Andrew Dell
Ecocomposition: An Annotated Bibliography
There is a greater demand in current teaching practices to take approaches accessing students’ background knowledge and help them construct their knowledge from this same knowledge. Paradigms have shifted before from cognitive, to expressivist, to social, and now the concept has arisen where writing goes beyond the sphere of society to the wider sphere of ecology. Ecocomposition approaches to writing courses allow students to move beyond social constructions to approach their perceptions of identity. They gain a greater sense of being not only related to each other in a social sphere but as beings within an ecological structure that goes beyond socially constructed points of view. Ecocompositional approaches serve as a foundation for students to further understand their identity in a world where social concerns reflect a growing consciousness of environmental threats. This growing concern over the idea of “being green” and sustainability can be elucidated through approaches focusing on nature writing or place based pedagogy. They learn how we define such ecological concepts of sustainability at a social level based on environmental influences and how it relates to something much larger. Through an active political engagement of this topic, students gain purpose in their writing and direction to their writing through forms and structures of writers that have come before them. Concepts of ecology that students apply at a personal level in their reflection of identity also apply further to the structure and ecology of their own writing. Through this approach students might gain a wider ecological perspective of how diverse elements in our world cross boundaries and cause widespread effects that they may not consider if confined to a restricted concept of their own place.
Bruce, Heather E. “Green(ing) English: Voices Howling in the Wilderness?” English Journal. 100.3 (2011): 12-26. ProQuest. Web. 20 September 2012. <http://search.proquest.com.www2.lib.ku.edu:2048/docview/837348709?accountid=14556>
Drawing on a growing list of current environmental concerns, Bruce makes a call for English literary instruction, Bruce makes a claim to how teachers’ choice in literature can encourage various perceptions among students about what is deemed valuable in society based on the themes and values found in these canonical works. Through a place-based approach to composition, Bruce encourages a pedagogical approach where students are encourage to be critically aware of the influences of their environment beyond the social as it influences their literacy. He goes further in suggesting that through in-depth personal writing students can gain a better understanding of their environment and inspire a stronger connection to it towards to purpose of social action. Bruce’s approach relies heavily on a ecocritical approach encouraging the use of canonical texts in nature writing to help students connect with environmental concerns as an important theme in literature. He appears to believe that through studying literature students can learn from the rhetorical choices of others. This approach may be somewhat limited in an early composition course as not all students (and indeed very few in some cases) may be distanced from natural environments about which to write. Through this, students may struggle in identifying with concepts of environment in a more general sense when posed so strongly with environment in a natural sense (particularly if relying heavily on canonical literature that students may view as much higher in quality than they could ever produce) used in Bruce’s approach.
Cooper, Marilyn M. “The Ecology of Writing.” College English. 48.4 (1986). 364-375. JSTOR. Web. 10 September 2012. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/377264>
Cooper analyzes the shift and development of recent paradigms in composition pedagogy as well as some of the inherent to these. Cooper proposes what might be considered to be a new paradigm that goes beyond social paradigms that analyze the interactions between people and social groups. She considers an ecological approach to social structures and how they are defined by their environments and discursively participate in the definition of other groups. She suggests that the social elements that define our perceptions of meaning and way students write is affected by what is known to them in their environments. The shift of features in environments can have just as much effect on a student and their approach to composition as the social groups that influence their worldviews. Cooper tries to apply this ecological development to the ways in which experienced writers seek peer approval and input for a piece of writing. She comes back to a more social approach to composition by looking at composition as a work that is created not solely from an internal individual approach but by engaging others in a developmental process to writing.
Dobrin, Sidney I. “Breaking Ground in Ecocomposition: Exploring Relationships between Discourse and Environment.” College English. 64.5 (2002). 566-89. JSTOR. Web. 20 September 2012. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/3250754>
Addressing the origins, development, and definition of ecocomposition, Dobrin works to define ecocomposition as a study of the ecology or inter-relatedness of writers with their environments, be these natural or manmade. He approaches the topic as being connected to nature writing and ecocritical studies, but not exclusively to this. Ecocomposition works to make students be critically evaluative of their environments, how these environments have shaped them as writers, and how these environments are connected to other environments in a wide web of socially influential networks. Dobrin presents approaches to pedagogy that encourage students to have experiences that occur in the world as opposed to being crafted solely within the classroom. He argues for this based on the idea that in order for a student (or anyone) to be influenced by an environment this person must actually experience the environment to let it shape one’s views and for that person to work to define that environment.
