Blog #3

Faigley's essay regarding the social perspective was a very technical read. However, it was simple enough to be able to take away some pertinent information to answer this blog question. The social perspective takes an anthropological look at not only the process of professional and technical writing but also how it impacts the writer and the recipients in the contexts of their lives and cultures rather than in the vacuum of a text as a stand alone item. 

Something that writers should consider to participate in the continuous stream of communication is the three questions that the social perspective arouses. Faigley mentions these questions during the last section of his essay.

1. What is the social relationship of writers and readers, and how does this text      function in this social relationship?

2. How does this kind of text change over time?

3. How does the perspective of the observer define and limit the observation of      this text?

These three questions very simply sum up the issues that a writer should keep in mind to effectively communicate beyond the textual and individual perspectives. When a writer can answer these questions they should be able to successfully not only consider the audience and context their writings are targeting but the residual effects that the text will have on future communications with a specific observer but also future writings of their own.