Dissertation Thoughts

(Like, as of April 21, 2010.)

(Really quickly tossed out there. Roll with me.)

(Kyle Stedman)

(U of South Florida)

Writers compose.

They purposefully try to achieve specific effects.

persuade

evoke emotion

explain

Musicians compose too.

That’s what they call it. Music “composition.”

persuade

evoke emotion

explain

Writers use sources.

Both in purposeful and unavoidable ways.

quotations, paraphrases, summaries

the language and ideas they’ve been influenced by

Musicians use sources, too.

Both in purposeful and unavoidable ways.

samples

the composers and motifs they’ve been influenced by

variations and covers

No, composing words and composing music aren’t the same.

But they’re intriguingly similar, too.

Yes, this could also be said about composing visuals, etc. But I’m talking music right now. I’ve gotta focus somewhere.

In college, students take classes to help them be effective composers.

“Rhetorical” aims are often separated from “aesthetic” aims.

So, what if I talked to students in both disciplines about their composing practices?

What stories would they tell about the effects they were going for, and what kinds of sources they used?

And what would I learn if I observed their composing and research habits?

That knowledge could be used to make better composition teachers.

Did you catch that? I have two big questions.

I bet students will surprise me with the cool things they know and with the surprising things they don’t know.

And both can inform better pedagogy.

1. What effects do students try to achieve in their alphabetic and musical compositions?

2. In what ways do students search for and integrate sources into their work?

I’d rely on research from different fields and places to frame my interview and observation data.

Mostly from rhetoric and composition, but also lots from elsewhere.

1. What effects do students try to achieve in their alphabetic and musical compositions?

2. In what ways do students search for and integrate sources into their work?

• information literacy• multimodal composition• music composition• multiliteracy studies• new media poetics• computers and writing• intellectual property

studies• interviews with

professional and amateur composers

The End. (For now.)

Comment! Please! Either to kstedman[AT] mail [DOT] edu

or at

http://tinyurl.com/disskyle(That’s a pun.)