- Expressive View
- Focuses on the romantic ideals of sincerity (integrity), spontaneity, and originality (natural genius over potential). It doesn't follow rules; rather, it reflects processes of creative imagination
- Cognitive View
- Introduces the "science consciousness" to composition. This view would include any heuristic approaches, as well as a sense for the audience and an awareness (and deconstruction) of egocentrism. It also points to benefits from a process of pre-writing (brainstorm) --> writing --> re-writing (revision).
- Social View
- Considers human language to be only understood via societal perspective (language is not individual). This view is further broken down into four lines:
- Poststructuralist: Introduces discourse communities to composition discussions
- Sociology: Any effort to write about self or reality comes in relation to previous texts
- Ethnography: Accounts for where one is learning to write (family/school/work)
- Marxist: Any act of writing/teaching must be understood within a structure of power related to modes of production
- (Postprocess View is valid but not discussed)
All of the views outlined above have completely valid applications. If one is expected to teach composition to a variety of students, it is important to understand the different ways that this or that structure will apply to their future use of the tools provided. A creative writer is likely to use composition in a much more expressive way, focusing on original content and allowing narratives to develop spontaneously. However, an engineer is much more likely to require a structure with an underlying "science consciousness", and to focus on composing for audiences that may vary on the spectrum of scientific acuity.
In all cases, the writer needs to have a sense of their audience (whether it is the self or the other), and all writers can benefit from heuristic tools which allow them to adjust their composition fluidly when moving between audiences. In every case, undertones of the social view is massively present in writing. Whether you are writing for others or for self, the community you exist within (regardless of your level of interaction with that community) will have an influence on your output.
Steven, I like how you outlined and defined all the theories before expressing your input. It is important that as teachers we teach all forms so that, as you said, students can be able to use those methods into the field of study (profession) they go into. As a creative writer, free writing is the best way to go, but having an outline also helps to remember where I am going with my story, specially if it is a novel. You can loose tract of what you had a character say five or ten previous chapters. Also, a lawyer will not write as a creative writer, yes they may write in detail, but the details that go into that tort sound more factual than aesthetically beautiful.
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