ABSTRACT
Theorising in the field of Literacy Studies has problematised the notion of the literacy event and the spatial and temporal characteristics of 'eventness'. This chapter discusses the ideas, drawing on actor-network theory (ANT) and assemblage theory, and supports wider inquiries into how the Internet is used in student writing and the nature of originality and plagiarism. It draws upon an intellectual antecedent to the ANT tradition to further illuminate the precariousness of practices: Deleuze and Guattari's distinction between the rhizome and tree structures. The metaphorical difference between a tree structure and a rhizome structure is that a tree structure is hierarchical with knowledge organised systematically from stems to roots. The chapter describes assignments as being 'assembled' by the practices at play in a literacy event. An assignment's apparent end completion therefore suggests a reality that is really an effect of the bundles of practices choreographed to attain that effect.
