Rethinking Implications

I've been writing for five or six days now. I'm at a furious pace to get through these articles before the summer begins. Which I hesitate to put down in and black and white because somehow it seems better to keep all of this in my head. That's a dangerous tendency, I think. Better to get the stuff OUT of my head--talk it over with myself, here, and with other people. 

In any event, as I've been revising the article in which I sum up the project, lots of interesting things are happening. I'm in the process of continuing to work through the section on workplace writing. I'm implementing Reich's framework of "new work" to help teachers think through the kinds of writing experiences adult students have outside the classroom. I've developed an interesting way of categorizing this:

Routine Production: no one.

In-Person Services: Patrice/Charlene

Liminal: Tony/Diane

Symbolic Analytic: Joe

This is all going quite well. I have written three short bios on students who I otherwise hadn't written about: Charlene (middle-aged, single woman/mom), Zoran (ESL student), Heather (twenty-something). These three really bring a depth to the project and honor the kinds of adult students that one would be more likely to find at a school like RIC, or perhaps at a community college. 

I'm thinking through my implications section a bit this morning and revising a bit. I'm thinking that I'd like to post a revised list of implications. Here is a new, shortened list:

1. Adult students carry with them diverse literacy histories and varied relationships to school and/or academic literacy. While some may carry histories of disappointment and/or failure, others bring stories of success and empowerment (all).
   
2. Many adult students are immersed in complex webs of literacy in their workplaces, where writing doesn't necessarily draw attention to itself but serves, instead, to help get done the work of the day (Charlene/Patrice, Tony, John, Jennifer). 
   
3. Adult students will likely have considerable experience producing specific genres of workplace writing--what Devitt (2007) has called "antecedent" genres. Such genres often come to have considerable hold over adult students' composing practices. Knowledge of antecedent genres may help or hinder adult students in their transition to academic literacy (John, Tony, Jennifer).
4. Because adult students are immersed in a range of professional and/or civic/social communities, they often arrive in the classroom with real literacy problems and goals in hand. These serve as potential resources to be tapped by literacy instructors (Tony, Patrice/Charlene, Jennifer). Similarly, some adult students, when they arrive in the classroom, may already be engaged in self-sponsored literacy projects which could serve as potential resources. (John's blog, Charlene's memoirs).
5. In their capacity as workers and family and community members, many adult students are not just writers, but serve as teachers of writing and/or local writing consultants. (Tony, Diane, Charlene, Patrice).
   

I believe that this list is much better. In terms of what I have done, I have already written #5. I am in the middle of drafting #s 1 and 2. These are the biggest, meatiest sections. I now think that I do have enough material for #4. And I know I have enough material for #3. So, all of this seems manageable at this point. 

The remaining, unresolved question has to do with the organizational structure and length of the article. It is way past a length which would make it manageable for TETYC. And I don't want to trim it to make it work for that periodical. I thought, yesterday, that I could submit it to CCCs, as this is a completely different piece than the article on Tony I submitted last fall. I still may do this. If not, I think the right direction might be some kind of literacy-oriented journal. 

Now, to work.