Teachers of Composition and Needed Research in Discourse Theory

Abstract

our classes? Underlying these questions is at least one major assumption: our primary obligation is to have some influence on the way students compose, to make a difference in students' ability to use written language to give order and meaning to their experience. As though this obligation were not demanding enough, I want to argue that we have at least one other responsibility. We must not only influence our students' writing, but also help refine and shape the discourse theory that will guide our work with students. In addition to being teachers, we should also function as discourse theorists and researchers. As we try to fulfill this new obligation, we will need to ask new kinds of questions. Is a given theory valid? Does it do justice to the complexities (and the simplicities) of the writing we see every day? Are the theory's assumptions borne out in writing done by our students? It's tempting to avoid this sort of question by assuming that the work of highly skilled writers presents the most interesting test and the most dramatic illustration of discourse theory. And, of course, it would be foolish to overlook what such writers can help us discover about the composing process and the natur of effective writing. Yet if discourse theo y is to make comprehensive descrip iv statements about writing, theorists will have to test their assumptions against the actual performance of writ rs of quit diverse abilities. In our classrooms, we have unique access to this diversity. The writing of our students represents a kind of information that is alm st impossible to obtain in any context other than a course that is pri arily concerned with students' writing. In the remainder of this article, I shall suggest ways we might use this source of information to examine and re-