The writing context requires writers to have a sense of the reader’s expectations and an awareness of conventions for a particular piece of writing. Understanding this social or rhetorical context-who our readers may be, why they want to read our ideas, when and where they will be reading, how they might view us as writers-governs some of the choices we make. When we write, we do so because we want, need, or have been required to create a fixed space for someone to receive and react to our ideas. We are not just writing-we are always writing to an audience(s) for some particular purpose. Writing happens in specific, often prescribed contexts. While writing can feel like an isolating, individual act-just you and the computer or pad of paper-it is really a social act, a way in which we respond to the people and world around us. We write because we are reacting to someone or something. The following paragraphs might prompt your thinking about how writing happens for your students and for you. It’s easy to agree on the definition of writing if we limit it to something like “putting pen to paper” or “typing ideas into a computer.” But if we look more closely at the elements of the act of writing, the definition comes to life. To begin to understand what makes writing, and writers, “good,” we need to ask the larger question “What is writing?” At the Writing Center, we’re often asked “What makes good writing?” or “What makes someone a good writer?” Instructors wonder whether anyone can really be taught to write and why their students don’t know how to write by now.
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