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Murdoch University Taking time: An ethics of temporality for the discipline of writing
Conference paper   Open access

Murdoch University Taking time: An ethics of temporality for the discipline of writing

Anne Surma
AAWP
14th Annual AAWP (Australasian Association of Writing Programs) Conference (Hamilton, New Zealand, 26/11/2009–28/11/2009)
11/2009
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Abstract

ethics temporality literacy Creative and professional writing Creative and professional writing
Recent public debates suggest that literacy is largely a matter of standards and expedient economic outcomes. Given the debates swirling around, where does the discipline of Writing position itself? Are academics of Writing outside the debate because we believe matters of literacy are dealt with elsewhere (schools, the vocational education and training sector, university teaching and learning centres), or because we see literacy differently, or because we refuse to engage in discourses that would reduce creative endeavours to a crude instrumentalism? This paper works from the premise that, alternatively, we and the discipline are necessarily inside the debate. Literacy (broadly defined) is central to Writing’s raison d’être, as the field claims a space that asserts and nurtures diverse writing activities. Moreover, university Writing programs’ imaginative concentration on textual matters enables students and teachers alike to take the time to reflect not only on the significance and value of written language but on our accountability for its impacts. I argue that this is an ethics of temporality, and illustrate how various approaches to writing, as represented by skills, creativity and genre discourses, are embedded in ethical-temporal concerns. My hope is that this paper extends discussions about the development of the discipline.

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