Stony Brook University - SUNY Digital Repository

a vehement belief in “writing with Uncertainty.” Questioning
and overtures towards Uncertainty adopted as rhetorical devices
simply to satisfy and to earn approval instead of as textual
manifestations of a “relativistic” perceiving of the world and
those living in it. Taken as a whole, those experiences would
come to stand for me as examples of the very fine line between
education and indoctrination. What I witnessed with them, in
all their threat and contempt, was the privileging, the proving,
the promotion of the Certainty of Uncertainty. And because of
it, that potential and that promise remained, unfortunately,
unknown.
After some time had passed, I found myself asking, “Was
this what it really meant to ‘write with uncertainty’”? What
had happened? And what meaning was I to make of it all? What I
had experienced was not only confusing but also disappointing.
A good deal of what I had thought I would find with bringing
Uncertainty to the teaching of writing had been contradicted. I
do not want to sound overdramatic, but, to put things simply, I
was disheartened. This was many years ago now. And as they
say, with time comes perspective, which I am, now, very grateful
for. Taking that proverbial long, hard look back at those
experiences, back at my Master’s thesis, back at Bob’s
“Rhetorical Theory and the Teaching of Writing” class, I began
to see things with some clarity. In my rebellious passion to
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