Confrontations

Question: In professional journals, what is a constructive meaning for the word “confrontation”?

Answer/Quotes: “The June 2011 issue of CCC is rich in topic, in genre, and, perhaps most especially, in confrontation—which may appear to be a strange claim. In invoking the word confrontation, I’m not thinking of antagonistic exchanges between opponents, but rather of confrontation as a mechanism for questioning our assumptions and for situating our perceptions, practices, and beliefs into a wider set of contexts.” P. 581.

“As I indicated at the beginning of this introduction, I appreciate the idea of confrontation as inquiry, of confrontation as calling a received idea into question.” P. 584.

“Perhaps the very ideas that seem so common-sensical, as John Mayher had it in his award-winning Uncommon Sense: Theoretical Practice in Language Education, are indeed the ones that most demand confrontation.” P. 585.

Comment: I like the idea of “confronting” common-sense ideas, ideas that we accept without thinking. RayS.

Title: “On Confrontation.” Kathleen Blake Yancey, editor of College Composition and Communication (June 2011), 581-585.