Prologue: Developing a Theory of Writing

Writing scholars Doug Downs and Liane Robertson (2015) define theory as “a systematic narrative of lived experience and observed phenomena that both accounts for (makes sense of) past experience and makes predictions about future experience” (pp. 110-11). Your theory of writing, then, would try to describe how you are coming to understand “the nature of writing . . . and [your] expectations for how writing ought to work” (p. 110). In other words, you’re trying to understand “what happens when [you] write, what ought to be happening, [and] why that does or does not happen” (p. 111). How does writing work? How does one go about learning how to do it, and to do it more effectively? How does one define what “good” or “effective” even mean? 

Why is this worth developing? Downs and Robertson (2015) suggest that the assumptions and concepts fueling your theory of writing, conscious or not, will shape your approach to writing tasks and your interpretation of the results. They give two examples: First, they say, imagine the “difference in writing process between a student who believes revision is essentially punishment for making mistakes and a student who believes revision is a desirable and essential part of writing” (p. 111). Second, consider a study by Michael Palmquist and Richard Young (1992), who found that students who considered writing ability an unteachable gift were also most likely to experience greater writing anxiety. 

Our theories, in other words, impact both our actions and our attitudes. When we try to make our theory of writing more conscious—built, in part, on a variety of concepts we might use to explain it—we hope also to understand past experience more fully and to predict future experience more accurately. In short, we’re engaged in learning how to take responsibility for our own learning and development. 

Included in this glossary are several concepts that might help you begin to put together your own theory of writing.

Part I: Threshold Concepts for First-Year Writers

Part II: Working Definitions of Related Terms and Concepts

References & Further Reading

Adler-Kassner, L., & Wardle, E. (Eds.) (2015). Naming what we know: Threshold concepts of writing studies. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press.

Beaufort, A. (2007). College writing and beyond: A new framework for university writing instruction. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press. 

Downs, D., & Robertson, L. (2015). Threshold concepts in first-year composition. In Adler-Kassner, L., & E. Wardle (Eds.), Naming what we know: Threshold concepts of writing studies (pp. 105-121). Logan, UT: Utah State University Press. doi:10.7330/9780874219906.c007

Lanham, R. (2006). The economics of attention: Style and substance in the age of information. University of Chicago Press.

Meyer, J., & Land, R. (2006). Overcoming Barriers to Student Understanding: Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge. Routledge.

Palmquist, M., & Young, R. (1992). The notion of giftedness and student expectations about writing. Written Communication, 9(1), 137-168. doi:10.1177/0741088392009001004

Yancey, K.B., Robertson, L., & Taczak, K. (2014). Writing across contexts: Transfer, composition, and sites of writing. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press. doi:10.7330/9780874219388