Sirc – Serial Composition
Sirc, Geoffrey. “Serial Composition.” in Rhetorics and Technologies : New Directions in Writing and Communication. Ed. Stuart Selber. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2010. Print. In Sirc-like fashion, Geoff cites the problem upfront: “since the first-year composition course began in the late 19th century, the primary instructional text, the expository essay, has remained the field’s formal constant”... Read More
Young – Arts, Crafts, Gifts, and Knacks: Some Disharmonies in the New Rhetoric
Young, Richard. “Arts, Crafts, Gifts, and Knacks: Some Disharmonies in the New Rhetoric.” Visible Languages 14 4 (1980): 341-350. Print. In this article Young is exploring how the differences between a “vitalist” theory of composing and a “technical” theory effect the what and how of teaching writing. Ultimately, Young notes that both groups seems to be on the side of right (at least in some sense). Y. begins by highlighting... Read More
Kitzhaber – Themes, Theories, and Therapy: The Teaching of Writing in College
Kitzhaber, Albert. Themes, Theories, and Therapy: The Teaching of Writing in College. New York: McGraw-Hill Publishing, 1963. Questions framing this study: Can English compsotiion at Dartmouth be taught more effectively in the required freshman English courses that it is now? And Can anything be done to ensure that students will continue to write at least as well after they have left freshman English as they do while they are taking it... Read More
Park – Theories and Expectations: On Conceiving Composition and Rhetoric as a Discipline
Park, Douglas B. “Theories and Expectations: On Conceiveing Composition and Rhetoric as a Discipline.” College English, 41.1 (1979). 47-56. Park begins by recounting how – as composition studies continues to grow and proliferate in academic settings – the confusing mixture of qualitative and quantitiative research methods, practice-oriented vs. theoretically positioned scholarship, and speculative vs. contemplative anecdotal... Read More
Crowley – Invention in 19th Century Rhetoric
Crowley, Sharon. “Invention in Nineteenth-Century Rhetoric.” College Composition and Communication 36 1 (1985): 51-60. Print. In this piece Crowley argues against the charge that 19th century rhetoricians like Alexander Bain, John Franklin Genung, Adams Sherman Hill, and Barrett Wendell lacked originality in their rhetorical works. Crowley claims that the theoretical tradition passed on from 18th century rhetoricians provided huge problems... Read More
