Writing, Inner Speech, and Meditation
College English March 1, 1982 DOI: 10.2307/377011 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Education |
| Key points | Argues that writing, meditation, and inner speech are interrelated, and that writing in its highest sense is authentic authoring: working up a final revision, for an audience and purpose, of thought forms that have surfaced to the realm of inner speech. Proposes that this three-way relationship can illuminate old educational goals and identify new ones. |
Abstract
Writing and meditating are naturally allied activities. Both are important for their own sake, and through each people can practice the other. Relating the two by means of a bridging concept, that of inner speech, brings out aspects of all three that can illuminate old educational goals and identify new ones. To work with this three-way interrelationship, we must construe writing in its highest sensebeyond copying and transcribing, paraphrasing and plagiarizing-as authentic authoring, because inner speech and meditation concern forms of thought, the composing of mind that constitutes the real art and worth of writing. Authoring is working up a final revision, for an audience and a purpose, of those thought forms that have surfaced to the realm of inner speech.