Layered Literacies: Kelli Cargile Cook
Abstract: This article proposes a theoretical frame for technical communication pedagogy based on six layered literacies: basic, rhetorical, social, technological, ethical, and critical. The layered literacies frame advocates diverse instruction in technical communication programs, ranging from the ancient art of rhetoric to the most contemporary of technologies, from basic reading and writing skills to ethical and critical situational analyses. The article also suggests how the frame can be applied to a program of study or individual course in order to establish teaching objectives; develop course and lesson activities; and assess pedagogical materials, students, and programs
Tech comm roots in nineteenth-century engineering instruction: developed and designed to improve engineering students’ reading & writing- basic literacy skills: what are considered basic literacy skills then and now? Has it changed?-- yes, not just reading, writing, and math but also “workplace literacy” w comp skills, comm, teamwork, etc
infusion of humanities into engineering curricula=technical writing (focused both on mechanical and grammatical correctness and on the study of models of engineering documents)
Tech writing has become more complex: not only emphasis on literacy
advocates layering multiple literacies into classroom instruction so that technical communication classrooms become learning communities in which literacies are not isolated but integrated and situated through a complex of classroom goals and activities.
2 problems for instructors
lack of a concise identification of literacies that technical communicators should possess
lack of understanding about how multiple literacies can be integrated, situated, or, layered into programs, courses, and specific course activities
Basic:
defined originally as the ability to read and write; learning to communicate well and clearly
The result of this rule-governed approach to basic literacy was a narrow view of writing and document design conducted solely through accordance to rules and principles: denied the significance of writers’ choices- lessens its value and diminishes its applicability in diverse writing situations
Limitations can be overcome when basic literacy is taught by layering it with other literacies.
it becomes a method for gathering information more efficiently; making appropriate reader-based decisions about presentation, form, and construction; engaging readers through effective and appropriate reader-based writing techniques; and responding to and within complex writing situations
Rhetorical
multifaceted knowledge that allows writers to conceptualize and shape documents whatever their specific purpose or audience
These skills provide students with the rhetorical tools to create and shape meaning within the contexts of their audience, purpose, and writing situation.
Social:
Significance of collaboration to include not only the audience for whom the document is written but also other writers and other texts with which the writer has had contact
the production of any text is a social process: based on the day-to-day ongoing talk embedded in the context
electronic communication technologies
Tech:
a working knowledge of technologies that helps professional communicators to produce communications, documents, or products;
an awareness of how these technologies promote social interactions and collaboration;
an ability to research how users work with technologies; and an ability to critique this research and act upon it to make decisions and produce documents designed with and for users.
Employ tech to develop reading and writing skills (basic) in networked computer classrooms or labs and develop social literacy through local area and/or wide area networked collaboration and document sharing activities
Ethical:
technical communicators’ knowledge of professional ethical standards as well as their abilities to consider all stakeholders involved in a writing situation
One study indicates that technical comms typically rely more on personal morals and values when making ethical decisions than on professional codes of conduct
educational need for more focused ethical literacy instruction in technical communication curricula
Critical:
the ability to recognize and consider ideological stances and power structures and the willingness to take action to assist those in need
requires technical communicators to act within and upon situations where individuals are inarticulate or mute.
problem posing rather than problem solving with special sensitivity to power differences due to gender, class, and status
Can link to Rude’s comments on power dynamics- love how this is being further incorporated in this field as it should be with many others
“the relationship of the individual to the society in terms of situated webs of relations, including historical factors, the system of labor and production involved, and the class implications of these relations” Porter
should be viewed as extremely fluid, complicating technical communication instructional activities and goals rather than simplifying them
some critics may suggest that this layered literacy approach lacks a clear emphasis on workplace skills since no “functional” or “workplace”category appears here
By focusing on these literacies rather than on specific workplace skills, technical communication instructors may better prepare students for many workplaces and prepare them for lifelong learning, not learning for a specific vocation.
Naming What We Know Section 1
Writing as an activity in which people engage and subject of study
Writing is a Social and Rhetorical Activity:
Writers are engaged in the work of making meaning for particular audiences and purposes , and writers are always connected to other people even across time and space
Writing is a Knowledge-Making Activity:
Writing defined as what it can do not just what it contains
An activity undertaken to bring new understandings : creating ideas: we write to think
Writing Addresses, Invokes, and/or Creates Audiences:
Writing is relational and responsive: part of an ongoing conversation with others
Rhetorical triangle: writer, audience, text
Digital age has brought the need for even closer consideration of imagined audience
Writing Expressions and Shares Meaning to be Reconstructed by the Reader:
Potential of making and sharing meaning provides motive and guiding principle
For readers, the words of the text index or point to accessible ideas, thoughts, and experiences through which they can reconstruct meanings based on what they already know
Words Get Their Meaning From Other Words:
Any def relies on words to explain what other words mean
Context drives meaning
Meanings also determined by language users contexts and motives
How we can reduce the chances of misunderstandings
Writing Mediates Activity:
Writing is a tech, a tool
Occupies intermediate positions to form a connecting link that people use to coordinate their activity
Ex: stop sign, constitution, laws
Writing is not Natural:
Translate speech and thought into inscriptions, other must then transcribe these symbols into meaning
Writers tend to judge their writing process too harshly, while comparing how easily speech comes
Assessing Writing Chapes Contexts and Instruction
Writing assessments are a social activity and can be shaped by a variety of individual and institutional factors
Constructs boundaries for learning and student agency in learning environments and frames how students understand writing and their own abilities
It is a set of practices enacted by people in specific circumstances for specific purposes that have consequences for both the people whose writing is being judged and for those who are judging
Writing Involves Making Ethical Choices:
We propose a relationship with other beings and the reader
Is to say that when creating a text, the writer addresses others
Writing is a Tech Through Which Writers Create and Recreate Meaning
Tech for thinking and communicating
The tools we use to produce writing and those media where it takes place are included
Teach Writing as a Process Not Product; Donald M. Murray
No matter how careful our criticisms,they do not help the student since when we teach composition we are not teaching a product, we are teaching a process
Should teach unfinished writing and the glory in its unfinishedness
Uses language to reveal the truth to themself so that they can tell it to others
Prewriting, writing, and rewriting
1. The text of the writing course is the student's own writing
2. Student finds their own subject
3. Student uses their own language
4. Be able to write all drafts necessary to discover what they need to say on this particular subject
5. Encouraged to attempt any form of writing
6. Mechanics come last
7. Must be time for the writing process to take place and time for it to end
8. Papers are examined to see what other choices the writer might make
9. Students are individuals who must explore the writing process in their own way
10. There are no rules, no absolutes, just alternatives