Re: Lovers and Fools and Seething Brains

[cleveren@garnet.acns.fsu.edu (Carrie Leverenz)]

Kevin:  I agree with your sentiments as stated below.  When I am preparing
my students to work in peer response groups, I tell them that they need to
keep in mind two things.  First of all, the reader is always right.  And
second of all, the writer is always right.  And there's the challenge.
Readers have a right to their interpretation and/or response to a text.  And
writers have a write to try to enact their intentions in language.  Beyond
that, it's all negotiation.   Carrie

>Who but the audience can judge a speaker's motives?  Surely not the speaker
>herself.  The speaker's motives and ideas become irrelevant as soon as she
>speaks; what matters then is what the audience *perceives*  to be the speaker's
>motives.  Isn't that what we teach our tutors?  Isn't that what we teach in our
>writing courses?  What the audience perceives is what is.
>
Carrie Shively Leverenz
Director, Reading/Writing Center
Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL 32306-1036
(904)644-5157
cleveren@garnet.acns.fsu.edu