Monday, August 31, 2009

"Inventing the University"

Reading David Bartholomae's "Inventing the University" gave me a huge head ache. Suffering through it though I did find one intersting point. However the point did not come from Bartholomae himself but from another person whom he quotes, Linda Flower. This interesting point of which I speak of explains that an "expert writer" must be able to write for an audience. The "expert writer" must be able to change from their own discourse into the discourse of the audience. This brings to mind my major, Behavioral Science and Health. I would not write in the same manner for certain courses within this major. For instance I would not write a paper in a Philosophy course in the same manner and terminology that I would write a paper for a statistics course. Each course has it's unique set of language and expectations. In order to be a successful writer in either course I have to ask myself the very important question of "Who am I writing for?" and then be able to transform my writing accordingly.