Dobrin, Sidney I., and Christian R. Weisser. “Chapter 5: Ecocomposition Pedagogy.” Natural Discourse: Toward Ecocomposition. New York: State University of New York Press, 2002. 115-151. Print.
Ecocomposition pedagogy is still a fairly recent phenomenon appearing in the mid to late 1990’s and having been derived from ecocritical approaches to literature draws heavily in early stages on literary approaches to ecocomposition at the cost of direct composition instruction. Dobrin and Weisser strive to identify some major manifestations of ecocomposition pedagogy across two major branches of approach: critical consciousness and discursive ecology. Readers encounter approaches by multiple professors attempting to draw discourse about sustainability and ecology into the classroom. The authors spend some time criticizing a number of these approaches as relying too strongly on ecocritical evaluation of sources such as nature writing and various sustainability discourses over actual approaches to composition and instruction in writing. Dobrin and Weisser go on to comment on several general approaches they believe would be effective in a composition classroom based not only on ecological topics but by viewing writers as products of interconnected environments and language itself as a social interconnected construct even at the level of basic syntax. Dobrin and Weisser give a good deal of background to the topic, but may go on a little too long critiquing others as opposed to presenting what they believe to be effective models of ecocomposition in this chapter. There are some effective contributions towards composition ideology, particularly drawing in digital literacy in considering interconnected approaches drawing on the web-like entity that is the Internet.
Gaard, Greta. “Ecofeminism and Ecocomposition: Pedagogies, Perspectives, and Intersections.” Ecocomposition: Theoretical and Pedagogical Approaches. Ed. Christian R. Weisser and Sidney I. Dobrin. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001. 163-178. Print.
Through an effort to relate the objectives of ecofeminism to a construction of identity found in social constructionist methods and ecological approaches to literature, Gaard connects to ecocomposition the tenets of ecofeminism in analyzing the links between social and environmental justice in defining identity. She goes on to detail how she includes ecofeministic and ecocompositional approach to literature in encouraging students to approach their thoughts and ideas in a deductive manner. As students uncover their ideologies, Gaard would provide readings from nature writers to help students further define their views and develop composition skills derived from the structures used by these noted authors. She also focuses strongly on composition by having students write for discovery as well to develop their political and ethical voice in a wider place-based environmental approach that allows students to see a wider ethical story than they may have originally perceived as taking place. Gaard’s approaches allow students a great deal of freedom in their approach to the subject matter between reserving information for when students begin to ask the questions that show they are ready for the next step. This structure allows students to determine a pace so that many can keep up with instruction and encourages them to develop their voices as Gaard puts a capstone on the semester as students declare their own environmental ethical viewpoint.
Hothem, Thomas. “Suburban Studies and College Writing: Applying Ecocomposition.” Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Culture, and Composition. 9.1 (2008): 35-59. Project Muse. Web. 21 September 2012. <http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/ped/summary/v009/9.1.hothem.html>
Hothem approaches ideas of Ecocomposition through pedagogy of critical analysis of place – suburbia in this article – and how ideologies develop in a particular environment. The focus on a suburban environment is intended to act as a common environment for many students and forces them to take elements of this environment that they have taken for granted and analyze the significance of an element such as automobiles or Tupperware as significant in the historical and cultural development of the concept of suburban living. This approach appears to have merit in the classroom as it allows students to engage source material for observation and analysis with which they may be familiar, although it must be taken into account that not all students will be intimately familiar with a suburban lifestyle. This method does, however, contribute to a critical analytical approach to standing societal ideologies that can enable students a metacognitive awareness of how they receive and construct an ideology about an environment and how to reflect on this simultaneously conscious and subconscious construction.
