Patricia Bizzell: Shakespeare’s Little Parrot

As Shaynee pointed out at the beginning of her presentation, Bizzell’s ideas combine several of the ideas that previous compositionists and rhetoricians have already stated. What stands out about Bizzell for me, and what I believe will be on the ever-looming midterm, is Bizzell’s idea of “additive” versus “holistic” teaching.

For Bizzell, the process of writing must begin with a reevaluation of our idea of thinking. She states that teachers believe that students come to the classroom with ideas that they desire to express to the class, and that the teacher’s job is to teach the skill through with the students’ ideas can be presented. Bizzell calls this skills-based teaching additive; as Shaynee pointed out, the ideas they may think they are bringing to the classroom are either incomplete or misinformed. The students do not only lack the skills need to express their ideas, they also lack the skills to interpret their own culture into a real understanding of who they are.

Shaynee writes in her Précis that students “must understand their personal culture and societal culture as well as the beliefs of those cultures” if them to become “sophisticated writers.” This whole “know thy self” adage takes on a new meaning in Bizzell’ context; not only must know where they come from to understand who they are, they must also understand who they are in order to express themselves to others. In holistic teacher then, the role of the teacher is not only as an instructor in the skills of writing, but also in the self evaluation of WHO each student is based on their background. Shaynee stated in her presentation that once a student knows who he or she is, the teacher can then expose the student to unknown cultures and discourse communities though literature. This combination of skills-based teaching and personal awareness is what Bizzell desires in teachers who are doing more than just rehashing the skills of writing.