Situation Based Writing and the writer’s voice

The presentation is informed by a rhetorical and Bakhtinian perspective on the writer as being in dialogue with different voices –especially the voices of potential readers, their possible perceptions of the text during production and other texts in the sphere of communication. However, thepossible voices, choices and consequences of these choices may not be that clear to the writer who is not trained in this kind of dialogic interaction. In this presentation I will argue that this dialogic approach and critical reflexive awareness of these choices are important points to pay attention to in the writing classroom.

In the presentation, I will present an Educational Approach to writing, that I developed and explored ethnografically (especially voice recordings, interviewsand observation) in three 5th grade classrooms as a part of my PhD thesis. The students’ text production was anchored in rhetorical situations and students were invited to collaboratively discuss and negotiate choices scaffolded by a so called writing map. My findings show that the writing map contribute to actualize a student writer positioning, that for the part of some students is difficult to accept and enactas meaningful. However, a lot of the writing processes that emerged, demonstrate that the explicit verbally and situation based approach seems to hold the potential of making writing (and possible choices) visible as a social action. An action that can potentially lead to critical awareness of writing, which I will argue is crucial in order to enable a sense of ownership and manifesting a voice of your own in writing.