IC #3: Theories of Discourse and Audience

For our fourth "Weekly" of the semester, I'm asking you to return to an Intertextual Conversation, employing one of our principal course methodologies—putting topical readings into explicit and implicit conversation with each other—towards achieving new discovery (and even meta-discovery). As before, for this assignment, you'll be synthesizing the work of two theorists in order to better understand their claims, their antecedents, their positions, and their position-ing within the field, where "field" can—and should, by now—be taking some formative shape in your mind, given your experiences in and outside of the classroom.

The Task
Select one set of authors from this list below and describe how Author B's work reflects either a response to, a disruption of, a continuation of, or a reframing of Author A's arguments:

• Author A = Connors; Author B = Ede and Lunsford
• Author A = Kinneavy; Author B = Porter
• Author A = Moffett; Author B =Kinneavy
• Author A = Kinneavy or Moffett; Author B = Royster or Weisser

If it helps you this week, think about your IC as articulating an intervention that you think has been made or could be made into contemporary understandings of "audience" and "discourse."

At risk of sounding repetitive, remember that IC's are brief (~2 single-spaced pages) but that in spite of their brevity, I'll be looking for depth and breadth in your writing—that is, I'll be looking for you to demonstrate that you are beginning to grasp each theorist's overarching argument while also noting its nuances and intricacies, which will inevitably surface when you try to hold their ideas accountable to someone else's. This means that you'll want to demonstrate your skill with writing an analytical summary, considering the methodology or organization underlying each of their arguments, forwarding key terms or concepts that are important to the conversation you are constructing, and providing and citing salient examples from each text. Please include the MLA citation for your readings and use in-text (parenthetical) citations throughout your IC where needed.

Submission
Please bring a hard copy of IC #3 to class on 9/25. I will make time to discuss them so that you can share some of your results with each other before I collect them.

Do well but have fun with it,
-Dr. Graban