Writing studies has been an intellectual playground dominated by the "big kids." If we are to understand how writing becomes "relevant" to children as children, then we must study them, not for who they are becoming, but for who they are in life spaces shared with other children. This essay on the methodology entailed in…

Internet health--here, the public use of information Web sites to facilitate decision making on matters of health and illness--is a rhetorical practice, involving text and trajectories of influence. A fulsome account of it requires attention to all parts of the rhetorical triangle--the speaker, the subject matter, and the audience--yet most…

This article builds upon the concept of hybridity to affirm the relevance of poetry, music, and other forms of popular culture in the lives of urban youth. Its focus examines the blending of seemingly disparate forms to understand how young people, in particular young people of color, negotiate their multilayered social worlds. One of these worlds…

Although the rhetoric of expertise stemming from the hard and social sciences has been well researched, the scholarship has not tended to focus on acts of public expertise by scholars from the humanities. This article reports a case study in the rhetorical practices of a theologian, acting as a public expert, first attempting to affect decision…

This article analyzes the power of ambiguous metaphors to present scientific novelty. Its focus is a series of papers by the prominent population biologist W. D. Hamilton in which he redefined the meaning of biological altruism. In particular, the article draws on Kenneth Burke's dramatistic pentad to examine why suggestions of motive are so…

Using a method of topical rhetorical analysis, inspired by K. Burke, to discuss the Ebonics debate, this article demonstrates that conversations about education, particularly writing instruction, have adopted a market rhetoric that limits teachers' agency. However, reappropriation of this market rhetoric can help writing teachers to imagine and…

This article examines the appropriation of academic biliteracy by three French-speaking students at an English-medium university in the Canadian province of Quebec. Drawing on Hornberger's continua model of biliteracy, Bourdieu's critical social theory, and philosophical hermeneutics, the author conceptualizes individual biliterate development as…

Examines the role of narrative conventions in the epistemological development of a health-care field. Argues that changes marking the emergence of occupational therapy as an autonomous profession illustrate how explanatory narrative frames emerge from and embody assumptions about the world. Provides new ways to think about the long-term dialog…

Explores new conceptions of genre and genre learning: learning genres, learning through genres, and learning about genres. Argues that reconceptualizing genres as situated, social, and active, rather than focusing on formal features, can extend and enrich process approaches to writing and enhance learning in the elementary classroom. (SC)

Addresses the argument that private writing is not really private. Explores the role of empirical evidence. Offers arguments that acknowledge private writing as different from public or social writing. Discusses methods of researching private writing. (CR)

Outlines the elements of the human rhetorical potential, arguing for a psychologically plausible theory of meaning. Examines recent work in cognitive neural science to see if the human rhetorical potential is biologically, or neurologically, plausible. Suggests further research on the human rhetorical potential as it relates to discourse…

Examines how macro-level social and political structures affect micro-level literate actions in classrooms and vice versa. Synthesizes Yrjo Engestrom's systems version of Vygotskian cultural-historical activity theory with Charles Bazerman's theory of genre systems to understand the relationship between writing in school and writing in other…

Argues that mainstream composition studies is narrow in scope and limited in perspective. Offers thoughts that might help composition professionals improve the situation. Provides evidence of neglect of writing in English as a Second Language and languages other than English. Introduces concepts from second-language studies that could help…

Elaborates and evaluates a sociolinguistic framework for the study of writing. Discusses application of the framework to the writing that takes place at a local government office. Finds that the workplace constitutes a communicative group of the local-public type, where communication is socially based and hierarchically structured with both spoken…

Compares textual notes taken by seventh-grade students on the 1954 school desegregation case, "Brown v. Board of Education," to those taken by legal professionals. Shows that the students rejected what they saw as violations of conventions of Supreme Court argument, while the winning argument in the actual case plays with conventions by signaling…