Blending theory - in the classroom

In preparing college students for writing and composing for the world of various audiences beyond the class walls, it is important that they become familiar with meaning-making strategies beyond rhetorical patterns, such as `claim-reason-evidence,´ which although powerful, may ultimately rely on literalist assumptions of the nature of language. To introduce the power of figurative language and bring literalism front and center for my especially literal-minded (predominantly) engineering students, I designed a portion of my composition course to complement its `claim-reason-evidence´ core, in which students discover metaphor. Students are formally introduced to the trope in the middle of the term and then spend several weeks investigating the nature of metaphor in coordination with ongoing projects. Using Lakoff and Johnson´s work on metaphor and a further development of it (`Blending Theory´), the students put their understanding of metaphor to work by developing and explaining their own metaphors. Though this is new territory in my course, it has proven beneficial to the students´ composition skills and their abilities to recognize and critique the non-literal aspects of communication and the assumptions of literalism.