This article presents a course design of English 283: Rhetorical Theory and Applications. The course is described in the undergraduate catalogue as offering a "critical and analytical examination of the nature and historical development of rhetorical theory and its applications to contemporary discourse." The course fulfills requirements for the…

This article presents a course design of English 450: Theories and Methods of Argument. The course is an upper level course in the Writing concentration of B. A. in English and American Language and Literature at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, a metropolitan university in the South. At the 400 level, Theories and Methods of Argument is…

In "The Mis-Education of the Negro," Carter Woodson issues a mandate for a different and original program of education for African-Americans, specific to their own conditions. If educators, the author opines, are to take this mandate into consideration when designing and implementing appropriate curricula and pedagogy, then they must start paying…

This article presents a course design of English 4090: Collaborative Writing at Work. The course is a senior-level elective designed to reinforce students' existing knowledge of professional writing and to teach students how to apply that knowledge effectively in collaborative contexts. Here, the author focuses on the Spring 2006 class and…

Presents an account of the authors' shared explorations and efforts to name some important variables or criteria that bear on the question of whether or not to invite students to write in a home dialect or language. Offers conclusions in the form of a list of 10 variables to consider. (SG)

Explores the tendency to deny embodiment in scholarly and pedagogical sites and the related tendency to conflate disembodiment with authority and freedom. Argues that while feminism has a long tradition of examining the body as a material, political site, "new" postmodernist scholarship has tended to "textualize" the body. Examines critical…

Proposes a meltdown of academia's "detestable frozen hierarchies" by the abolition of rank and tenure, the formation of militant, inclusive unions of faculty with staff to battle administrators in corporatized education, and the serious teaching of the general-purpose prose that students need and faculty members want. (SC)

Discusses the author's 1991 conference speech that argued that if postmodern discourse has taught us anything, it is that "rhetoric" is at the center of all knowledge making, even in the sciences. Addresses the future of composition as a discipline and whether scholars in the field will position themselves as "enemies" or as "adversaries" in this…

Considers the issue of professional titles as it applies to women, composition studies, and how it applies to the author personally and professionally. Discusses many different approaches to answering the question "What should we call you?" Concludes that in an always evolving field there is no "right" title. (SC)

Explores the demands placed on a would-be critical teacher by the discourses of critical pedagogy. Explores the script of critical pedagogy by engaging the literature of critical pedagogy and by offering a kind of narrative kaleidoscope. Questions the use of critical pedagogy in educating students for proper use of grammar. (SC)

Suggests that part of the problem with instruction in mechanics has to do with the intuitively unappealing nature of most of the "rules" that have remained unchanged for a century. Discusses problems with current rules on the use of the apostrophe. Presents a one-page reproducible handout that summarizes a technique to teach usage of the…

Presents an interview with Winston Weathers, a composition theorist, whose ideas, according to the interviewer, have not been as influential in the field as they should have been. Examines how Weathers' ideas developed and evolved and how they have been received. (TB)

Questions the role of argumentation in the college composition classroom. Studies the responses of a variety of students to three sample arguments that address the same topic. Shows that most students can correctly rank arguments, suggesting that students have a tacit knowledge of argument prior to instruction. (HB)

Describes a utopic vision of the classroom conditions under which grades are no longer necessary. Critiques the specific practice of grading students' essays. Argues that grading student essays is not necessary to grading their performance in a given course. Shows how this can be done practically. (HB)

Provides an edited transcript of an extensive interview with compositionist Gary A. Olson. Covers his background, his views on composition theory and practice, and a variety of other topics. (HB)