Johnson-Sheehan, Richard, and Kristi Stewart. “Composing Nature.” The Writing Instructor. 2007. http://www.writinginstructor.com/johnson-sheehan. 14 October 2012.
Nature writing is a genre often associated with ecocomposition through ecocritical approaches, and Johnson-Sheehan and Stewart emphasize an approach to composition through nature writing that is far removed from a traditional composition classroom based on logical linear writing. They emphasize an expressive literary mode of writing through an engagement and understanding of nature that they dub situatedness (or place based approach to understanding environments in other terms). Through an emphasis on sermonic grand style and engaging a strong reliance on pathos, Johnson-Sheehan and Stewart stress an approach to composition and rhetoric where students strive to express deep individual feeling for nature. Although the authors acknowledge other environments beyond the natural as possible sources for inspiration in this writing, their approach is limited by the demands of current expectations for writing in many higher education environments, but this emotionally engaging approach could certainly have a place in introducing students to place based studies.
Killingsworth, M. Jimmie. “From Environmental Rhetoric to Ecocomposition and Ecopoetics: Finding a Place for Professional Communication.” Technical Communications Quarterly. 14.4 (2005): 359-373. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 8 October 2012. <http://search.ebscohost.com.www2.lib.ku.edu:2048/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ufh&AN=18386371&site=ehost-live>
Through the lens of technical writing, Killingsworth approaches the concept of ecocomposition and ecopoetics as a study of place as site in relation to various workplace studies. In addressing the excuse of the disassociation of environmental writing with most professional concerns, a new envisioning of the concept of ecology is presented to replace the concept of context as the source of communication. Killingsworth strives to use ecopoetics to show how writing takes on embodied attributes as it becomes an extension and exchange of interconnected sites that are influenced in a give and take just as much as various environments are affected by the wider ecology of which they are a part. Killingsworth makes several suggestions for pedagogical revisions in closing including the use of environmental themes and stressing their interdisciplinary nature in composition, stressing the ecocritical approach of place-based learning for both physical and abstract sites such as cyberspace, and showing the live interconnectedness of these places and how there is an ecology in these sites.
Owens, Derek. “Sustainable Composition.” Ecocomposition: Theoretical and Pedagogical Approaches. Ed. Christian R. Weisser and Sidney I. Dobrin. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001. 27-38. Print.
Owens strives to encourage concepts of sustainability, accounting for actions now so as to not deplete resources for future generations, through composition studies. His feelings that composition is a course that is above all representative of an interdisciplinary body of students who can take sustainable insights beyond composition studied into their own disciplines. By offering students the chance to choose their course of engagement through multiple composition tracks throughout the semester, students are able to take an ecocompositional approach to exploring the environments that they know and discovering the interrelation between these environments and how they influence worldviews. The projects that Owens presents force students to go beyond the classroom and engage in a deep investigation of the history and development of their environments. Through this approach students are required to engage in personal inquiry and research that will serve them in future course work. It also demands self-reflection that can help them develop critical thinking skills while they define their place in the wider society.
Weisser, Christian. “Ecocomposition and the Greening of Identity.” Ecocomposition: Theoretical and Pedagogical Approaches. Ed. Christian R. Weisser and Sidney I. Dobrin. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001. 81-96. Print.
Through an attempt to push beyond the social paradigms to composition, Weisser touts the common ecocompositional claim that we are defined not just by social means but by the environments and ecosystems in which we exist. By addressing traditional, cognitive, and expressivist approaches, Weisser argues against the approach that the writing process is primarily internal to the author, and as aforementioned he strives to transcend social paradigms as well to indicate an ecological view of writing where social views are not wholly cultural constructs but environmental constructs as well. He argues that while social paradigms encourage attention to the immediate context of a writer that immediate context is influenced by a much wider network of social and environmental constructions. While this article presents more ideology than practical classroom approaches, Weisser does present an exercise where he has students reflect on how something non-human has affected their lives. This approach is intended to make students move beyond anthropocentric views to work towards writing to discover how they exist within a much wider network that is influenced just as much by the non-human environment as social interactions.
