Rhetorical Invention, Technology, and Writing in Public Spaces

FAIN: FT-61247-13

Stacey Lynn Pigg
University of Central Florida Board of Trustees (Orlando, FL 32816-8005)

This project takes up the contemporary presence of writing in informal public spaces like coffeehouses as a foundation for theorizing rhetorical invention. I first argue that sociability is a resource for rhetorical invention -- and always has been. Most existing theories of invention have stressed the importance of public, face-to-face social interactions. This sociability, many theorists suggest, is connected to rhythms of print circulation and culture. However, public sociability is shifting with cultural changes accompanying mobile technologies, Wi-Fi networks, and social media. I argue that information technologies often make social resources ambient -- that is, embedded in virtual environments that surround individuals. Thus, my work contributes to humanities scholarship by theorizing and tracing the inventive paradigm connected to this ambient sociability, resituating its risks (distraction and cognitive overload), while exploring its possibilities.

Associated Products

Emplacing Mobile Composing Habits: A Study of Academic Writing in Networked Social Spaces (Article)
Title: Emplacing Mobile Composing Habits: A Study of Academic Writing in Networked Social Spaces
Author: Stacey Pigg
Abstract: This article details the material, locational, and time-use dimensions of student writing processes in two networked social spaces. Drawing on case examples, the findings show how composing habits grounded in the materiality of places can build persistence for learning in a mobile culture. Public social spaces support these habits, enabling some students to control social availability and manage proximity to resources.
Year: 2014
Primary URL: http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/CCC/0662-dec2014/CCC0662Emplacing.pdf
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: College Composition and Communication
Publisher: National Council of Teachers of English

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