Reading as a Transaction

Where does reading reside? Is it in the text or in the reader? Reader response theory suggests that meaning is a sythesis both of the reader's knowledge and of the information in the text, and that meaning consists not just of factual information but of emotion and visual images. Louise Rosenblatt argued that reading is trasactional-that is, meaning is a result of the interaction of the reader and text:

A text is merely ink on paper unitl the reader (if only the author) evokes meaning from it. (1983, 25)

From Guiding Readers and Writers: Grades 3-6, pg. 258 - Fontas and Pinnell