Ecocomposition: An Annotated Bibliography
There is a greater demand in current teaching practices to take approaches accessing students’ background knowledge and help them construct their knowledge from this same knowledge. Paradigms have shifted before from cognitive, to expressivist, to social, and now the concept has arisen where writing goes beyond the sphere of society to the wider sphere of ecology. Ecocomposition approaches to writing courses allow students to move beyond social constructions to approach their perceptions of identity. They gain a greater sense of being not only related to each other in a social sphere but as beings within an ecological structure that goes beyond socially constructed points of view. Ecocompositional approaches serve as a foundation for students to further understand their identity in a world where social concerns reflect a growing consciousness of environmental threats. This growing concern over the idea of “being green” and sustainability can be elucidated through approaches focusing on nature writing or place based pedagogy. They learn how we define such ecological concepts of sustainability at a social level based on environmental influences and how it relates to something much larger. Through an active political engagement of this topic, students gain purpose in their writing and direction to their writing through forms and structures of writers that have come before them. Concepts of ecology that students apply at a personal level in their reflection of identity also apply further to the structure and ecology of their own writing. Through this approach students might gain a wider ecological perspective of how diverse elements in our world cross boundaries and cause widespread effects that they may not consider if confined to a restricted concept of their own place.
Bruce, Heather E. “Green(ing) English: Voices Howling in the Wilderness?” English Journal. 100.3 (2011): 12-26. ProQuest. Web. 20 September 2012. <http://search.proquest.com.www2.lib.ku.edu:2048/docview/837348709?accountid=14556>
Drawing on a growing list of current environmental concerns, Bruce makes a call for English literary instruction, Bruce makes a claim to how teachers’ choice in literature can encourage various perceptions among students about what is deemed valuable in society based on the themes and values found in these canonical works. Through a place-based approach to composition, Bruce encourages a pedagogical approach where students are encourage to be critically aware of the influences of their environment beyond the social as it influences their literacy. He goes further in suggesting that through in-depth personal writing students can gain a better understanding of their environment and inspire a stronger connection to it towards to purpose of social action. Bruce’s approach relies heavily on a ecocritical approach encouraging the use of canonical texts in nature writing to help students connect with environmental concerns as an important theme in literature. He appears to believe that through studying literature students can learn from the rhetorical choices of others. This approach may be somewhat limited in an early composition course as not all students (and indeed very few in some cases) may be distanced from natural environments about which to write. Through this, students may struggle in identifying with concepts of environment in a more general sense when posed so strongly with environment in a natural sense (particularly if relying heavily on canonical literature that students may view as much higher in quality than they could ever produce) used in Bruce’s approach.
Cooper, Marilyn M. “The Ecology of Writing.” College English. 48.4 (1986). 364-375. JSTOR. Web. 10 September 2012. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/377264>
Cooper analyzes the shift and development of recent paradigms in composition pedagogy as well as some of the inherent to these. Cooper proposes what might be considered to be a new paradigm that goes beyond social paradigms that analyze the interactions between people and social groups. She considers an ecological approach to social structures and how they are defined by their environments and discursively participate in the definition of other groups. She suggests that the social elements that define our perceptions of meaning and way students write is affected by what is known to them in their environments. The shift of features in environments can have just as much effect on a student and their approach to composition as the social groups that influence their worldviews. Cooper tries to apply this ecological development to the ways in which experienced writers seek peer approval and input for a piece of writing. She comes back to a more social approach to composition by looking at composition as a work that is created not solely from an internal individual approach but by engaging others in a developmental process to writing.
Dobrin, Sidney I. “Breaking Ground in Ecocomposition: Exploring Relationships between Discourse and Environment.” College English. 64.5 (2002). 566-89. JSTOR. Web. 20 September 2012. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/3250754>
Addressing the origins, development, and definition of ecocomposition, Dobrin works to define ecocomposition as a study of the ecology or inter-relatedness of writers with their environments, be these natural or manmade. He approaches the topic as being connected to nature writing and ecocritical studies, but not exclusively to this. Ecocomposition works to make students be critically evaluative of their environments, how these environments have shaped them as writers, and how these environments are connected to other environments in a wide web of socially influential networks. Dobrin presents approaches to pedagogy that encourage students to have experiences that occur in the world as opposed to being crafted solely within the classroom. He argues for this based on the idea that in order for a student (or anyone) to be influenced by an environment this person must actually experience the environment to let it shape one’s views and for that person to work to define that environment.
