Defining Terms & Your Theory of Writing

This semester, we focused on eight key terms about writing. These are not Dr. Rifenburg's eight terms; instead, these terms are grounded in recent research on how people transfer writing skills from one context to another.

Research argues that when people develop a theory of writing grounded in key terms, they are more successful at writing across different contexts.

To recap, we focused on eight key terms:
  • Genre
  • Audience
  • Exigence
  • Rhetorical Situations
  • Context
  • Discourse Community
  • Knowledge
  • Reflection

In this final assignment due the day of the final exam, I invite you to focus on the last key term (reflection) by defining our eight terms and providing your theory of writing.

I broke the information below into two parts. The first details how I ask that define the terms; the second details how I ask that you offer your theory of writing.

Defining key terms

Devote a paragraph to each term. In this paragraph, connect your understanding of the key term to one of our readings through a direct quote, a paraphrase, or a general summary. Then show how these reading helps you understand and define the term.

No need for a transition between paragraphs. Instead, your paper will read like dictionary entries.

Your Theory of Writing

In this broad 500 word assignment, I invite you to reflect on how you understood and approached writing before this class and how the reading, writing, and thinking we have undertaken together gives you more confidence, less confidence, or the same level of confidence for your future academic writing contexts. 

I invite you to engage directly with the Yancey or How People Learn excerpt (in addition to any other reading we have done) to amplify your argument.


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