Week 1: Reflections on Jody Shipka's Toward a Composition Made Whole

As I worked my way through the introduction and the first chapter of this book, as well as a few supplementary readings, I was extremely challenged by concepts and ideas about composition instruction that were new to me and sometimes difficult to grasp. In this reflection, however, I consider how the process of creating this blog may have not only paralleled some of what is discussed in the reading/s, but may have also awakened my consciousness to the exploration of the mysterious process that results in the production of texts.

The picture above of scattered words and images on, below and between the lines of my notebook represent some of many pages of notes taken before beginning this entry. The juxtaposition of this image and the subsequent entry exposes a stark contrast between my writing process and what I have chosen to loftily refer to, and quite tongue in cheek, as my first 'musing'. I think it also reveals the validity of the philosophical position promulgated by Shipka and others, like Jacques Derrida, that composition is so much more than a static, linear process and that even what are considered stable texts can not be understood without some consideration of the writer's intention, process and context, and even then it cannot be fully understood - only interpreted, as the consumer brings to their interpretation their own unique perspectives. My understanding of Shipka's references to the socio-cultural aspects of the composing process, were likewise illumined through my own process as a digital immigrant, putting old technology, that is 'pen to paper,' to use long before engaging the newer forms for this response.

However, my socio-cultural perspective as a physical immigrant, of sorts, has also led me to be skeptical of some of Shipka's claims or approaches. In the summary of what is to come in chapter four, the author promises to describe the pedagogical approach which led to a composition on a ballet shoe illustrated in Figure 1 of the text. The student in me that was trained in a British colonial educational system was immediately more inclined to dismiss such production as whimsical and without real value to composition. I look forward to expanding my view of composition and my understanding of multimodal expression in the chapters to come.