A Community of Writers

Community of Writers (Sociolinguistics)

When we write, we must make many choices. We choose the subject matter and

the discourse mode. Sometimes we choose the audience; at other times we

shape discourse to fit a known audience. We choose language according to our

sense of purpose and what we know about the audience. We employ what we

believe we know about social conventions and appropriate usage.

But there is more to it than all of that. There is also the matter of context. Context

includes some very pragmatic issues such as how much time do I have to

complete the writing and how long is this kind of discourse. Journalists worry

about the space available in the newspaper layout. Short story writers have

certain length limitations as do writers of magazine articles.

But there is also the matter of social context which influences writing. This is a

more elusive concept to pin down, but there is evidence to prove that this effect

exists. Not long ago researchers set out to study the kinds of comments college

freshmen made in peer response groups. They wanted to see if more effective

writers responded differently in these groups. What they found instead was that

the kind of response depended on the particular clique students were most

interested in joining. The students who hoped to become varsity athletes

responded the way that they thought athletes would respond. Similarly, those

who had aspirations of becoming artists responded the way they believed artists

would respond. Even though they often had other thoughts which they revealed

in private interviews, they withheld these remarks because they considered them

out-of-character, or at least incompatible with the character they hoped to

become.

We know that spoken language use varies according to the social situation.

What we say and how we say it depends to a great extent on the social

circumstances surrounding the utterances. While there is less evidence to prove

it, there are many clues which indicate that the social situation has a great deal

to do with writing. This factor becomes even more important when peers act as

the audience in a classroom. No doubt you have had the experience of students

being quite willing to submit a paper to you but unwilling to share it with peers. At

times this is a positive: The student has written something personal or something

mature which he feels only an adult will understand. But sometimes this

reluctance is a negative: The student knows that the work is not of good quality

and not his best work and he does not want to embarrass himself among his

friends. In this case the student would rather receive a low grade than face peer

ridicule. Unfortunately, the message this student sends is that he doesn’t really

care what the teacher thinks of him, but he does care what peers think.

If you have been teaching for any length of time, you have probably heard about

or personally experienced a class which contained students who wrote things for

effect. Sometimes they attempt to offend you as the teacher, but more often they

seem intent upon producing an effect upon their peers. Often this is done

through writing about inappropriate topics or through the use of vivid details

about violence. Real risk-takers often use obscenities, too. The result of all this is

a constant state of uproar whenever writing is discussed and shared, especially

since part of this quickly becomes a competition to see whose paper will create

the most disruption. While whole classes like this don’t come along often, most

classrooms contain one or two students who may try this approach.

Most teachers treat these situations as discipline problems. The students are

reprimanded or punished and the class moves on. What is interesting about this

situation is that students who engage in this behavior understand that language

use can be powerful and that language can be manipulated to produce certain

effects on the audience. While we certainly do not want students to write only to

produce horror, shock, revulsion, and embarrassment, we do want them to learn

how to use language to produce predictable responses and to appreciate the

power that comes with using language well.

What we really want is for students to see themselves in a positive light as

writers/authors and to see their classmates similarly. While there are other ways

to phrase this, one common way is to say that we want students to join the

community of writers. Really what we are saying is that we want students to buy

into the notion of joining the academic community. We want them to value

reading and writing as worthwhile goals, but more than that we want them to see

education as a valuable enterprise. When students care about themselves and

others as learners and care about school as a whole, instruction has a much

greater chance of being effective. Going back to that research study of college

freshmen, the researchers found that the most effective response came from the

group that wanted to join the academic community. They saw themselves as

scholars who wanted to learn as much as possible during their college careers.

And most of us have had the experience of working with some students who

seemed committed to learning even though they may not have been our most

competent students.

The implication of research in sociolinguistics, which is the study of the

relationship between social factors and language, is that how students perceive

themselves in relation to their social environment has a direct impact on their use

of language. Developing a community of writers means establishing a social

context in the classroom such that every student sees himself and herself as an

author. It also means seeing everyone else in the class as an author. Even more

than that it means committing oneself to the improvement of all through helping,

sharing, teaching, and supporting. A community, after all, works together.

Sounds like utopia, doesn’t it. The question is, of course, how can such a

classroom environment be created? The best answer is gradually and carefully.

Attempting this approach is not simply a matter of designating a chair as the

author’s chair and requiring students to sit there when they read their papers to

classmates. Creating a community in the classroom involves altering our teacher

behaviors such that we become members of the community. It also means

focusing a great deal of attention and energy on two factors—developing positive

self-concepts and respecting students as people. Further, it demands reducing

competition to a minimum while increasing cooperation to a maximum. Students

must do more than just respect each other; they have to care about each other.

In addition, the environment has to be safe if students are to take the kinds of

academic risks which will produce learning. They need to be physically

comfortable, but more than that they have to feel emotionally protected, safe

from humiliation, verbal abuse, sarcasm, and ostracism.

How students perceive themselves as writers does make a difference in how

they write. How students perceive themselves in relation to their classmates

influences how they write. And how students perceive the environment of the

classroom affects how they write. In order for students to produce their best

work, all of these perceptions need to be positive.

For additional information and specific details about creating this kind of

classroom environment, you really should read some of the recommended

source books.

Recommended Further Reading:

• Harste, J., & Short, C. with Burke, C. (1988). Creating classrooms for

authors: The reading-writing connection

<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0435084658/writeenvirinc>.

Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

• King, L., & Stovall, D. (1992). Classroom publishing: A practical guide to

enhancing student literacy

<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0936085525/writeenvirinc>.

Hillsboro, OR: Blue Heron Publishing.

• Lamme, L. (1989). Authorship: A key facet of whole language. The

Reading Teacher, 42 (9)@ 704-710.

• Moxley, J. (1986). Five writers’ perceptions of writing functions. Journal of

Teaching Writing, 5 (2), 249-266.

• Smith, F. (1988). Joining the literacy club

<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0435084569/writeenvirinc>.

Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

• Vygotsky, L. (1962). Thought and language

<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0262720108/writeenvirinc>.

Cambridge, MA: MIT Press and Wiley. (originally published in Russian in

1934)

• Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological

processes

<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0674576292/writeenvirinc>. edited

by Michael Cole, Vera John-Steiner, Sylvia Scribner, & Ellen Souberman.

Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.