Professional Documents
Culture Documents
think he says that those who are criticizing the piece or grading it should
only have the credibility to do so if they understand what authorship truly
is and what composition is. Howard notes that we always have unfinished
text (791). So in order to be critical over what plagiarism is and is not, you
have to understand that.
5. What is the political and social environment from which this version of
composition emerges? How does that environment seem to influence the
conception of composition?
a. This composition is pushback on what we already believe true
composition to be. Changing what we believe authorship to be. We are not
in a world where authorship has ties to the economy. People can claim
writing as their own and put a price value on it. Howard brings this into
his argument when he writes Observing the chasm between theory and
the law, we must recognize that pedagogical applications of contemporary
theory have gone as far as they can within the limits of now-outdated law.
It is time, therefore, to undertake gradual revisions of the law, so that it
will reflect rather than obscure the complexities of student authorship
(803). Essentially in order for us to change this and the way in which we
view authorship and composition and originality of texts we need to look
at the pedagogical implications of it. See the way we view plagiarism in
schools. We have to understand the motives behind students writing. The
intentions with which they write. People tend to be sensitive over what
writing is theirs and how we can or should use it. So essentially to write in
the way and grade in the way Howard suggests, we have to work through
the social environment writing is taking place in. And that typically starts
in schools.