Outline for McGill Writing Centre Presentation
Writing as Dialogue: Rethinking the Role of Reading
7 March 1997
Background Theoretical: why authentic written dialogue matters
- Language learning theories
- Early language, Vygotsky, etc.
- Bakhtin and dialogism
- Written dialogue
- What's the difference between real dialogue and "realistic" dialogue?
Practical: how my Eighteenth century course was set up- Three cycles of research, three periods
- Production of background booklet (examples)
- Second cycle of exploration
- Short assignments
- Will's discussion of short assignments
- Longer assignments
- Editing to produce second booklet (examples)
- Third cycle to come
Exploring the contextWill's Coffeehouse:
- How the discussion site looks
- and how it works
Looking at the writing What does the writing so produced look like, and how does it evolve? Examples:
Milton's Satan discussion
Johnson's marriage views discussion John Oldham's Satire discussion Some first year students catch on I've set up a HyperNews forum to continue the discussion we've begun here today. Please feel invited to participate -- and to reflect on the process as part of my presentation about the nature and constraints of authentic written dialogue.
To Russ Hunt's Web Site