Title: Written Discourse: A Constructivist Perspective
Abstract: A constructivist theory of discourse processes portrays readers and writers
as building, shaping, and elaborating meanings when they understand or
produce texts. In this view, written texts are merely sets of graphic marks
that can serve as cues to those meanings that are constructed mentally
through comprehending and composing. I begin this chapter with a
discussion of the metaphorical theory of constructivism, which has had a
powerful impact on conceptions of reading and on research in reading
during the past two decades. Then I use the construction metaphor as I
move beyond the reading process to examine dimensions of composing.
My emphasis is on social aspects of communication: the relationships that
writers have with readers of their texts, the relationships that they have
with other writers whose texts they use and transform, and the relationships that they have with co-constructors who help them build their
meanings. I conclude with notes toward an integrative conception of
communication that challenges conventional distinctions between reader
and writer and between reading and writing.
Publication Year: 2012
Publication Date: 2012-10-12
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 21
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