Teaching a Metalanguage for Writing Joseph Harris | Duke University

Aims Describe an approach to writing about texts and ideas Model a way of working with student texts Teaching a Metalanguage CWP 2/09/2012 2

Context Process teaching Direct teaching Teaching a metalanguage CWP 2/09/2012 3

Process teaching Teach process, not product Teach writers, not writing Writing groups Writing to learn Teaching a Metalanguage CWP 2/09/2012 4

Direct Teaching 5

What makes writing clear? (Style) Teaching a Metalanguage CWP 2/09/2012 6

How do writers respond to other texts? (They Say/I Say) Teaching a Metalanguage CWP 2/09/2012 7

Teaching a metalanguage Not directions for how to write but a set of terms to help students think about what they are doing as writers Teaching a Metalanguage CWP 2/09/2012 8

My advice . . . is to imagine yourself as rewriting—as drawing from, commenting on, adding to—the work of others. Almost all academic essays and books contain within them the visible traces of other texts—in the form of notes, quotations, citations, charts, figures, illustrations, and the like. This book is about the writing that needs to go on around these traces, about what you need to do to make the work of others an integral part of your own thinking and writing. (Rewriting 2) Teaching a Metalanguage CWP 2/09/2012 9

The visible traces of other texts

The moves of rewriting Coming to terms Forwarding Countering Taking an approach Revising Teaching a Metalanguage CWP 2/09/2012 11

Coming to terms (understanding) Defining the writer’s project Noting key words and passages Assessing uses and limits Teaching a Metalanguage CWP 2/09/2012 12

An example: Carol Gilligan on Sigmund Freud Freud swallows his distaste at the thought of “abandoning observation for barren theoretical controversy” and extends his map of the psychological domain. Tracing the development of the capacity to love . . . he locates its origins in the contrast between love for the mother and love for the self. But in thus dividing the world between narcissism and “object” relationships, he finds that while men’s development becomes clearer, women’s becomes increasingly opaque. . . . . Relying on the imagery of men’s lives in charting the course of human growth, Freud is unable to trace in women the development of relationships, morality, or a clear sense of self. This difficulty of fitting the logic of his theory to women’s experience leads him in the end to set women apart, marking their relationships, like their sexual life, as “a ‘dark continent’ for psychology.”

Defining Freud’s Project Freud swallows his distaste at the thought of “abandoning observation for barren theoretical controversy” and extends his map of the psychological domain. Tracing the development of the capacity to love . . . he locates its origins in the contrast between love for the mother and love for the self. But in thus dividing the world between narcissism and “object” relationships, he finds that while men’s development becomes clearer, women’s becomes increasingly opaque. . . . Relying on the imagery of men’s lives in charting the course of human growth, Freud is unable to trace in women the development of relationships, morality, or a clear sense of self. This difficulty of fitting the logic of his theory to women’s experience leads him in the end to set women apart, marking their relationships, like their sexual life, as “a ‘dark continent’ for psychology.”

Noting Key Words Freud swallows his distaste at the thought of “abandoning observation for barren theoretical controversy” and extends his map of the psychological domain. Tracing the development of the capacity to love . . . he locates its origins in the contrast between love for the mother and love for the self. But in thus dividing the world between narcissism and “object” relationships, he finds that while men’s development becomes clearer, women’s becomes increasingly opaque. . . . . Relying on the imagery of men’s lives in charting the course of human growth, Freud is unable to trace in women the development of relationships, morality, or a clear sense of self. This difficulty of fitting the logic of his theory to women’s experience leads him in the end to set women apart, marking their relationships, like their sexual life, as “a ‘dark continent’ for psychology.”

Assessing Uses and Limits Freud swallows his distaste at the thought of “abandoning observation for barren theoretical controversy” and extends his map of the psychological domain. Tracing the development of the capacity to love . . . he locates its origins in the contrast between love for the mother and love for the self. But in thus dividing the world between narcissism and “object” relationships, he finds that while men’s development becomes clearer, women’s becomes increasingly opaque. . . . . Relying on the imagery of men’s lives in charting the course of human growth, Freud is unable to trace in women the development of relationships, morality, or a clear sense of self. This difficulty of fitting the logic of his theory to women’s experience leads him in the end to set women apart, marking their relationships, like their sexual life, as “a ‘dark continent’ for psychology.”

