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.} To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/ To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/