Ecocomposition is a way of looking at

literacy Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in Writing, written form in some specific context of use. In other wo ...

using concepts from

ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overl ...

. It is a postprocess theory of writing instruction that tries to account for factors beyond hierarchically defined goals within social settings; however, it doesn't dismiss these goals. Rather, it incorporates them within an ecological view that extends the range of factors affecting the writing process beyond the social to include aspects such as "

place Place may refer to: Geography * Place (United States Census Bureau), defined as any concentration of population ** Census-designated place, a populated area lacking its own municipal government * "Place", a type of street or road name ** O ...

" and "

nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are ...

." Its main motto, then, is "Writing Takes Place" (also the title of one of Sidney I. Dobrin's articles on ecocomposition). The theory for ecocomposition dates back to Marilyn Cooper's 1986 essay "The Ecology of Writing" and Richard Coe's "Eco-Logic for the Composition Classroom" (1975). More recently, Dobrin and Weisser (2002) have assembled a more detailed theory of ecocomposition, placing it in relation to

ecofeminism Ecofeminism is a branch of feminism and political ecology. Ecofeminist thinkers draw on the concept of gender to analyse the relationships between humans and the natural world. The term was coined by the French writer Françoise d'Eaubonne in ...

, ecocriticis
"A Report Card on Ecocriticism"
and

environmental ethics In environmental philosophy, environmental ethics is an established field of practical philosophy "which reconstructs the essential types of argumentation that can be made for protecting natural entities and the sustainable use of natural resour ...

. Other scholars (e.g., Reynolds, 2004) have shown its close proximity to

social geography Social geography is the branch of human geography that is interested in the relationships between society and space, and is most closely related to social theory in general and sociology in particular, dealing with the relation of social phenomen ...

. According to ecofeminist scholar Greta Gaard (2001), "at its most inclusive, ecocomposition has the potential to address social issues such as feminism, environmental ethics, multiculturalism, politics, and economics, all by examining matters of form and style, audience and argumentation, and reliable sources and documentation" (p. 163). Ecocomposition is one area of scholarly study discussed at the

Conference on College Composition and Communication The Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC, often referred to as "Four Cs") is a national professional association of college and university writing instructors in the United States. Formed in 1949 as an organization within ...

(CCCC), a national forum for writing instructors and scholars. As an educational endeavor, it is linked most closely with

progressive education Progressive education, or protractivism, is a pedagogical movement that began in the late 19th century and has persisted in various forms to the present. In Europe, progressive education took the form of the New Education Movement. The term ''p ...

(Dewey, 1915), critical education (Giroux, 1987), and place-based education (Sobel, 2004). Ecocomposition asks what effects a place has (or different places have) on the writing process. In what ways is our identity influenced by place, and what bearing does this have on our writing? What sets of relationships help us define our place—including the relationship between writer and reader? How do the sometimes contradictory sets of relationships in which we write allow us to see certain possibilities and foreclose others? How do these relationships define reality for each of us in different ways? In this way, ecocomposition understands place as a "premise" of writing. "Ecology", in the wide sense in which it was used by Coe and Cooper, includes both natural and social relations. Hence, ecocomposition instructors emphasize not only the writer's relationship to physical place but also the social relations among writers and readers. In the classroom, this translates into pedagogical practices that "emphasize the value of fostering community and collaboration throughout the writing process" (Gaard, 2001, p. 166). As a post-process method of writing instruction, ecocomposition attends not only to the process of writing but also what happens to texts after they are written. Thus, ecocomposition instructors focus not only on the process of composition but also on its purpose, encouraging students to write for specific audiences, adapting their style and content to match their purpose and audience. While a primary concern has been the relationship between the writing process and natural places, concepts of spatiality also apply to cyberspace and online writing—in MUDs, MOOs,

Internet Relay Chat Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a text-based chat system for instant messaging. IRC is designed for group communication in discussion forums, called '' channels'', but also allows one-on-one communication via private messages as well as chat an ...

Instant Messages Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of online chat allowing real-time text transmission over the Internet or another computer network. Messages are typically transmitted between two or more parties, when each user inputs text and trigge ...

, and

e-mail Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic (digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" meant ...

(Syverson, 1999; Yagelski, 2002). Ecocomposition instructors may use

blogs A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

or other means by which to allow students to interact with one another and/or write for a real audience beyond the classroom (see, e.g., Jones, 2008). Ecocomposition should not be confused or conflated with other systemic approaches to writing such as activity theory, which do not account for the dynamic relationship between writing and place but posit a transcendent "context" that affects writing.

References

*Coe, R. (1975). "Eco-Logic for the composition classroom." ''College Composition and Communication 26''.3: 232–237. *Cooper, M. (1986). "The Ecology of writing." ''

College English ''College English'' is an official publication of the American National Council of Teachers of English and is aimed at college-level teachers and scholars of English. The peer-reviewed journal publishes articles on a range of topics related to the ...

48'': 364–375. *Dewey, J. (1915). ''Democracy and education''. New York: Free Press. *Dobrin, S. and C. Weisser. (2002). ''Natural discourse''. Albany; SUNY Press. *Gaard, G. (2001). "Ecofeminism and Ecocomposition." In S. Dobrin and C. Weisser, Eds. ''Ecocomposition: Theoretical and pedagogical approaches''. Albany: SUNY Press. *Jones, M (2018). "Writing Conditions: The Premises of Ecocomposition". Enculturation: a journal of rhetoric, writing, and culture. 26

*Jones, P. (2008).
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' *Long, M. (2001). "Education and environmental literacy: Reflections on teaching ecocomposition in Keene State College's environmental house." In S. Dobrin and C. Weisser, Eds. ''Ecocomposition: Theoretical and pedagogical approaches''. Albany: SUNY Press. *Reynolds, N. (2004). ''Geographies of writing: Inhabiting places and encountering difference''. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press. *Sobel, D. (2004). ''Place-based education''. Great Barrington, MA: Orion Society Press. *Syverson, M. (1999). ''The Wealth of reality: An ecology of composition''. Carbondale, IL: SIU Press. *Weisser, C. and S. Dobrin, Eds. (2001) Ecocomposition: Theoretical and pedagogical approaches. Albany: SUNY Press. *Yagelski, R. (2002). "Computers, Literacy, and Being: Teaching With Technology for a Sustainable Future.

References

Further reading