Defining Our Terms

The words “agents” and “agency” are probably familiar language to all of you. We’ll start by tracking popular definitions of these terms and then move to defining their specialized understanding in the fields of writing studies, composition, and rhetoric.

Access our collaborative document where we will define terms. We will expand our definitions by first looking at an excerpt of Nowacek’s Agents of Integration.

Marilyn Cooper’s definitions of agents and agency in her book The Animal Who Writes are even more complex than Nowacek’s, in that Cooper puts these terms into a historical and disciplinary context. Cooper begins by offering a definition to create a starting point for understanding that an agent is “a human autonomous subject who through conscious intention and free will causes effective changes in the world” (126). She contextualizes this definition by presenting a history of how the terms agent and agency have historically been understood, ultimately encouraging us to keep in mind that agency involves creating an effect, while an agent is the entity that creates the effect. Let’s look at page 129 together to define this further.

Using the collaborative doc again, explain how Cooper’s term intra-action expands our definition of agency and agents.

In-Class Writing

Begin thinking about the common kinds of writing that you do. This might be on social media, text messages, group chats, or assignments for class. Pick one example of a common kind of writing that you do almost daily and answer the following questions: What are the agents, both human and nonhuman, that intra-act in your writing? How would you describe agency in this writing context? This is a draft for your next blog post, so save this writing to come back to next week.

HOMEWORK

READ the excerpt of Brandt’s book The Rise of Writing on Blackboard.

Works Cited

Cooper, Marilyn M. The Animal Who Writes. U of Pittsburgh P, 2019.

Nowacek, Rebecca S. Agents of Integration. NCTE, 2011.