21 Christopher Leary’s “Composing the Anthology: An Exercise in Patchwriting”

Patchwriting, or the practice of taking words and sentences from the writings of different authors and combing them together to create something new, is often associated with plagiarism and cheating. Christopher Leary, however, outlines their experimentation with patchwriting and “found poetry” to find ways to refresh and reflect upon writing. Leary argues that “One of the things you come to realize as a patchwriter is that the shifting boundaries between writing, editing, and cheating are not problems you need to resolve, but rather opportunities you can exploit.” These sentiments extend to having students create anthologies of different writers in their writing class. While the students are not actually doing the writing themselves, Leary suggests that this exercise provides students with opportunities to engage with texts in unusual and new ways, reading each carefully and meticulously curating their anthology based on how the different writings fit with one another. This chapter provides composition students with a new way of thinking about how they engage with the different texts they encounter in the classroom, as well as to rethink how those texts fit in with their own goals as writers.

“Patchwriting was a mode I gravitated toward while studying for a degree in English at Long Island University in Brooklyn. Underemployed, single, without the kind of budget that would allow me to really partake in New York’s ‘nightlife,’ without any cable TV or Internet access, I had, during much of this time, nothing to entertain myself in my bare apartment except for a bookshelf full of books.”

About the author

name: Writing Spaces Volume 1

institution: Parlor Press and WAC Clearinghouse

website: https://writingspaces.org/writing-spaces-volume-1/

Released in 2010, the first issue of Writing Spaces was edited by Drs. Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky. In addition to the Writing Spaces Website, volume 1 can be accessed through WAC Clearinghouse, as well as Parlor Press.

From Parlor Press

Topics in Volume 1 of the series include academic writing, how to interpret writing assignments, motives for writing, rhetorical analysis, revision, invention, writing centers, argumentation, narrative, reflective writing, Wikipedia, patchwriting, collaboration, and genres.

From WAC Clearinghouse

Charles Lowe is Assistant Professor of Writing at Grand Valley State University where he teachers composition, professional writing, and Web design. Pavel Zemliansky is Associate Professor in the School of Writing, Rhetoric, and Technical Communication at James Madison University.

Publication Information: Lowe, Charles, & Pavel Zemliansky (Eds.). (2010). Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume 1. WrtingSpaces.org; Parlor Press; The WAC Clearinghouse. https://wac.colostate.edu/books/writingspaces/writingspaces1/

Publication Date: June 14, 2010