This essay reports on the first two years of the Stanford Study of Writing, a five-year longitudinal study aimed at describing as accurately as possible all the kinds of writing students perform during their college years. Based on an early finding about the importance students attach to their out-of-class or self-sponsored writing and subsequent…

In this essay, I analyze Kenneth Burke's Cold War pedagogy and explore the ways it connects to (and complicates) Paulo Freire's conception of praxis. I argue that Burke's theory and practice adds a rhetorical nuance to critical reflection and then envision how his 1955 educational concerns gain significance for teachers and scholars today who,…

Examines composition at public Midwestern normal schools, the teacher training institutions of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Argues that the unique social environment, educational aims, and intellectual traditions of the normal school gave rise to attitudes about composition theory, methods, teachers, and students that are…

Discusses Jerome Bruner's theories regarding language as a tool for promoting cognitive growth, and shows how Bruner's ideas apply to the teaching of writing. (DD)

As custodians of the past, teachers have an obligation to teach edited American English. (DD)

Encourages teachers to develop students' abilities to find and explore topics and states that prewriting skills should not be overshadowed by a concern for outlining and paragraph development. (DD)

Contends that the structure of composition is based on the principles of discourse and the forms of discourse. (DD)

Advocates an approach to composition based on purposes or ends rather than on techniques or means. Suggests four categories of purposes: definition, substantiation, evaluation, and recommendation. (DD)

Demonstrates that philosophies about the teaching of composition may be either expressive, mimetic, rhetorical, or formalist, but cautions teachers against teaching on the basis of one of these and evaluating on the basis of another. (DD)

Carl Rogers' theory of argument is in accord with traditional Aristotelian theory since both are based on mutual trust and understanding. (DD)

Presents a "Text Act" theory and model of the linguistic rules whereby writers produce and construe meaning, and suggests ways it can help students in writing themes. (DD)

Uses the case of revision as an example of how the artificial segmentation of the composition process into stages has created perceptual boundaries for composition teachers and researchers. (DD)

Discusses the rhetorical theory of Gorgias of Leontini and encourages teachers to implant in students a Gorgianic respect for language as an art of illusion, deception, and power having no necessary relation to truth or reality. (DD)

Argues that composition teachers should emphasize the role of audience in discourse, and suggests two ways to accomplish this. (DD)

A response to the statement of the Conference on College Composition and Communication on "Students' Right to Their Own Language," based on comparison of the writing and talking processes. (DD)