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Rhetoric, writing, and the everyday / Nystrand, Duffy (2003)

Citation: Nystrand, M., & Duffy, J. (2003). Rhetoric, writing, and the everyday. In M. Nystrand & J. Duffy (Eds.), Towards a rhetoric of everyday life (pp. vii - xiii). Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press.

keywords: Rhetoric


Rhetoric, Writing, and the Everyday
Some preliminary remarks —-

此文是 Towards a rhetoric of everyday life 一書的序言。

書寫研究前緣

  • composition study in 1970s and 1980s asked “What is writing” ?
  • 書寫/寫作研究以往只針對寫作學習(freshman composition),而前衛的研究議題更關注寫作與其他情境,即訴諸於書寫場所的個別特色:工作場地的書寫與技術(e.g. Haas, 1996)、社群與社區中心的書寫與文化(e.g. Cintron, 1997; Farr, 2000; Farr & Guerra, 1995; Flower, 1994, 1996; Freedamn, 1994)、產業中的書寫與溝通(e.g. Barabas, 1990; Herndl, Fennell, & Miller, 1991)、多種非學術場域的書寫研究(e.g. Bracewll & Breuleux, 1992; Duin & Hansen, 1996; McNamee, 1992; Palmer, 1992; Schriver, 1992; Geisler, 1992)
  • 也就是說,目前在書寫、閱讀與識字素養方面的研究前緣,是由其社會文化的、歷史的、政治的、學科性的、機構的、與日常生活的情境所交會而成 – 每一種都是處境的與特定領域的。許多當前寫作研究與修辭學都在「文化研究」的註記下進行探索。

literacy, cognition, writing, reading

literacy, cognition, writing, reading 這四個概念連結到在真實世界與組織的情境。文字與書寫本身具有「自律性」與作者能作為其文本的完全代理人的想法,成為一種消逝的幻想。

  • Witte(1992):「我們必須將書寫的觀念從字母擴展到更廣的領域 / we need to broaden our conceptions of writing to include more than alphabetic texts.」
  • Bazerman (1991) :文字生產如何受到作者的社會、歷史、認知、及修辭情境所影響。
  • Myer (1991)延續 Miller (1984)「文類作為一種社會行動」的研究,指出出版評閱過程如何形塑科學論述。
  • Brandt (1994, 1995, 1998) 的識字力發展研究,說明識字力的概念,在不同時代中是隨社會文化變化而轉變的。
  • Dyson (1989, 1993, 1997) 的研究記錄了孩童在校園內識字力發展與其社會世界的連續與錯綜複雜的關係。
  • Flowers (1996) 在社區識字中心的認知修辭學研究。

定義:修辭學

“Rhetoric” here refers not to the classical arts of persuasion, or the verbal ornamentation of elite discourse, but rather to the ways that individuals and groups use language to constitute their social realities, and as a medium for creating, managing, or resisting ideological meanings.


The discourses of institutions and popular cultrue are rhetorical in the sense that they situate us in our worlds: they shape our ideas about “the way things are,” who we are, where we belong, and guide what we talk aobut and what we say (and don't say).

本書的結構

  • Rhetorics of community life / 社群生活的修辭學
    • Ralph Cintron: rhetoric of violence – gang vulnerability and street ideology.
    • Duffy: rhetorical context for literacy development among Hmong-Americans.
    • Carolyn Miller: writing in a culture of simulation- Ethos Online
    • John Ackerman: the space for rhetoric.
    • Social imaginary: 社會想像 - Ruddick: “signals an image that exists within the popular imagination or unconscious,” and “far from reflecting the object to which it seems to refer(be it a socila, pol.itical, or other imaginary), is, in fact produced by the discourse that surrounds it”.
  • Rhetorics of education and classrooms / 教育與教室的修辭學
  • Rhetorics of modern institutions / 現代機構的修辭學