The wealth of reality : an ecology of composition / Margaret A. Syverson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Syverson, Margaret A., 1948-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English language--Rhetoric--Study and teaching--Research.

English language.

English language--Composition and exercises--Psychological aspects.

English language--Rhetoric--Psychological aspects.

Report writing--Psychological aspects.

Report writing.

Authorship--Collaboration.

Authorship.

Human ecology.

Cognition.

English language--Composition and exercises.

English language--Rhetoric--Study and teaching.

Physical Description:

xxi, 274 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Carbondale : Southern Illinois University Press, [1999]

Summary:

Margaret A. Syverson discusses the ways in which a theory of composing situations as ecological systems might productively be applied in composition studies. She demonstrates not only how new research in cognitive science and complex systems can inform composition studies but also how composing situations can provide fruitful ground for research in cognitive science.

Syverson first introduces theories of complex systems currently studied in diverse disciplines. She describes complex systems as adaptive, self-organizing, and dynamic; neither utterly chaotic nor entirely ordered, these systems exist on the boundary between order and chaos. Ecological systems are "metasystems" composed of interrelated complex systems. Writers, readers, and texts, together with their environments, constitute one kind of ecological system.

Four attributes of complex systems provide a theoretical framework for this study: distribution, embodiment, emergence, and enaction. Three case studies provide evidence for the application of these concepts: an analysis of a passage from an autobiographical poem by Charles Reznikoff, a study of first-year college students writing collaboratively, and a conflict in a computer forum of social scientists during the Gulf War. The diversity of these cases tests the robustness of theories of distributed cognition and complex systems and suggests possibilities for wider application.

Contents:

2 Thinking with the Things As They Exist: Ecology of a Poem 28

3 "Next Time We're Not Giving Steve Our Essay to Read": Ecology of Writers 75

4 Desert Storm on the Network: Ecology of Readers 126

5 Conclusion: Implications and Proposals for an Ecology of Composition 182

A Syllabus and Journal Questions for Third College Writing Program, 1A, Winter, 1989 211

D Correlations Between Events of the Gulf War and XLCHC Messages 223.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 251-268) and index.

ISBN:

080932251X

OCLC:

39868119