Re: tagmemics

[Deirdre Paulsen <dmpaulse@adm1.byu.edu>]

Gail, 
A thorough discussion of tagmemic invention -- definitions, strenths 
and weakensses of its application, and examples -- is found in _The 
St. Martin's Guide to Teaching Writing_, Connors and Glenn.  In the 
third editiod (1995) the discussion is on pp. 160 - 172.

According to the ST. Martin's text, Kenneth Pike, Univ. of Michigan 
coined the term in the mid-1960s and his work was refined by others 
at the U of Mich. As Barry said, in 1970, Young, Becker, and Pike produced their 
textbook _ Rhetoric:  Discovery and Change_.  The general consensus at 
its publication was that the tagmemic approach to invention was "both 
novel and important."  The text was too complex apparently to be 
grasped by students and as a result, "unfortunately . . tagmemic 
invention is not as well known or as widely used as it deserves to 
be."

The theory comes out of linguistics, is a" field theory" which 
advocates looking at a topic through the perspectives of particle, wave and 
field.  A revised tagmemic system which I have found useful is to 
look at a unit in contrast, the unit as a system, and the unit in a 
system.  Dig up the St. Martin's text for an understandable explanation!


Deirdre M. Paulsen
Brigham Young University
Writing Across the Curriculum Consultant
Director of Writing Fellows Program
dmpaulse@adm1.byu.edu