SCRIPTS, SCHEMAS, AND SCRIBES: NEEDED DIMENSIONS OF THE COMPOSING PROCESS
Abstract
A review of the dominant models of the composing process demonstrates that they ignore or minimize at least one of two significant "dimensions" of this process. The first of these is affect, that is the emotion that potentially contextualizes, motivates, and informs any writing. The second such dimension is creativity, that is the perception of that which is new and/or original by the writer through her ordering and re-ordering of experience, which is, in turn, a primary function of composing. Accordingly, any model of composing intending to describe this process accurately must account for these significant dimensions of comosing. Furthermore, such a description can be accomplished, at least on the macro level, through the application of a concept that is compatible both in design and in theory with this study's aims and that has proven to be fruitful in several ancilliary fields: namely, scripts/schemata. Chapter One introduces the concept of scripts/schemata, explaining their function(s) in child development, linguistics, artificial intelligence, reading theory, and clinical psychology. On the basis of this review, analogous entities called rhetorical scripts are posited; they are defined to be those cognitive and affective, transdevelopmental, and hierarchically organized meaning-making structures through whose interaction an emerging text is created. Chapter Two surveys the "best" extant models of composing, showing that they discount affect and/or creativity and noting as well the recent informal work of rhetoricians seeking to describe composing, as does this undertaking, through focusing on the person composing. Chapter Three discusses factors contributing to the development of rhetorical scripts, exlains their general nature, and details their orientations: Initial I, oriented affectively to the writer; Audience-Adapted I, oriented to the writer's projection of audience; and Emerging I, oriented to the external world and to composing itself, thereby responsible for integrating the activity of the three scripts. Chapters Four, Five, and Six discuss, respectively, the subscripts constituting Initial I, Audience-Adapted I, and Emerging I; these chapters also explain how these competencies and scripts interact during composing to produce the emerging text. The Conclusion summarizes this study, discusses its significance, and recommends further research.
Degree
Ph.D.
Subject Area
Language
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