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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/81478
Description
Title
Toward a Writing Theory of Transition
Author(s)
Simutis, Joyce Simcoe
Issue Date
1997
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Colomb, Greogry G.
Department of Study
English
Discipline
English
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Language, Rhetoric and Composition
Language
eng
Abstract
This dissertation uses the spiral metaphor to explore writing experiences and begins to formulate a wider conception of writing transitions by following three experienced writers as they move across settings. Based on their texts, the stories of their experiences, and the stories of others involved in their writing tasks, I argue that the phases of transition, as defined by transitional dynamics and organizational socialization, affect writing only in certain circumstances. There appear to be many other sites of divergence where writers, readers, texts, and contexts fail to reach their targeted communication. The difficulties that arise from these sites point to aspects of writing situations that should be included in any discussion of transitional problems. In addition, sites of convergence reveal how writers in transition prepare for change, enlist the support of both personal and professional networks, and learn to manage writing tasks in new settings. Understanding the problems of writers in transition, I further argue, requires that researchers focus on myriad divergent sites in both former and new settings and not simply the linear progression of change.
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