{"id":6466,"date":"2005-12-17T11:30:52","date_gmt":"2005-12-17T11:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2005\/12\/17\/wordwatcher\/"},"modified":"2005-12-17T11:30:52","modified_gmt":"2005-12-17T11:30:52","slug":"wordwatcher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2005\/12\/17\/wordwatcher\/","title":{"rendered":"Wordwatcher"},"content":{"rendered":"\u23f3 Approximate reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> mins<\/span><\/span>

Earlier in the fall our program hosted Tim Diggles, coordinator of the
\nFederation of Worker Writers
\nand Community Presses<\/a> in Staffordshire, for a colloquium on working class
\nwriting\/publishing.  I didn’t get around to posting any notes after Diggles
\nvisited, and although I have a few lines about a range of things he talked about
\npenciled into a composition notebook, I want to zero in on the thing Diggles
\nmentioned that has been on my mind periodically ever since: wordwatching<\/i>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The wordwatcher, Diggles explained, is a common parliamentary role; in
\nmeetings of all sorts, one person is assigned the wordwatcher’s role–to
\ninterrupt the casual flow of conversation with
\nstasis questions<\/a>
\n(scroll down), primarily questions of definition: what do you mean by…?<\/i>
\nThe wordwatcher (C. suggested Dictionarian<\/i>) attends to terminological
\nslippage, calls out for (folk) etymology, re-collects fanned-out usages, and
\ndoes so with a potentially calm remove–a cool distance from the more heated
\ninterchanges (no, I’m not saying neutral position<\/i>, and this doesn’t
\nalways have to be the case…the wordwatcher could be more implicated, even
\npo’ed, for example).  The point isn’t to domesticate the meaning (or
\nbroadly officialize\/standardize) as much as to make explicit tacit and
\nunexplored nuances and differences, admit them to the discussion. <\/p>\n

The wordwatcher’s role interests me, even appeals to me as I think about
\nteaching.  Why not design<\/i>ate wordwatchers as a way to emphasize
\ncontested or complex terms (with ties, of course, to stasis theory)?  This
\ncould work across several levels–from grad seminars to the FY course.  And
\nI’m almost certain it’s being done somewhere, perhaps under another name, but
\nmotivated by a similar set of interests.  I’ve also been thinking about how
\na wiki (i.e. the ww must be quick<\/i>) would support wordwatching, especially
\nin a course like WRT302: Digital Writing<\/i>–the next course I’ll be
\nteaching at SU, coming in fall ’06.  Wordwatching might be a good way to
\nbring in the shared, ongoing formation of wiki content, talking about how they
\nwork, and so on, while also sharing the demands of keeping stasis questions
\nfresh, continually a part of the conversation, etc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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