Dobrin, Sidney I., and Christian R. Weisser. “Chapter 5: Ecocomposition Pedagogy.” Natural Discourse: Toward Ecocomposition. New York: State University of New York Press, 2002. 115-151. Print.
Ecocomposition pedagogy is still a fairly recent phenomenon appearing in the mid to late 1990’s and having been derived from ecocritical approaches to literature draws heavily in early stages on literary approaches to ecocomposition at the cost of direct composition instruction. Dobrin and Weisser strive to identify some major manifestations of ecocomposition pedagogy across two major branches of approach: critical consciousness and discursive ecology. Readers encounter approaches by multiple professors attempting to draw discourse about sustainability and ecology into the classroom. The authors spend some time criticizing a number of these approaches as relying too strongly on ecocritical evaluation of sources such as nature writing and various sustainability discourses over actual approaches to composition and instruction in writing. Dobrin and Weisser go on to comment on several general approaches they believe would be effective in a composition classroom based not only on ecological topics but by viewing writers as products of interconnected environments and language itself as a social interconnected construct even at the level of basic syntax. Dobrin and Weisser give a good deal of background to the topic, but may go on a little too long critiquing others as opposed to presenting what they believe to be effective models of ecocomposition in this chapter. There are some effective contributions towards composition ideology, particularly drawing in digital literacy in considering interconnected approaches drawing on the web-like entity that is the Internet.
Gaard, Greta. “Ecofeminism and Ecocomposition: Pedagogies, Perspectives, and Intersections.” Ecocomposition: Theoretical and Pedagogical Approaches. Ed. Christian R. Weisser and Sidney I. Dobrin. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001. 163-178. Print.
Through an effort to relate the objectives of ecofeminism to a construction of identity found in social constructionist methods and ecological approaches to literature, Gaard connects to ecocomposition the tenets of ecofeminism in analyzing the links between social and environmental justice in defining identity. She goes on to detail how she includes ecofeministic and ecocompositional approach to literature in encouraging students to approach their thoughts and ideas in a deductive manner. As students uncover their ideologies, Gaard would provide readings from nature writers to help students further define their views and develop composition skills derived from the structures used by these noted authors. She also focuses strongly on composition by having students write for discovery as well to develop their political and ethical voice in a wider place-based environmental approach that allows students to see a wider ethical story than they may have originally perceived as taking place. Gaard’s approaches allow students a great deal of freedom in their approach to the subject matter between reserving information for when students begin to ask the questions that show they are ready for the next step. This structure allows students to determine a pace so that many can keep up with instruction and encourages them to develop their voices as Gaard puts a capstone on the semester as students declare their own environmental ethical viewpoint.
Hothem, Thomas. “Suburban Studies and College Writing: Applying Ecocomposition.” Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Culture, and Composition. 9.1 (2008): 35-59. Project Muse. Web. 21 September 2012. <http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/ped/summary/v009/9.1.hothem.html>
Hothem approaches ideas of Ecocomposition through pedagogy of critical analysis of place – suburbia in this article – and how ideologies develop in a particular environment. The focus on a suburban environment is intended to act as a common environment for many students and forces them to take elements of this environment that they have taken for granted and analyze the significance of an element such as automobiles or Tupperware as significant in the historical and cultural development of the concept of suburban living. This approach appears to have merit in the classroom as it allows students to engage source material for observation and analysis with which they may be familiar, although it must be taken into account that not all students will be intimately familiar with a suburban lifestyle. This method does, however, contribute to a critical analytical approach to standing societal ideologies that can enable students a metacognitive awareness of how they receive and construct an ideology about an environment and how to reflect on this simultaneously conscious and subconscious construction.
