Week II continued-more on grammar

I have been thinking about how grammar and communication are intregal to the presentation of self within groups. The groups we are a part of, the groups we wish to be a part of, and the groups we are excluded from all connect us to a living community. Without the possibility of being a part of a group there is no reason for communication. How we present ourselves through the written and spoken word are just as important as a firm handshake and eye contact. Our formal presentation of self vs. our informal presentation of self becomes a product of our education and our competency in English. That competency requires a knowledge of the rules and vocabulary in given situations. Some competencies we learn through our specific associations within a specific group. Other formal competencies we learn through education. Today we have a miriad of competencies thanks to technology that we may choose to participate. At the foundation of all communication are the abilities of the individual to compose and to decipher learned technigues.
Hartwell concludes his piece, Grammar, Grammar, and the Teaching of Grammar, promoting language and literacy. I find his emphais on ESL interesting, but limiting. We must be inclusive of all future members of our groups. I do not know how we prioritize our resources without burning out all the teachers.

I believe that Susanne Langer in Spectator Role and the Beginnings of Writing sums up Compostition (either visual, written, or spoken) by offering a definition of communication that is an "act of perception" that "reflects the "shape of every living act"(Britten 172).

Both people discussions regarding the field of Composition offer an extension of North's work The Making of Knowledge in Compostion. The "reading, writing, listening, and speaking" work well with "language, literature, and composition" which when taken out of the patriarchal white western male tradition allows the possibility of North's "multicommunal experience". This potential of possibility through communication i.e. rhetoric and composition, may level the playing field of "power and prestige" to include individuals in the ordinary world as well as the academic world.
As an interdisciplinary student I find the connections between individuals and groups as the foundation of communication of most importance. Where I may diverge from the purist in theory becomes a question of promoting what I will call the "Grammar of Living" at the expense of the "Grammar of Exclusion". My "Grammar of Living" allows an individual to communicate and function in day-to-day informal enviornment while my "Grammar of Exclusion" promotes elitism in daily activities and in academia. Just a thought I throw out for pondering.