Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2000 11:48:27 -0500 (EST)From: Robert W Barnett <rbarnett@spruce.flint.umich.edu>
To: "Writing Center Mailing List" <wcenter@lyris.acs.ttu.edu>
Subject: [wcenter] Re: New Theories?
Neal, Beth, and others,
Great discussion on an under-articulated topic (at least outside the scholarship). While I agree with what everyone has said, I can't help but feel that too often our practice becomes corrupted by theory. (Not our theories per se, but what WE choose to take from those theories and bring to our practices.) For example, I think we have grossly misrepresented North's 1984 article by reducing its importance to that one over-quoted axiom: "it is our job to make better writers, not better writing." While this debatable quote is an important part of the article, it seems to be the only thing we've hung on to and incorporated into our practice. I have other examples, but I'll save them in case the discussion continues.
So, I guess what I'm suggesting is that in rethinking our theory/practice relationship, we should also reconsider the idea of interpreting and applying theory to practice so that we don't warp or misrepresent one or the other.
Bob Barnett