2022 Theses Doctoral

Humane Principles for the Teaching of Writing: Interiority, Drama, and Conceptions of Technology in the Scholarship of James Moffett and Walter Ong

Spinale, Kevin

“Human Principles” examines the scholarship of James Moffett and Walter Ong. The dissertation analyzes and compares their definitions for writing: revised inner speech (Moffett) and speech fixed in space (Ong). The project recovers Walter Ong’s scholarly contributions around shifts in technology (handwriting, print, and digitization as well as the secondary orality) and their effects on human communication for the field of English Education. The project also clarifies what Moffett means when he uses the terms “inner speech” and “revision,” and it marks a contemporary contribution to scholarship in the teaching of writing. Finally, the project addresses teachers of writing across the curriculum, and it presents humane principles developed from Moffett and Ong’s ideas of interiority, secondary orality, drama, monologue, and voice.