This article examines Wayne C. Booth's legacy as a teacher and scholar through the concept of rhetoric as mutual inquiry that he develops from "Modern Dogma and the Rhetoric of Assent" (1974) through "The Rhetoric of Rhetoric" (2004). Booth's work connects the political and pedagogical in pragmatic and productive ways…

This essay in counterstory suggests a method by which to incorporate critical race theory (CRT) in rhetoric and composition, as a contribution of other(ed) perspectives toward an ongoing conversation in the field about narrative, dominant ideology, and their intersecting influence on programmatic and curricular standards and practices. As a…

This article examines the work of Geneva Smitherman, its contribution to the development of composition studies, and its relation to recent scholarship on translingualism and code-meshing. Analyzing her prodigious output in relation to these contemporary studies of language diversity and writing instruction, the article considers Smitherman's…

This article offers a survey of three reliability theories in writing assessment: positivist, hermeneutic, and rhetorical. Drawing on an interdisciplinary investigation of the notion of "witnessing," this survey emphasizes the kinds of readers and readings each theory of reliability produces and the epistemological grounds on which it…

Although attention to disability is becoming more apparent in first-year composition curricula, too often disability is simply "tacked on" to existing courses. Scholars have argued that composition instructors interested in fully integrating a disability studies perspective into their curriculum would do well, instead, to think…

The feminized labor of composition studies is usually seen as being in service of, or subservient to, literary studies, ignoring composition's disaffective position against other fields, specifically creative writing. Viewing composition studies' complex labor histories in tandem with the meteoric rise of creative writing allows for a new way of…

Much composition pedagogy begins writing instruction within familiar territory. As a result, composition educators often structure curriculum and courses so that students first write in familiar genres, like personal narratives, and examine and critique their own lives, experiences, and even beliefs through those genres before turning to…

In this article, the author aims to propose an analytic method through which composition students and others might discover and understand the ecological complexities of prevailing environmental terminology that create "wicked problems." Through this method, students engage in "discursive ecology" by exploring the connections among discourse,…

Participation, a commonly graded component of composition classrooms, is rarely the focus of current research studies. While some discussions have addressed grading practices or ways to increase participation, student and instructor voices have yet to be included in studies of classroom participation in composition courses. Yet these voices are…

Using a survey of 138 writing programs, I argue that we must be more explicit about what we think students should get out of analysis to make it more likely that students will transfer their analytical skills to different settings. To ensure our students take analytical skills with them at the end of the semester, we must simplify the task we…

As part of her recent sabbatical, the author proposed going to the University of Michigan Bentley Archives to do research on Fred Newton Scott, founder and chair of the Department of Rhetoric and teacher from 1889 to 1926 at the University of Michigan. Scott ran the only graduate program in rhetoric and composition in the country between those…

Although teacher feedback is vital in teaching students to write, and is a topic of interest and debate in L1 (native or first-language) and L2 (second language) composition theory, there are virtually no studies that analyze teacher commentary conducted in a linguistically diverse setting of L1 and L2 first-year composition students. This study,…

As a service-learning teacher, the author advocates for both teachers' understanding of how activist literacy helps students to change as well as students' understanding of how it helps them to make change. Educators need to be aware of students' initial fears and be reminded of the risks they take to engage in these projects. In this article, the…

In this article, the author focuses on John Rechy's debut novel, "City of Night," to consider how cultural pressures, and later disciplinary pressures in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender/Transsexual/queer (LGBT/q) studies, affect the acquisition of critical literacies, particularly among students and scholars who follow the moment of gay…

In this article, the author examines various publications published in 1963 in an attempt to look for relevance in a changing publication scene. The author considers Gordon Parks's reportorial photographs and accompanying personal essay, "What Their Cry Means to Me," as an act of publishing with implications for the teaching of written…