"Digital Invention: A Repository of Online Resources for College Composition Instruction"
About the AuthorMary K. Stewart is a PhD candidate in the School of Education at UC Davis, where she is pursuing an emphasis in Language, Literacy, and Culture, and a designated emphasis in Writing, Rhetoric, and Composition Studies. Her dissertation research focuses on the ways first-year composition instructors design collaborative activities (namely small group discussion and peer review) in computer-assisted, hybrid, and online environments. Find her website at MaryKStewart.com Contents
|
Practice InventionThe pages in this section define the three theories of invention and link to specific invention strategies with which students can experiment:
Invention involves creating new ideas, where writing is a process of self-discovery and meaning-making, as well as locating known ideas, where writing helps define an argument or interpret texts based on knowledge that already exists.
As you might imagine, everyone goes about this a little differently, so there are lots of invention strategies. On this site, you'll find strategies associated with three types of invention: classical invention, prewriting, and tagmemic invention. Practice Classical InventionThis page defines classical invention and gives examples of activities you can assign your students. Classical invention is the process of sifting through and interpreting existing information; by asking questions and conducting research to understand the context of a given topic, a writer can identify the argument she wishes to make. The theory draws from Aristotle's definition of invention as a process by which a rhetor (a speaker or writer): (1) explores the writing situation to determine how to begin an argument, (2) uses outside materials to understand and develop an argument, and (3) looks at multiple perspectives to frame or verify that argument (Lauer). To assist the rhetor in the act of invention, Aristotle developed the classical topics, which are questions that help the rhetor determine how to argue about a certain subject to a certain audience. Those questions were divided into five categories:
Dartmouth University's Formal Strategies for Invention page provides a great explanation of how to use the topics (scroll down to the section entitled Aristotle's Topoi). Aristotle also used stasis, meaning the "starting point of discourse," by which the rhetor decides whether his or her subject is a "question of fact, definition, or value" and then uses this determination to build an argument (Lauer, 7). While this is similar to classical topics, the topics help the rhetor determine an argument type, and stasis helps begin a conversation with the hope of reaching a consensus. Read Purdue University's Stasis Theory page for a more complete explanation and for details about how to use this strategy. Both classical topics and stasis theory ask questions that prompt the rhetor to define the purpose of the argument and audience for whom the argument is intended. For a less structured way to initiate this type of invention, one can simply ask, What is the purpose of my composition? Who is going to read it? For an explanation of the importance of and specific suggestions for determining purpose and audience, read Colorado State University's Understanding Purpose and Adapting to Your Audience writing guides. Another informal way of practicing classical invention is to simply conduct outside research. Read secondary sources; use Internet search engines; go to the library. The goal is to contextualize the topic so you can then identify an appropriate argument. Seeing what others have said about the topic will help a writer figure out what she wants to say. Note: If you suggest this strategy to your students, you will also want to discuss plagiarism; students should use outside sources to generate a unique argument, not "borrow" ideas from those sources. Below are a few exercises you can assign to your students to help them practice classical invention: Classical Invention Strategies
If you try any of these activities in class, or if you have suggestions for other classical invention strategies, I'd love to hear from you: mkstewart at ucdavis dot edu. Practice PrewritingThis page defines prewriting and gives examples of activities you can assign your students. Rohman (1965) coined the term "pre-writing," defining it as “the stage of discovery in the writing process when a person assimilates his 'subject' to himself” (7). With origins in existentialism, the function of prewriting is discovery and the goal is empowerment and the creation of self-knowledge. Prewriting involves using associative thinking to identify and explore personal opinions or relate previous experiences to a topic, and then using those connections to generate new ideas. Brainstorming, mapping, freewriting, looping, talk into a tape recorder, discovery draft, and journaling are all examples of prewriting strategies. Brainstorming is perhaps the most basic way to prewrite. The writer simply jots down words or phrases about her topic, often in a list form. This gives her a quick way to see what she knows about a topic and what gaps she needs to fill with research. This strategy can also help the writer focus her ideas and figure out which area of a topic most interests her. A common adaptation of brainstorming is mapping, where the writer uses drawing to demonstrate the relationship between the words and phrases she has brainstormed. If we think of mapping as visual brainstorming, then freewriting would be narrative brainstorming — the writer types or writes without stopping for ten or fifteen minutes. By forcing herself to just keep writing, the writer explores how she feels about a topic and associates the topic with her personal experiences, interpretations, and opinions. Connections between the topic and other disciplines may also emerge, which can lead to new insights. Another form of freewriting is looping, where the writer picks a phrase or idea from a previous freewriting activity and uses it as a starting point for a new freewrite. Verbal freewriting is also a good strategy — talk ideas into a tape recorder and then transcribe them or take notes while listening to the recording. For writers who want a little more structure, the Discovery Draft is a good option &emdash; this is basically a freewrite that focuses on a specific paper topic. Finally, journaling is a time-tested pedagogical tool that has a lot of potential for promoting invention. This strategy allows the writer to articulate her impressions about a subject over a period of time. You might ask students to keep a journal throughout the course, writing in response to the readings and the class discussions. Then, when it comes time to write a paper, ask students to read over their journal and create a new entry where they think through what they want to write about. For more information about brainstorming, freewriting, and the discovery draft, check out Dartmouth University's Informal Strategies for Invention. For mapping examples and resources, try University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill's videos: Color Coding (how to list ideas, then group by color), Drawing Relationships (how to use drawing to organize thoughts), and Webbing (how to generate ideas through a web). Below are a few exercises you can assign to your students to help them practice prewriting: Prewriting Strategies
If you try any of these activities in class, or if you have suggestions for other prewriting strategies, I'd love to hear from you: mkstewart at ucdavis dot edu. Practice Tagmemic InventionThis page defines tagmemic invention and gives examples of activities you can assign your students. While prewriting exposes and elaborates the writer’s perspective, tagmemic invention synthesizes multiple perspectives. This theory views writing as a process of inquiry that can stimulate new insights and verify judgments. Tagmemic strategies ask questions with the goal of considering a topic from as many perspectives as possible and then generating new insights by making connections between those perspectives. Tagmemics, cubing, and journalistic questions are all examples of tagmemic invention strategies. The formal version of this theory of invention is simply called tagmemics and involves considering a topic as though it were a particle (as a thing itself), a wave (as a thing that changes over time), and a part of a field (as a thing in its context). The Tagmemics section of Dartmouth University's Formal Strategies for Invention explains how to use this strategy, but your students may find it easier to think of tagmemics as University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill does: 3 Perspectives (scroll to locate, near the top of the page). This strategy requires the writer to describe, trace, and map her topic. Describing the topic is exactly what it sounds like — the writer describes the topic in as much detail as she can (the topic is a particle). Tracing the topic means tracking how the topic has changed over time and what subjects have influenced it throughout history (the topic is a wave). Mapping the topic means situating it — what fields are connected to it? What do people in those fields say about it? (the topic is a part of a field). Cubing is an adaptation of tagmemics that involves looking at the topic from six perspectives: the writer describes, compares, associates, analyzes, applies, and argues for/against the topic. Journalistic Questions is another adaptation. The writer explores the topic's diverse contexts by asking: Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? So What? Below are a few exercises you can assign to your students to help them practice tagmemic invention: Tagmemic Invention Strategies
If you try any of these activities in class, or if you have suggestions for other tagmemic invention strategies, I'd love to hear from you: mkstewart at ucdavis dot edu. |