Quite simply: In this presentation, I ask for another look at inoculation as an analogic in writing and speaking—taking a wider view of what it means to inoculate (and to write, and to speak), and proposing inoculation research as a way to identify and measure the inherent inoculative effects of writing and speaking. Writing and speaking courses can’t inoculate against lifetimes of bad writing and speaking, but they can—and often do— inoculate in other important, often unnoticed, ways.
Josh Compton
We are dissuaded from thinking of writing courses as one-shot inoculations against lifetimes of bad writing. But what if our writing courses are inoculating—not against bad writing, but against attitudes toward writing and learning to write? And what if the act of writing itself has inoculation properties—rhetorical effects that influence how students think about the specific issues and arguments about which they are writing and speaking? My position is that our writing courses, and writing itself, are indeed inoculating. I draw on my work with inoculation theory to show how the conventional point-counterpoint 8 mode of invention leads to essays that can both persuade and confer resistance to future persuasion—inoculating both writers and readers. Experimental research can help us to identify and track these effects across time, giving us—and our students—a wider view of the potential effects of student writing on our student writers and their readers. I further contend that professors can also inoculate their students—and that professors often do, intentionally or not. Raising and refuting challenges—the explanatory of inoculation theory—is embedded in many writing and speaking pedagogies, as we help our students to anticipate and work through the challenges of communication, from workshop discussions to one-on-one conferences to low-stakes writing and speaking to revisions. Besides serving as sound writing and speaking pedagogy, under certain—and even common—conditions, such instruction might also have inoculative effects. Experimental research could help to assess student responses to these preempted challenges of writing and speaking, identifying potential effects of inoculation on student self-efficacy, student attitudes toward writing and speaking, and student emotions.
Writing and speaking and/as inoculation. ‘College Writing’: From the 1966 Dartmouth Seminar to Tomorrow, 50th Anniversary Dartmouth Institute and Conference, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, United States. August 10, 2016.
Conference website here
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