Johnson-Sheehan, Richard, and Kristi Stewart. “Composing Nature.” The Writing Instructor. 2007. http://www.writinginstructor.com/johnson-sheehan. 14 October 2012.
Nature writing is a genre often associated with ecocomposition through ecocritical approaches, and Johnson-Sheehan and Stewart emphasize an approach to composition through nature writing that is far removed from a traditional composition classroom based on logical linear writing. They emphasize an expressive literary mode of writing through an engagement and understanding of nature that they dub situatedness (or place based approach to understanding environments in other terms). Through an emphasis on sermonic grand style and engaging a strong reliance on pathos, Johnson-Sheehan and Stewart stress an approach to composition and rhetoric where students strive to express deep individual feeling for nature. Although the authors acknowledge other environments beyond the natural as possible sources for inspiration in this writing, their approach is limited by the demands of current expectations for writing in many higher education environments, but this emotionally engaging approach could certainly have a place in introducing students to place based studies.
Killingsworth, M. Jimmie. “From Environmental Rhetoric to Ecocomposition and Ecopoetics: Finding a Place for Professional Communication.” Technical Communications Quarterly. 14.4 (2005): 359-373. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 8 October 2012. <http://search.ebscohost.com.www2.lib.ku.edu:2048/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ufh&AN=18386371&site=ehost-live>
Through the lens of technical writing, Killingsworth approaches the concept of ecocomposition and ecopoetics as a study of place as site in relation to various workplace studies. In addressing the excuse of the disassociation of environmental writing with most professional concerns, a new envisioning of the concept of ecology is presented to replace the concept of context as the source of communication. Killingsworth strives to use ecopoetics to show how writing takes on embodied attributes as it becomes an extension and exchange of interconnected sites that are influenced in a give and take just as much as various environments are affected by the wider ecology of which they are a part. Killingsworth makes several suggestions for pedagogical revisions in closing including the use of environmental themes and stressing their interdisciplinary nature in composition, stressing the ecocritical approach of place-based learning for both physical and abstract sites such as cyberspace, and showing the live interconnectedness of these places and how there is an ecology in these sites.
Owens, Derek. “Sustainable Composition.” Ecocomposition: Theoretical and Pedagogical Approaches. Ed. Christian R. Weisser and Sidney I. Dobrin. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001. 27-38. Print.
Owens strives to encourage concepts of sustainability, accounting for actions now so as to not deplete resources for future generations, through composition studies. His feelings that composition is a course that is above all representative of an interdisciplinary body of students who can take sustainable insights beyond composition studied into their own disciplines. By offering students the chance to choose their course of engagement through multiple composition tracks throughout the semester, students are able to take an ecocompositional approach to exploring the environments that they know and discovering the interrelation between these environments and how they influence worldviews. The projects that Owens presents force students to go beyond the classroom and engage in a deep investigation of the history and development of their environments. Through this approach students are required to engage in personal inquiry and research that will serve them in future course work. It also demands self-reflection that can help them develop critical thinking skills while they define their place in the wider society.
Weisser, Christian. “Ecocomposition and the Greening of Identity.” Ecocomposition: Theoretical and Pedagogical Approaches. Ed. Christian R. Weisser and Sidney I. Dobrin. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001. 81-96. Print.
Through an attempt to push beyond the social paradigms to composition, Weisser touts the common ecocompositional claim that we are defined not just by social means but by the environments and ecosystems in which we exist. By addressing traditional, cognitive, and expressivist approaches, Weisser argues against the approach that the writing process is primarily internal to the author, and as aforementioned he strives to transcend social paradigms as well to indicate an ecological view of writing where social views are not wholly cultural constructs but environmental constructs as well. He argues that while social paradigms encourage attention to the immediate context of a writer that immediate context is influenced by a much wider network of social and environmental constructions. While this article presents more ideology than practical classroom approaches, Weisser does present an exercise where he has students reflect on how something non-human has affected their lives. This approach is intended to make students move beyond anthropocentric views to work towards writing to discover how they exist within a much wider network that is influenced just as much by the non-human environment as social interactions.