1. Writing as an Extra-Disciplinary Activity.
- Author
-
Fulwiler, Toby
- Abstract
A writing class that includes individuals from different disciplines can allow its members to gain a useful perspective on what people do, study, and stand for in the world outside the writing class. There are three assignments that can be particularly useful to explain the view of writing as an extra-disciplinary activity: (1) studying a prose writer of the student's choice; (2) writing a personal research paper; and (3) analyzing the structure of knowledge in the student's own discipline. There are several biases that will inform responses to the students' investigations, such as truth cannot, ultimately be caught; good writing will create believable demonstrations of what it is that has been captured; and really good writing can fool a person. The writing course is the best place in which to learn about those values the university holds most dear--the objective pursuit of truth and the relativity of knowledge--and to examine the nature and validity of those same values. (MS)
- Published
- 1989