Storytelling and Academic Discourse: Including More Voices in the Conversation

<p>In this article, Mlynarczyk traces her career-long exploration of the relationship between personal, narrative writing and so-called academic discourse. Believing that both are important for college students, particularly students placed in basic writing or ESL composition, she has come to believe that rather than viewing the two as separate modes of discourse, students need to use a "translingual" approach, cultivating "rhetorical dexterity" while they develop as college writers. As concerned teachers and scholars, the challenge is to help students learn to use storytelling appropriately as a way to strengthen their thinking and their writing inside—and outside—the academy. Far from viewing narrative as somehow inferior or subservient to academic discourse, which is often seen as more complex, the author invokes recent scholarship in evolutionary biology, which suggests that the predilection to tell stories lies at the heart of what distinguishes us as human beings. As the university becomes more diverse, it is essential to welcome more voices—and more stories—into the academic conversation.</p>