The field of composition studies has concerned itself with the way in which people
learn to write and the role schooling plays in writing development. Recently a trend has
developed within the field towards exploring writing development outside of the
classroom, termed the extracurriculum. Much of the scholarship thus far has focused
primarily on popular literacy through community writing groups, which does not take into
account the writing development of individuals outside of these organized groups. There
are still tools available to people who want to be writers and these would include popular
books on writing. This category of books has become quite popular with readers and is
having an undocumented effect on beginning writers. It is the intention of this thesis to
identify the books within this category and explore the possible benefits to both scholars in
the field of composition studies and beginning writers.
Chapter One serves as an introduction to my personal development as a writer and
the role that both schooling and reading popular books on writing played in that
development. In Chapter Two I introduce the general category of popular books on
writing and coin a more accurate descriptor writing life books. This chapter is meant to
give a general flavor of the continuum of books falling within this category, and is where I
introduce the key terms of authority and identification. In Chapter Three I analyze three
specific writing life books to demonstrate how the characteristics work together to
promote identification and authority within beginning writers. Chapter Four serves as a
review of scholarship within the field of composition studies that is concerned with the
elements of authority, identification, and the extracurriculum. / Graduation date: 1999
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/33518 |
| Date | 27 August 1998 |
| Creators | Finley, Devon |
| Contributors | Ede, Lisa |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
Page generated in 0.0021 seconds