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Janet Emig Annotated Bibliography Edited Books

Books Edited by Janet Emig

“The editors believe that Language and Learning may serve as prelude to a re-examination of what should constitute formal verbal learning from kindergarten through college”(v). So begins the preface to this collection of works. The theme that runs throughout the chapters is that the (then) current methods and practices of teaching language are inadequate. Emig references the works within this collection in her own writing. Books including Janet Emig’s Work

Emig’s goal in this chapter is to speculate about the roles the hand, eye, and brain “play in the writing process and to suggest hypotheses, with appropriate methodologies, to assess their contributions, as well as to determine the likely forms orchestration and interplay may take”(110). The Hand: The act of writing is crucial to many authors (this, of course, being before the advent of computers). For many, writing must appear in one’s own script, and Emig suggests that the act may reinforce the functions of the brain’s left hemisphere. Finally, actually taking the time to physically write serves to slow the composition process. The Eye: The function of the eye in writing has three different stages – prewriting (the eye presents information to the brain), writing (the eye, hand, and brain all cooperate), and revision (we use our eyes to review work). The Brain: Emig, utilizing information from Robert Ornstein’s The Psychology of Consciousness, details the functions of the hemispheres of the brain. Research with patients suffering from brain damage can also aid in the understanding of the brain’s involvement in composition. “It is with the aphasic, then, that an organic map of the writing process can be sketched very lightly and very tentatively”(118). Emig closes by stating that in order to further this research faculty and advisers need more schooling in biology and physiology, not to mention a connection must be forged between these departments in a college setting.

This book is a collection of some of the presentations from the 1977 Canadian Council of Teachers of English Conference. It is a collection of papers that “deal with the relationship of the rhetorical theories discussed at the conference (and their practical applications), to the rhetorical traditions which they are superseding”(ix). The works are drawn together by their emphasis on the classical and modern tradition of rhetoric and the new ground of rhetorical studies. Included in the text are works by those who are now considered a standard within the study of rhetoric and composition: James Kinneavy, James Britton, Ann Berthoff, Edward P.J. Corbett and more. In one of her most well known articles, Emig raises questions concerning the characterization of composition as a discipline, who the ancestors in this tradition are, what the assumptions of these ancestors were, and the new direction of the field of study. There are certain characteristics of a shared discipline – a shared lexicon, syntax, definitions and methods of research, governing paradigms, etc. (10). She believes that “there is a cluster of scholars who make up the tacit tradition for writing and rhetoric research, and they share at least three characteristics: first, numerous persons, themselves active and respected in a field have independently identified these women and men as significant, cited them in their writings, and emulated them in their work”(10). There are scholars recognized for writing and rhetoric research, identified as significant by others who talk and write about them. They share a common interest and view that these studies are important, and their works supply research for the field. This list includes James Britton, James Kinneavy, Martha King, James Moffett, and more. In building her case for a tacit tradition, Emig includes nine scholars outside of rhetoric and composition: Thomas Kuhn, George Kelly, John Dewey, Michael Polanyi, Susanne Langer, Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, A.R. Luria, and Eric Lenneberg. Thomas Kuhn is considered “one of the central figures in comprising the tacit tradition”(11) because of his assertion that we all work from paradigms. The work of George Kelly “may currently be the source of more research in the field of writing than the work of any other personality theorist”(11–12). Kelly believes we all act from our personal constructs, our “system of expectations”(12). Overall, Emig combines the thought and theory of various scholars both within and outside the field of composition and rhetoric to emphasize the necessity of a multidisciplinary approach for research in writing.

“That teachers teach and children learn no one will deny. But to believe that children learn because teachers teach only what teachers explicitly teach is to engage in magical thinking, from a developmental point of view”(135). The pressure has been placed on instructors to formulaically teach something that is, by and large, a developmental process. Citing anatomists and psychologists like Vygotzky, Emig conveys that children might form linguistic and communicative traits before they are able to talk, by way of gestures. Added to this is the child’s exposure to an environment which nurtures imagination. Emig believes that environment plays a key role in the development of a student’s writing skills and that in schools, these environments are not being provided. School writing environments should be “safe, structured, private, unobtrusive, and literate”(139) and the adults ought to be writing practitioners as well as sources of feedback. Magical thinking shouldn’t be a part of our schools. To begin a shift in thought, according to Emig, teachers should write in many modes, observe the practices of other writers, and assess writing based on an individual’s growth.

The editors compiled this book because “[u]nlike composition theory, contemporary literary theory has remained somehow remote from our talk about classroom practice”(1). In a personal essay, Emig discusses the fractured nature of theory in college and pre-college learning. College professors are familiar with theory about language and textuality (Lacan, Derrida) while elementary and secondary instructors are versed in developmental theory (like that of Vygotsky and Luria). Not implementing elements of both areas, at all levels, is a disservice to students. Students enter college without any understanding of theory and are faced with professors who find it difficult to remember there ever existed a time when theory did not play a role in the academic realm. Emig briefly discusses the basics of deconstruction and constructivism to illuminate the fact that students cannot enter college with a formulated theory, it is something that is developed through time.