Chapter 5. A Definition of Everyday Writing: Methods for a Writer-Informed Approach to Lifespan Writing

Abstract

Bazerman notes that a project such as this "may seem quixotic and perhaps impossible in its magnitude, expense, and logistical complexity" (2018, p. 327), but he works through this complexity to trace the broad outlines of such a project. Approaches to Lifespan Writing Research works to flesh out that outline as a next step toward aligned, integrated, multi-site longitudinal studies of writing. In each of these chapters our authors attempt to explicate their epistemological stances, methodological choices, and theoretical reasoning so that resonance across research sites, methods, and findings can begin to be articulated, followed up, and built upon. If Bazerman's initial challenge to the field requires a disregard for what is easy-even, perhaps, for what is possible-the very complexity embraced by the project has also generated an embrace of collaboration and of joint attention to a difficult problem. The complexity of researching writing through the lifespan emerges, in large part, from the fact that writing is itself complex (Bazerman et al., 2017, 2018). Writing is caught up in all facets of our lives, whether explicitly attended to or not. Whether we are writing to our senators or our child's school, making a list of groceries, completing taxes, or writing a report for our employers, we are engaged in various spheres of social and material engagement, working with various audiences, and attending to various demands on our own and others' time. But through it all, we are writing. Attending to writing through the lifespan needs to attend to all of this complexity somehow. The task of this volume is to present potential "hows" and begin to render the impossible slightly more possible for future research on writing through the lifespan. Yet our aims for this volume are not just that it coheres in these ways, but that it actively generates murmurations, or a path forward for those engaged in lifespan writing research. Murmurations describes the coordinated movements of flocks of birds (especially starlings-footage is readily available online) and may involve up to thousands of birds moving together while also easily able to change directions and goals. Murmurations are simultaneously chaotic and deeply ordered-chaotic in that a murmuration changes continuously in shape and direction through time, yet deeply ordered in that the movement is seamless and unified and displays a common goal. Fluidity and unified purpose through chaos seem to us a plausible strategy for tackling such a complex research problem, a claim we unpack more fully in our conclusion.

A Taxonomy of Life Writing: Exploring the Functions of Meaningful Self-Sponsored Writing in Everyday Life

“…In that way, our approach parallels Selfe and Hawisher’s (2004) research on digital literacies, but with a targeted emphasis on self-sponsored and nonobligatory writing. Other research that has informed our questions and methods include the ongoing Lifespan Writing project, which offers various methods for what studying the “writing caught up in all facets of our lives” might entail (Dippre & Phillips, 2020, p. 4); Naftzinger’s (2018) study of the everyday writing practices of five individuals; and Brandt’s (2015) The Rise of Writing . Among the writers Brandt profiles are 30 young adult authors who write outside of school contexts, for whom writing serves functions of self-improvement, managing emotions, communicating with others, connecting to spiritual life, and working to improve the world (pp.…”

“…Gere’s (1994) study of the “extracurriculum” of writing groups focuses on adults’ self-motivated writing activities and argues for the importance of seeing the “extracurriculum” as a “legitimate and autonomous cultural formation that undertakes its own projects” (p. 86) rather than as a “way-station on the route” to academic or professional success (p. 79). Studies of “everyday writing” in particular orient attention to people’s daily and often mundane writing practices and the value of writing in accomplishing the tasks of everyday life (Cohen et al, 2011; Naftzinger, 2018; White-Farnham, 2014). In the same spirit, and in order to provide attention to writing composed beyond academic and workplace settings, the online Museum of Everyday Writing, n.d.…”

“…Much of the existing literature defines self-sponsored writing by what it is not: it is not required by an employer or educational institution; it is not writing “for pay”; it is not writing in exchange for academic credentials. Phrases such as “everyday writing” (Naftzinger, 2018) and “voluntary writing” (Yi & Hirvela, 2010) offer useful alternatives for naming the concept but do not entirely escape this definitional challenge. Naftzinger (2018), for instance, defines everyday writing, along with Yancey, Cirio, and Workman, as “the ubiquitous self-sponsored writing typically operating outside the regulation and oversight of an institution or representative of an institution” (p. 89, italics ours).…”

“…Phrases such as “everyday writing” (Naftzinger, 2018) and “voluntary writing” (Yi & Hirvela, 2010) offer useful alternatives for naming the concept but do not entirely escape this definitional challenge. Naftzinger (2018), for instance, defines everyday writing, along with Yancey, Cirio, and Workman, as “the ubiquitous self-sponsored writing typically operating outside the regulation and oversight of an institution or representative of an institution” (p. 89, italics ours). Brandt (2015) and Findlay (2019) starkly contrast workplace and elective writing, showing how workplace writing pushes some people to practice “strategic (dis)connection” (Findlay, 2019, p. 434), or performative detachment, to reconcile the conflict between professional writing requirements and individual writerly identity.…”

“…Research on writing that people elect to do—what researchers have variously called “self-sponsored writing,” “everyday writing,” and “voluntary writing”—has affirmed the value of this writing in its own right as well as in conversation with obligatory writing (Brandt, 2001, 2015; Gere, 1994; Lindenman & Rosinski, 2020; Naftzinger, 2018; Roozen, 2010, 2012; Rosinski, 2016; Shepherd, 2018). The fields of community writing, literacy studies, and the rhetoric of health and medicine are among those that have examined the power of writing that people compose beyond work and school.…”