Forwarding (reading with) Illustrating Authorizing Borrowing Extending Teaching a Metalanguage CWP 2/09/2012 13

Forwarding Authorizing Illustrating “As research shows . . .” “For example . . .” 18

Neil Postman borrows from Roland Barthes Television has achieved the status of “myth,” as Roland Barthes uses the word. He means by myth a way of understanding the world that is not problematic, that we are not fully conscious of, that seems, in a word, natural. A myth is a way of thinking so deeply embedded in our consciousness that it is invisible. That is now the way of television.

David Marc extends Roland Barthes “The virtue of [professional] wrestling,” Roland Barthes wrote in 1957, “is that it is the spectacle of excess.” The sitcom, in contrast, is a spectacle of subtleties, an incremental construction of substitute universes laid upon the foundation of a linear, didactic teletheater.

Countering (reading against) Arguing the other side Uncovering values Dissenting Teaching a Metalanguage CWP 2/09/2012 14

An example: Berger argues against Clarke We can now begin to see the difference between nakedness and nudity in the European tradition. In his book on The Nude Kenneth Clark maintains that to be naked is simply to be without clothes, whereas the nude is a form of art. According to him, the nude is not the starting point of a way of a painting, but a way of seeing which the painting achieves. To some degree, this is true—although the way of seeing “a nude” is not necessarily confined to art: there are also nude photographs, nude poses, nude gestures. What is true is that the nude is always conventionalized—and the authority for its conventions derives from a certain tradition of art.

Berger on Clarke: Coming to terms We can now begin to see the difference between nakedness and nudity in the European tradition. In his book on The Nude Kenneth Clark maintains that to be naked is simply to be without clothes, whereas the nude is a form of art. According to him, the nude is not the starting point of a way of a painting, but a way of seeing which the painting achieves. To some degree, this is true—although the way of seeing “a nude” is not necessarily confined to art: there are also nude photographs, nude poses, nude gestures. What is true is that the nude is always conventionalized—and the authority for its conventions derives from a certain tradition of art.

Berger on Clarke: Arguing the other side What do these conventions mean? What does a nude signify? It is not sufficient to answer these questions merely in terms of the art-form, for it is quite clear that the nude also relates to lived sexuality. To be naked is to be oneself. To be nude is to be seen naked by others and yet not recognized for oneself. A naked body has to be seen as an object in order to become a nude. (The sight of it as an object stimulates the use of it as an object.) Nakedness reveals itself. Nudity is placed on display.

Arguing the other side What do these conventions mean? What does a nude signify? It is not sufficient to answer these questions merely in terms of the art-form, for it is quite clear that the nude also relates to lived sexuality. To be naked is to be oneself. To be nude is to be seen naked by others and yet not recognized for oneself. A naked body has to be seen as an object in order to become a nude. (The sight of it as an object stimulates the use of it as an object.) Nakedness reveals itself. Nudity is placed on display.

Taking an approach (in the mode of) Acknowledging influences Turning an approach on itself Reflexivity Teaching a Metalanguage CWP 2/09/2012 26 15

Some texts to work with How would you describe the stance that this student writer takes toward the text she is discussing? How might she be encouraged to develop that stance? How might she be encouraged to take another stance? Teaching a Metalanguage CWP 2/09/2012 16

On Maya Angelou Teaching a Metalanguage CWP 2/09/2012

On Billy Collins Teaching a Metalanguage CWP 2/09/2012 17

On Carlos Fuentes Teaching a Metalanguage CWP 2/09/2012 18

Revising What is my project? (Coming to terms) What works? (Forwarding) What else might be said? (Countering) What’s next? (Taking an approach) Teaching a Metalanguage CWP 2/09/2012 19

Teaching with student texts Ask students to talk back in writing to texts they read Read assigned texts in class through student responses Ask students to respond to one another Focus on the stance students take toward readings Teaching a Metalanguage CWP 2/09/2012 20

Rewriting Rewriting List four or five verbs that describe what you want students to do as writers in your courses. 33

Teaching a metalanguage for writing Joseph Harris Department of English Box 90014 Duke University Durham, NC 27708 jdharris57@gmail.com josephharris.me Teaching a Metalanguage CWP 2/09/2012 21