5.10 The Social World
Your writing world contains people too.
When embodied cognitive scientists extend the mind into the world, they naturally focus on the physical objects used to scaffold cognition. Chapter 5 has almost exclusively discussed physical objects like index cards and their displays. However, you also have a social world which can also scaffold social cognition (Vygotsky, 1986).
Vygotsky (1986), for example, emphasized assistance to foster cognitive development. He defined the difference between a child’s ability to solve problems without aid and their ability to solve problems when assisted as the zone of proximal development. Children with larger zones of proximal development did better in school. Vygotsky criticized instructional methods which required children to solve problems without help. “The true direction of the development of thinking is not from the individual to the social, but from the social to the individual” (Vygotsky, 1986, p. 36). The zone of proximal development emerges when you scaffold cognition with your social world.
Vygotsky also emphasized other social scaffolds, like language: “Real concepts are impossible without words, and thinking in concepts does not exist beyond verbal thinking. That is why the central moment in concept formation, and its generative cause, is a specific use of words as functional ‘tools’” (Vygotsky, 1986, p. 107). Clark (1997, p. 180) agrees cognition is not only scaffolded by objects, but also by social and cultural contexts: “Advanced cognition depends crucially on our abilities to dissipate reasoning: to diffuse knowledge and practical wisdom through complex social structures, and to reduce the loads on individual brains by locating those brains in complex webs of linguistic, social, political, and institutional constraints.”
The outlining method described in Chapter 2 permits social scaffolding by moving ideas from your mind to your world. The method need not depend on a single mind. Several collaborators can generate ideas and put them on display; the index cards on display provide a collective memory. Collaborators can work together to rearrange and to elaborate index cards as well. When a social group develops an outline, the zone of proximal development of group members can expand.
Sarnecka’s (2019) writing workshops also illustrate social scaffolding for academic writing. Sarnecka’s formal writing workshop takes the form of a graduate course which incorporates reading, instruction, and writing. However, her workshop’s writing component can take many different forms. I find her write-on-site group particularly interesting. A write-on-site group has people gathering at a prearranged location to sit quietly together and do their own writing. “These groups can be very helpful for people who feel isolated or stuck in their writing practice – there is something both comforting and energizing about writing in the quiet company of others” (Sarnecka, 2019, p. 15). In other words, the social act of ‘writing alone together’ may aid the writing process.
Another social scaffold for writing involves meeting others to talk about writing. Many books about writing describe writers meeting to discuss their writing lives with each other (Cameron, 2022; Goldberg, 1986; Hemingway, 1964; Janzer, 2016; Lamott, 1995). Such discussions include seeking encouragement, finding support for writing setbacks, or getting honest feedback about writing. “Ask a knowledgeable friend to be brutally honest. Tell him or her that you’re looking for your unique quirks” (Janzer, 2016, p. 129).
Sarnecka (2019) notes we rarely find social scaffolds, like seeking brutally honest feedback from colleagues, in academic writing. “Academics don’t talk nearly as much about writing as they talk about other research skills, such as experimental design or statistical analysis” (Sarnecka, 2019, p. 2). I hope when you realize the social world scaffolds writing you will seek others out to talk about your writing. I routinely share my own writing with students and colleagues. Academic writing improves when we use social initiatives to support academic writing.
