“Composing as a Woman” and “Contextualizing ‘Composing as a Woman,’” Elizabeth Flynn

IWA: 4/10/13

Summary: In her articles, “Composing as a Woman” and “Contextualizing ‘Composing as a Woman,’” Elizabeth Flynn attempts to tell her audience, probably teachers, that males and females have different writing styles because of the differences in their genders and the way they are raised. She argues this through the use of students’ writings. Her second article, however, sort of argues against her first article since it is written several years later. She argues these different writing styles are not as prevalent today because of the differences in society and the way males and females are raised.

Synthesis: I would say this article is a lot like Alexander’s piece because they both look at gender roles and how they affect the way students write. In addition you could possibly relate it to Bryson. Both talk about how language and writing have changed over time and people grow to accept it.

QD 1: I honestly have mixed feelings about it. I think it could make her seem more credible because she admits that what she writes is open to change and not 100% accurate but at the same time it could take away her credibility because most people would believe a scholarly article is supposed to be 100% accurate and the writer must know everything they’re writing about.

QD 3: To me this basically means people have wanted women to write more like men because it makes everyone’s writings more alike and in doing so their viewpoints are neglected and no longer do they have their own style. This relates to other minorities in a way like Smitherman discussed. In trying to universalize the way people write we lose a lot of their voice and culture.

QD 5: I agree with her view to some point. I think it all is relative to your own experiences and the way you were raised. I think generally she is write that males are raised more-so to deny relationships than females are but again it depends on the way you were raised and your personality. I think overall it’s kind of a touchy subject.

QD 6: Okay I can see this in multiple ways. She discusses in the article how a ladder means achievement and the web means interconnections. I could see it being this way where males are focused more on success and women are focused more on intermingling with one another. However I also think it suggests that men want to reach a higher point in their life and try to take the quickest route towards it while women may not take as quick of a route but they use the connections they have to achieve what they want.

AE 2: The historical context that prompted Flynn to write this piece was that, at the time, women were viewed more as dainty and belonging in the kitchen while their husbands brought home the bacon, so to speak.

AE 3: If I’m understanding this correctly I might say Bernherdt because he’s discussing layout of a paper and the process to go through to get the perfect paper layout and analyzes the audience to understand what would work best for them.

AE 4: I don’t think her generalizations add any limitations to her article. Generalizations to me are kind of like stereotypes where everybody recognizes them but may not necessarily agree with them. I think if anything it would benefit the article because people are able to better relate to it.

MM: I think we could possibly look at numerous article because several of them were written in a time very few of us experienced so they don’t seem as relevant. I know in class when we talked about discourse communities and class none of us (from the same generation) agreed that the way people speak proves what social class they’re from while the instructor felt it did. It shows that times change and we don’t always understand the viewpoints writers are talking about.

Afterthoughts: I think this article was pretty interesting. For the first time an author questioned her own writings years later and proved that time always marches on and what we write now may not be relevant 15 years from now.