Surveys research on rhetorical purpose. Discusses five key questions concerning purpose which emerge from current research: (1) what is meant by purpose?; (2) what are the influences on purpose?; (3) do various groups of writers consider purpose?; (4) how does purpose operate throughout composing?; and (5) how should purpose be taught? (RS)

Meditates on a text presented by Kenneth Burke at the 1989 convention of the Conference on College Composition and Communication, in which Burke discusses his definition of humanity. Provides a basis for reading Burke and for grounding the teaching of composition in some understanding of his critical insights. (SR)

Discusses rhetoric, composition, and literary theory through a dialog between "Professor Weft" and "Professor Warp." (PRA)

Argues that the dialectic of radical pedagogy is inadequate for an increasing pluralistic culture. Argues that, through feminist deconstruction of the phallogocentrism of the dialectic, a reconstruction can take place which allows feminist thought to engage fully in a multiplicity of dialectics which will ultimately bring about positive social…

Inquires as to why high modernity's construction of knowledge made Plato's version of philosophy look absurd. Asks how writing teachers have helped to perpetuate the state of affairs. Suggests that something like Socratic philosophy has once again found a place in the writer's world--as a whole and in the classroom. (PRA)

Examines Chaim Perelman's new rhetoric, concluding that Perelman believes a rhetor linguistically creates a presence by first analyzing how the audience thinks and acts, referring to what the audience holds to be true, and then entering into communion with the audience by expressing the thoughts of the audience. (RAE)

Argues against the relativist arguments of Jasper Neel and Herrnstein Smith which assert that truth and writing are incompatible. Offers an introduction to their major arguments, and critiques the positions they share. Reveals that their vision of writing and truth is bolstered by three questionable premises about the nature of truth in human…

Discusses an epistemic return which the author detects in contemporary rhetoric studies. Suggests that its dominant concern, as for Isocrates, is to reconfigure the relationship between individual and community within an epistemic environment that encourages the individual's participation in the social construction of the knowledge while granting…

Discusses the educational theories and philosophical ideas of Lev Vygotsky and John Dewey. Asserts that both were affected by Hegelian philosophy in that both attacked atomistic reductions and abstract dualisms and dichotomies of many sorts in their attempt to view education and communication in terms of history and culture. (PRA)

Remarks on moments in Louise Wetherbee Phelps' book "Composition as a Human Science" where the absence of power presents a problematic for composition. Presents Jurgen Habermas for and against Phelps, noting the gestures of both authors against scientism while drawing on several of Habermas' basic concepts. Proposes rereading Aristotle's…

Discusses the need for student writers to find a voice that is uniquely theirs. Details the loss of authentic voice in composition teaching and the views of the social constructionists. Cites three nineteenth-century men of letters who never lost sight of the fundamental quality of good writing--the presence of the individual writer. (PRA)

Defines magic as a process of inducing belief and creating community rather than as a product of an otherworldly incantation. Provides an historical survey of pre-Enlightenment relationships between magic and rhetoric. Proposes that the rise of current-traditional rhetoric coincides with the destruction and disappearance of the magical…

Reflects on the work of Jurgen Habermas to help develop an objective and subjective rhetoric that are not in isolation from each other. Finds communicative competence a challenging conception of rhetoric's humane purpose: namely, the formation of autonomous and responsible speakers, capable of participating fully in the discourse of a speech…

Relates an interview with "the contemporary sophist" Stanley Fish, where he discusses John Milton, composition theory, and his role as a social constructionist. (PRA)

Discusses the presence of an implied author and its appropriateness as a rhetorical device in technical discourse. Concludes that it enhances the information transfer from writer to text to reader. (MS)