re: What good is linguistics?

[Beth Boquet <eboquet@FAIR1.FAIRFIELD.EDU>]

Sara--

I was wondering why the question, and now I know.  This may be 
jumping the gun in terms of where you stand with thinking about a 
paper between the relationship of linguistics and composition, but I 
have been reading back issues of CCC, CE, and EJ, where the 
linguistics-composition issue was hotly debated in the 50s and 60s.  
It would be interesting to consider, I think, what we have to say 
about linguistics and composition that is different from what we 
*used* to say about it.  There's a lot different, I think.  And I 
wonder if the response of your colleagues is related to the 
assumption that maybe what we would say would not be so different 
after all.

--Beth


> Date:          Mon, 03 Nov 1997 10:39:48 -0600
> From:          Sara Kimball <skimball@uts.cc.utexas.edu>
> Subject:       re: What good is linguistics?
> To:            Multiple recipients of list <wcenter@ttacs6.ttu.edu>
> Reply-to:      wcenter@ttacs6.ttu.edu

> Susanna I want to thank you and everyone else who's responded to my
> question for your thoughtful and *encouraging* replies.  I've been
> trying to figure out whether I want to write a paper about linguistics and
> composition, and your replies give me reason to believe it's anything but
> a futile connection--not the message I get from many of my colleagues in
> the English department.  Your replies also give me reason to believe that
> the things I do in my grad and undergrad courses do succeed with some
> people anyway, since the courses you've described as teaching or taking
> sound a lot like what I do in my own courses.
> 
> Hmm, maybe I should invite y'all to the next meeting of the English
> department at which the place of linguistics in our grad or undergrad
> program comes up--but that's not an experience I'd inflict on anyone I
> *like* ;-)
> Sara
> 
> On Mon, 3 Nov 1997, Susanna Horn wrote:
> 
> > Allow me to add a vote for sociolinguistics.  I went kicking and screaming 
> > into this course, but now I see it as one of the most practical courses that 
> > I have taken.  It REALLY helped me understand my students' writing.  
> > 
> > Therefore, I would strongly recommend that future teachers take a 
> > sociolinguistics course.  Understanding the social contexts and reasons for 
> > linguistic forms and changes can help us talk more intelligently and be lots 
> > more tolerant.                  
> > 
> > Sue Horn
> > Developmental Programs
> > The University of Akron
> > Akron, Ohio
> > 
> > shorn@uakron.edu
> > 
> 
> 
Elizabeth Boquet
Director, The Writing Center
DM 130
Fairfield University
Fairfield, CT  06430
Tel: 203/254-4000, ext. 2529
E-Mail:  eboquet@fair1.fairfield.edu