Conversation is a key factor that sets humans apart from other animals. Being able to hold conversations with one another allowed us to build cities and bridges, and look deeper into how our world works through biology, chemistry, and psychology. Conversation is the backbone of everything that we do as people to communicate our ideas and develop them in the future. People’s ideas however can come from conversation or thought. In relation to conversation, thought is internalizing the ways we communicate, the words we use, and our understanding of our own experiences. It can be seen as “once removed” from conversation, allowing us to work within ourselves to know to better communicate. (Now relating back to writing,) Writing is the externalizing of our thoughts or the re-externalizing of our conversation. In them, we use the same words and phrasing as we might to be accepted as a part of a particular community, whether it be the sciences, humanities, or anything else. It is a relic of what was going on in the world while reflecting the culture of a particular topic. That’s what makes writing a social artifact [see Bruffe]. It reflects (or reflected) who we are (or were) and can last into the future where those concepts or beliefs may have changed.
In a similar way, knowledge is a social artifact as well. Knowledge is what we say it is through social justification. “Knowledgeable peers” of a particular subject must agree on the content of the topic, things that count as questions, answers, criticisms, and arguments for the topic [see Bruffe]. Within a particular, knowledgeable group, once there is agreement then knowledge is born, and again it is something that we share with one another through conversation. Without the communication factor, knowledge wouldn’t be able to exist.
I feel as though, especially as I’m now working in a writing center, that writing and knowledge acting as social constructs that always are in change by everyday events makes my position more approachable. Even on topics where I am unsure, pieces are not being pulled from thin air. Through the knowledge of the writers on their topic and my knowledge of my own fields, including writing, we are able to have that conversation that can alter the outcome of papers and essays across many different styles of writing. But in this, there has to be mutual collaboration [see Lunsford]. If I were to overtake the piece, potentially without knowledge on the topic, the writer would feel equally as separated from their paper as they would if a teacher were helping them go through it. In the same way, if the writer overtook a consultation, changes to the paper may become impossible. The balance between cooperation, knowledge, and writing has to be knowingly kept for the best results. Through that teamwork, writings across scores of fields of study would have new essays, even potentially better ones, that could go back in and alter the knowledge available or simply cause a student to believe in themselves.
I think education with a collaborative approach should be implemented in schooling. Not only in accordance to these essays but also in psychology research, working in groups and combining knowledge have been proven more effective in learning than learning independently. Especially in the example of jigsaw classrooms, where students are evenly distributed in ability, gender, race, etc. These types of classrooms allow students to not only learn to collaborate, but weight is put onto each student equally. This provides equal opportunity to teach and be taught. Results from such classrooms have proven to decrease prejudices people have against others and about themselves.
Writing is the re-creation of daily conversations. From those conversations are where great ideas are born and talked through. Some of those ideas may even alter the concept of knowledge in a particular field. By creating more collaborative environments, we would be creating better writers, better students, and more knowledgeable individuals. All on the basis of having neutral ground to share ideas with peers as they move up into the world. Conversation is what separates people from the animal kingdom, but writing is the social artifact that we leave behind.
“Clear thinking becomes clear writing; one can’t exist without the other.” -William Zinsser
References:
- Lunsford, “Collaboration, Control, and theIdea of a Writing Center”
- Bruffee, “Peer Tutoring and the ‘Conversation of Mankind’”
Writing Is Out There 