Carol had also asked about agency. I do agree that this word has
multiple meanings today.
I gave a paper at ATTW a year or two ago with 'agency' in the title, and
I was surprised to find a whole bunch of Kenneth Burke devotees in the
audience! (who seemed rather disappointed that I was not talking about
Burke!)
Here are the slightly different but related uses I've noticed for
'agency'. I'll put them out here and hope that someone wiser than I can
elucidate! (if there's further interest)
1. Philosophy: agency is associated with intention and volition (I'm
thinking of a book by Kenny that I read in grad school)
2. Linguistics: agency can be a characteristic of event participants
(e.g. agents/actors) and refer to the capacity to act with intention,
volition, or control; You can talk about degrees of agency. Agents are
generally participants in causal events.
3. Rhetoric: agency is generally associated with causality, or with
cultural assumptions about cause. In the Burkean scheme--as I understand
it--agency is associated with the means or the tool to accomplish
something.
4. Writing Studies: agency can be thought of as a tool of the writer;
the writer can make decisions about how to express agency in dynamic or
causal relationships. I also often use agency to refer to the degree of
control a writer maintains over the writing process; the idea for me is
that teachers sometimes diminish student agency by the way in which they
insert themselves in the student's writing process.
By the way, Herb, the two works I remember the most vividly from grad
school are from Thomas Kuhn and George Herbert Mead.
I don't know if they were the best things I've read, but the concepts
have always been useful and have stuck with me over many, many years.
Best--
Linda
-----------------------------------------------------
Linda Di Desidero, Ph.D.
Acting Director, Communication Studies & Professional Writing
Communication, Arts, and Humanities
University of Maryland University College
3501 University Boulevard East
Adelphi, MD 20783-8083
(240) 582-2830 (department)
(240) 582-2928 (office)
(240) 582-2993 (fax)
-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of DD Farms
Sent: Saturday, September 27, 2008 8:00 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Paradigm Shift?
At 10:17 PM 9/26/2008, STAHLKE, HERBERT F wrote on the meaning changes
on tech term borrowing:
>I think you're right. When we borrow a term from another field where
>it'ss well defined and apply it in our own field or in general
>discourse, we pretty much invariably misuse it and water down its
>meaning. . . .
DD: e.g. "Validity." Watch the Statistician cringe when an Edu Admin
uses it. {Or almost anybody else.}
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