity to people who feel they lead “ordinary” lives that don’t matter. This idea is reminiscent of Robbins notion that teachers should inspire students and give them inspiring positive “food” to feed on. How does the personal narrative tie in? One woman wrote about a “bad day” in which she “traipses around town failing to get her welfare check, medical card, and food no longer on sale, returns home, cooks dinner, with what she has - not enough for both her her and her family - and goes to bed hungry” (90). The power of this narrative is that students who read this narrative, elementary and collegiate, understand that “bad days” are difficult, but one can survive them with a head held high. In addition, the students realize the positive impact and importance literary texts, even written by “little old ladies,” can add to their lives.
Concluding, the string that binds these two essays is a shared hope in the people that comprise the field. Both authors point to teachers as having the capability to inspire their students, and both authors believe teachers can come together to find ways to help the field to flourish while assisting society understand the merits of literature.
A Beginning
April 5, 2008 by gregbaran
The purpose of my blog?… The “why?”, the “what then?”, and the “how?” interest me. As someone who loves to write creatively, and whose focus is a Master’s in composition and literature, I sense an exciting opportunity here. I’m ready to learn more about how to blend electronic research with composition and rhetoric.
In December 2007, I received my bachelor’s from CSUSB’s Palm Desert campus. Looking back, I remember the first time I walked into the Electronic Library on campus. I expected to stroll in and find a large formal library with rows and rows of books and only a few computers clustered in a corner. However, what I found was the complete opposite. The library was almost completely electronic. In fact, it was the computers ordered in rows and the orphan books who were clustered in a small corner.
As I begin this class, expansion draws my attention. For instance, I look forward to an expansion of knowledge through understanding what “research as a rhetorical act” means. Further, expansion in regards to electronic discourse i.e. new method of research, materials, etc. Also, I see an opportunity to expand my knowledge of computer use in order to increase my marketability as a teacher and writer.
Maybe this is a possible research thread for me? I’m sure many of you already know how technology can be utilized to assist English professionals, but being new to the experience, I wonder how I can incorporate IT into my world and those I come in contact with–whether at work, school, etc.
Thanks for the time,
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