Writing as Recursive Cultural Product

In John Trimbur's "Composition and the Circulation of Writing," he cites Richard Johnson's description the circulation of cultural texts as a recursive process of "production to textual forms to readings to lived culture" (196). The example used is the British Mini Metro Car, which originates as the "transformation of a 'designer's idea' [...] into a cultural product" (196). This process of production leads to the creation of a text, which is read in many different ways by various sectors of the public, and in this way ultimately becomes a part of lived culture. Essentially, in this imagination of the circulation of cultural texts, production and reading are processes that produces objects - texts and elements of culture. The process of creating texts in the classroom is similar in that students produce texts, which are then read by classmates and teachers, and the result of this reading becomes part of the classroom's 'culture,' the ongoing mood and relationship between students, their classmates, and their teacher. Like Johnson's process of circulation, this process of textual creation is also recursive, through revisions or through a repetition of the process on future papers. But, as I have discovered this semester, the danger is that just as flawed readings of texts can have negative impacts on lived culture, certain readings of texts can negatively impact the culture of the classroom.

The challenge inherent in the recursive process of textual production in the classroom is making sure that students do not become what Trimbur refers to as "cultural dupes" (198). Although he uses this term in reference to the cultural studies classroom, what he's actually referring to is the necessity to teach students how to read a cultural text, and the composition teacher faces a similar challenge. Composition teachers must instruct students on how to become good readers as well as good writers, for the two go hand in hand. In order for students to give productive readings to their peers' papers - in workshops, for example - they must be instructed on the process of how to properly read a text, how to understand the rhetorical situation that has produced a paper. They must be able to understand how context, audience, and purpose influence a text. They must have a grasp of appropriate elements of design for a particular assignment, and when a writer must execute a particular stance appropriate for a particular situation. In addition, the composition student must be trained in how to interpret the teacher's reading of their text, to understand why certain elements of the paper worked and why others did not and how to incorporate suggestions for improvement into revised texts. Like Johnson's description of the circulation of cultural texts, the process of creating texts in a composition classroom is also recursive.