English Binaries and Composition

Binaries and Composition

        It seems that the reading for Tuesday incorporates something that is present in all fields of English, binaries. I'm going to pull from some of my other reading in my Foundations for Technical Communication, but the idea remains the same across the board to Composition. Binaries and the power/knowledge system that surrounds most disciplines is at the heart of Composition's own identity. It seems that we have many of them: Theory/Practice, science/humanism, etc. These binaries present a tension in the fields and disciplines that we are reading about and it seems to me that you have to fall on either one side or the other.

        For me, I fall on the side of practice more than I do on the side of theory. While theory seems give rise to ideas, practice is taking those ideas and putting them in to action. Composition, in essence, seems to be a "service" course because of its inherent formulaic nature. However, Composition is merely the application of the theory and pedagogy surrounding writing. The reason that Composition, and TCR to some extent, have been able to garner so much more research funding is because of their applicability to the work force and the contribution to the general "fund" of knowledge that exists in the world. Do I agree that pedagogical implications should be applied to every theory or idea written? No. However, I do believe that in order to become more "fundable" or applicable a pedagogical tie does help. I'm not discounting theory completely as not contributing to the "fund" of knowledge, I'm simply separating it from the practical uses of Composition. It seems that many graduate students have strong feelings towards theses binaries. I just chose one here to express my interest in and I don't think that they can ever be resolved. The fact that we keep these binaries alive helps the perpetuation of our fields and helped Composition become a discipline that is recognized on a national level. Without the binaries, we don't have any way to navigate the power struggles and competition between the disciplines either in science/math, or withing English itself.