Harris – A Teaching Subject

Harris – A Teaching Subject Chapter One The Dartmouth Conference shifted English away from something you learn about to something you actively do (1). . . or at least that was the idea.  H. wants to use the conference as a way to consider the conflicts that drive work in English – especially the tensions between teaching and research. The America-British debate was bout English as a body of knowledge (discipline) vs. English as a doing/happening... Read More

Berlin – Rhetoric and Reality: Writing Instruction in American Colleges, 1900-1985

James Berlin.  Rhetoric and Reality: Writing Instruction in American Colleges, 1900-1985. Chapter One: An Overview B. id’s his mission statement: “I will examine the forms that rhetorical instruction in writing has taken in the 20th century classroom” and in doing so will also consider the poetic.  B. invokes the classical Western roots of education and notes that education had long considered rhetoric to be central to good preparation in... Read More

CCCs – Issues 1, 2, & 3 : Reflections

CCCs – Issues 1, 2, & 3 Reflections In the initial issue of CCCs a survey was conducted on Freshmen composition (note the emphasis on that demographic).  Some major trends in the survey included:  student composition publication (writing narrative and expository “themes” and publishing via mimeograph, student papers, etc. which were then used as points of discussion in class) oftentimes housed in “Communication Skills” and English... Read More

Lauer – Rhetorical Invention: The Diaspora

Lauer, Janice. “Rhetorical Invention: The Diaspora.” Atwill, Janet, and Janice M. Lauer. Perspectives on Rhetorical Invention. 1st ed. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2002. Print. Lauer begins by noting that there has been a lack of scholarship on rhetorical invention in the period extending from the mid 1980s through to the mid 90s.  Working from her previous work on invention, Lauer identifies trends of invention thusly: 1) theory... Read More

Lauer – Invention in Rhetoric and Composition

Lauer, Janice.  Invention in Rhetoric and Composition.  West Lafayette: Parlor Press, 2004. Print. Chapter 1 – Introduction and Overview:  L. notes in the introduction the focus of the book and then continues to define invention a couple of different ways: as a solution to the “problem of finding subjects to write about and of developing these subjects” as well as something that “provides guidance in how to begin writing, to explore... Read More