Posted 10:30 PM by Sybil

=My project for the rest of this semester will be a Master’s Paper Chapter (plus a possible annotated bibliography) defining the newly combined theory of Social Expressivism (Expressivism and Social Epistemics) in the context of my main focus: weblogging.


=While the foundation to my Master’s Paper will probably be the argument that weblogging is a educational online tool that can be used in the composition classroom as well as in others, a part of the Master’s Paper will be to situate or position the theories (or, rather, to position weblogging within composition theory) in which weblogging will be most useful. Weblogging is a perfect online connection between the two theories of Social Epistemic and Expressivism. Weblogging is Expressivistic in its activity (student sits alone at computer typing/writing about one’s life: expressing oneself), but Social in the content and collaboration that can be placed within both individual weblogs and group/class ones (students commenting/analyzing the war, for example, and connecting in their writing to the offline world around them).


=My point will be not only to situate weblogging within Social Expressivism, but to show how the theory benefits the tool and vice versa. By placing weblogging into a theory’s range of tools, the theory can become more relevant to teachers in the classroom, and possibly even to technogeeks.


=So what? Social Expressivism essentially needs areas to branch out into (it needs some advertising). With weblogging listed within its tools, the technology theories, collaboration theories, and cultural theories will be able to take from this theory and consider it as a valid source. Weblogging could make Social Expressivism popular, and, again, vice versa.


=Thus far in research, weblogging hasn’t been connected to Social Expressivism. There are a few people, however, who have written about this theory that will be of great help as I define and latch weblogging onto Social Expressivsm. Stephen Fishman and Lucille McCarthy look at combining Expressivism and Social Epistemic in their books (have found one), although they are geared more towards using that theory in philosophy classes. Sherrie Gradin’s book, Romancing Rhetorics (haven’t found yet), is a possibility as well.


=In positioning myself, I see researching Social Expressivism as a starting point for my teaching philosophy to branch out into. Right now, I sit happily in the Expressivist camp, but since I sometimes wander over to the Social Epistemic side of things, this theory maybe a place where I can have both theories in a happy balance. Plus, with the tool of weblogging as one of its package’s contents, it’ll be a theory that will serve me even better yet.