Considers what it means to be "bothered" by errors. Transforms the study of error from mere textual issues to larger rhetorical matters of constructing meaning. Presents a study of 14 business people that indicates a range of reactions to errors. Reveals patterns of qualitative agreement--certain ways in which these readers constructed a negative…

Considers how the Conduit Metaphor of language and communication has been roundly condemned by language scholars, including scholars in rhetoric and composition. Notes that it is time to reevaluate its importance and value. Notes that the Conduit Metaphor combines with the metaphor Language Is Power to form a prudentially applied ethical measure…

Argues that womanist theology (which employs a socioreligious hermeneutic that examines and critiques racism, oppression, and classism) and the texts it gathers can serve as efficacious course content for other-literate students. Notes that womanist theology offers students a scholarly discipline that expresses inter- and intracultural rhetorical…

Explores the ways students experience contemporary writing pedagogy. Ranges from rhetoric's historical discussion of the pleasures of writing to composition's more recent interest in academic professionalism to Gilles Deleuze's theory of masochism to the problem of teaching and learning in a consumer culture. (SG)

Contends that religious belief often matters to students and that spiritual identity may be the primary kind of selfhood that more than a few of them draw upon in making meaning of their lives and the world around them. Gives particular attention to evangelical expression in the classroom and the complex ways that faith is enacted in discourse.…

Calls for increased awareness of disability in composition studies and argues that such an awareness can productively disrupt notions of "writing" and "composing" at the same time it challenges "normal"/ "not normal" binaries in the field. Notes that all five authors conclude with challenges and directions for composition studies intersecting with…

Examines the author's involvement with writing centers as an example of how educators can look at the choices made within their areas of expertise to see why the choices attract them. Notes that in her case, the flexible, collaborative, individualized, non-evaluative, experimental, non-hierarchical, student-centered nature of writing centers is an…

Discusses Ron Smith's article, "The Composition Requirement Today: A Report on a Nationwide Survey of Four-Year Colleges and Universities" (published in this journal in 1974) that presented survey findings gathered about the state of the writing requirement in United States four-year colleges and universities. Determines whether the status of…

Considers how silence has positive as well as negative attributes, and composition teachers can help students understand and use its aesthetic, ethical, and political resources in their personal writing. Notes that approaching silence in these ways can establish new alignments among the expressivist, psychoanalytical, and social discourses that…

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…

Suggests the Internet has introduced the play element into student and corporate work culture. Examines a series of InterChange transcripts to demonstrate how discourse that combines serious and playful purposes works to provoke and mediate conflict. Concludes that students use serio-ludic discourse to critique and to negotiate power relations and…

Reports data from a survey of freestanding writing programs in the United States and Canada, and provides a context for interpreting the findings. Gives empirical evidence of long-held consensus about the working conditions and compensation of non-tenure-track faculty. (SG)

Discusses how in the literature of critical pedagogy, resistance theory analyzes, ranks, and judges the emancipatory value of writing behaviors, privileging nonreproductive and transformative consciousness over cultural reproduction. Notes that the ranking of consciousness and the central metaphor of "reproduction" too often are naively…

Suggests that philosopher Donald Davidson's interpretative principle of charity can help explain why communication is impoverished or even impossible in classrooms governed by traditional, authoritarian practices that form a "pedagogy of severity." Notes that teachers should promote a "pedagogy of charity," which assumes that…

Presents a narrative description of experiences shared by the author, his father, and a Nez Perce man named Larry Greene. Explores those experiences in relation to institutionalized education in order to provide insight into not only subjugated ways of knowing but also alternative places of learning. (SG)