Kenneth Bruffeeeee

According to Kenneth Bruffee, “not to have mastered the normal discourse of a discipline no matter how many ‘facts’ or data one may know, is not to be knowledgeable in that discipline.” I can honestly say that up until this sentence I didn’t really comprehend what I had read so far. I mean I understand what Bruffee is saying about how conversation is the necessary foundation for the accumulation of knowledge and subsequently the ability to form, categorize and process thoughts. I agree. You really don’t know anything until you’ve had a conversation with someone else. I guess you could say that all you really have is a muddled and jumbled collection of observations without any idea of how or even why to analyze, process and make meaning of them.
Bruffee then goes on to explain that, “we can think because we can talk, and we think in ways we have learned to talk”. I know that what I am about to say probably is going to seem kind of strange, but I took a second to think about what I think. I then wrote down my thoughts on a piece of paper word for word as I thought them. For the most part, I found that they were structured the same way they would be if it was my turn to speak in a conversation with someone. In order of development Bruffee lists speaking/conversing, thinking and writing in order from first to last. Basically you need to have conversation with another human being to write. It would make sense that more conversation/more intellectual discourse would result in better knowledge and understanding and subsequently better writing.
This concept, the concept of conversation and instruction fostering thought and understanding actually makes a lot of sense. In the article, Bruffee talks about how medical students learned more when they worked in groups and were able to bounce ideas off each other than they did when they were alone. As a student I can totally relate to this situation. When writing a paper for example, I find it easier to write if we have frequently discussed it in class.
The quote that I started this little rant with is something that I would like to go back to again. You don’t know anything about anything by just knowing the facts, the stats, or the definition of the subject. If you haven’t learned the ideas circulating on a topic and gotten a second and third and so on opinion on it then you don’t know anything and you cannot make any real meaning of whatever it is you think you know.