Lu And Horner Crit Int Draft 2

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Elliot Stanley Professor Jan Rieman English 1101x October 28, 2009 Lu and Horner provide an excellent resource for the college writer in Chapter 1 of Writing Conventions, Composing Our Composing Processes. Lu and Horner define many terms that determine a writer’s composing style. A writer’s composing process is the set of all steps a writer uses from the conceptualization of a paper to the final copy of that paper. The more time a writer spends designing the best composing process for their task, the better their finished task will be. A writer must cater to their imagined rhetorical situation, which is the audience the writer feels they are writing to. Any weakness in a writer’s composing style is strongly reflected in their paper. Every composing method that Lu and Horner propose needs to be heavily practiced and cannot stand on its own. These suggested practices should be considered a small part in a much larger scheme of composition. Lu and Horner describe the immediate language context as a manifestation of the person we are to trying come across as. The broader language context is the product of all our experiences as a human being who conveys thoughts, feelings and emotions through language. Each time we write something, we reread it. We play it back in our heads and try to imagine what image that stream of words creates about ourselves. Often when I post things on Ning I’m self conscience about the image my post makes about me. When I try to use words I think would impress the teacher, I end up feeling these words make me seem pompous to my peers. This is me being aware of my rhetorical situation, therefore my writing is influenced by both an

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immediate and broader language context. A writer must be comfortable with both the message they are trying to say and the light that it puts them in. It is important for writers to practice using different language contexts in their writing. A good use of immediate and broad language context enriches a writer’s content and style, and provides a stable stage for a writer to express their opinions. Writers are consciously and more often subconsciously addressing their rhetorical situation in unexpected settings. Lu and Horner address a writer’s inclination to adapt their “content, style, and process…” in every type of writing they produce (14). They use an example of a biologist’s tendency to write a lab report that reflects the quality of work demonstrated by experts in the field. The biologist is responding to their immediate language context in order to appeal to the mindset of their reader. This is much like what I do when I make a playlist of music that I want my friend to listen to. I have in mind all the types of music that my listener enjoys so I use this knowledge to compose a playlist that suits my listener’s interest. A similar problem arises with composing a music playlist and writing an essay. That is writer cannot account for his whole audience, therefore the writer cannot appeal to every person that will read their paper. So it is important that a writer practice to ignore this problem and write a paper that appeal to most, but interest those they cannot appease. When Lu and Horner begin the subject of collaboration as a composing method, they state reasons why students may be apprehensive in doing so. Some students may consider receiving help and advice from others as cheating or plagiarism (29). I have never thought of taking advice on a paper as plagiarism. If another student directs their comments towards you in the hope of you using their advice to improve your paper, then I believe you have all the permission to use their advice if you feel it’s valuable. It would only be plagiarism if you change your paper to fit someone else’s ideas when you don’t have permission to do so. Lu and Horner

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are themselves, collaborators. They worked together to write Writing Conventions and the book is reflective of multiple writers collaborating to compose high quality writing. Collaboration in composition is similar to the concept of synergy, two lesser parts working together to produce something greater than the sum of its parts. Collaboration and synergy as a composing method must also be heavily practiced. As with musical, artistic, and linguistic inspiration, works by multiple authors can suffer the problem of conflicting taste, ideals, and inspiration. There must be a great deal of compromise that occurs with collaboration and compromise is a skill worth practicing. Peer Workshopping is a setting specifically designed for the purpose of students to exchange tips on how they can improve their paper. It is also a setting for great collaboration among students on ideas missed during their composing process.