Re-articulating the Mission and Work of Writing Programs with Digital Video

Document Type

Article

Version Deposited

Published Version

Publication Date

Fall 2010

Publication Title

Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy

Abstract

Writing instructors, especially program administrators, must often act in rhetorical situations they do not control, promoting their views to audiences whose premises often reflect a hegemonic current-traditional, skills-dominated view of writing. Digital video, however, can create promising shifts in this rhetorical situation. Through emotional appeals, video creates new possibilities for audiences to identify with the premises articulated by writing programs; through strategic circulation, a video can influence audiences that must then account for how that video has become a widely shared representation of writing instruction. The University of Arizona Writing Program, for example, has shown digital videos to students as part of its placement process, then shown those videos to other audiences who must then account for how the videos invite new students to take on a particular subjectivity, the subjectivity of writers imbued with agency. Similarly, the Southern Arizona Writing Project has developed videos that constitute a polyvocal, professional identity for public school writing teachers; this image challenges singular, legislated expectations for school writing instruction within Arizona. We discuss these cases to illustrate how digital video can strategically re-articulate the rhetorical situations that give rise to further dialogue about writing instruction.

Streaming Media

Comments

Kairos is a refereed open-access online journal exploring the intersections of rhetoric, technology, and pedagogy.

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