Discusses how in early Methodism John Wesley created an extracurricular site of literacy and rhetoric that empowered women and the working classes to read, write, and speak in public. Notes that Wesley's "method" of literacy in community not only transformed religious life in Britain but also redefined the intersections of education,…

Notes that to the extent that rhetoric and writing studies bases its theories and pedagogies on the self-present composing subject, it is anti-communitarian. Calls for the elaboration of a "communitarian" literacy that understands reading and writing as functions of this "originary sociality," as expositions not of who one is…

Presents a highly philosophical view of silence from the literal sense extending to the idea of silencing voices. Considers reflection, meditation, and contemplation in regards to reading and writing. Discusses reflection and literacy, and reflection and learning. States that literacy is an interlace pattern of reflection in silence and activity…

Presents a discussion among a group of 12 doctoral students, recent PhDs and dissertation advisors. Considers why dissertation committees are not encouraging composition and rhetoric students to write innovative, tradition-challenging dissertations. Notes that educators should pay attention to tensions among styles and identities. (SG)

Challenges the common assumption that the rise of an instructorate unsupported to do traditional forms of research will necessarily result in an exploited academic labor force and inferior teaching. Explores the ways in which the "teaching substructure" existing now in composition and rhetoric has already begun to contribute substantially to the…

Argues that educators need to acknowledge how the material interests of part-time and adjunct teachers, graduate assistants, tenure-stream faculty, and administrators can come into conflict in composition in order to negotiate fairly among them. Discusses how the culture of academic professionalism militates against such a consciousness, and…

Discusses the author's experience in finding her current teaching position and her denial of tenure. Offers advice for educators pursuing tenure. Suggests that the Conference on College Composition and Communication could provide a much-needed service by gathering and disseminating both survey data and individual stories in an effort to determine…

Presents a conversation between the two authors as they attempt to confront the construction of "whiteness" as a silent but potent epistemology that pervades writing instruction and contributes to racism within academic institutions. Discusses pedagogical practices as well as university policies, focusing particularly on the subject positions of…

Examines the way three feminist, queer teachers of writing experience and perform their gender, class, and sexual identities. Critiques both the academy's tendency to neutralize the political aspects of identity performance and the essentialist identity politics that still inform many academic discussions. (SC)

Examines the sentence-based pedagogies that arose in composition during the 1960s and 1970s (the generative rhetoric of Francis Christensen, imitation exercises, and sentence-combining) and attempts to discern why these three pedagogies have been so completely elided within contemporary composition studies. Concludes that this erasure of sentence…

Claims many student writers long for instruction in using writing to assess, define, and assert who they are becoming. Suggests these students would find Black feminist essayists useful for their ability to reconcile social and personal identities and for directing those identities toward rhetorically useful ends. (NH)

Evaluates a three-year pilot project in mainstreaming basic writers at the City University of New York. Suggests that the social and political contexts of a project need to be taken into account in the earliest stages of evaluation. Claims the empirically verifiable account that researchers sought was compromised by the socio-political forces…

Reports observations of two courses of Community Service Writing wherein the teacher incorporated community-based writing assignments in order to help students writing outside the university. Finds that the curriculum did not support students' transitions to nonacademic settings. Calls for a model of rhetorically focused composition instruction…

Discusses problems in staffing introductory courses in composition, literature, and foreign languages including concerns about the professional status of teachers of introductory courses, and the many variances in staffing patterns in two-year, four-year, and research institutions. (NH)

Claims dominant conceptions of tradition may prevent professionals in the field from realizing the full potential of work in composition. Calls for relinquishing the quest for academic professionalism in defining the work of Composition and constructing a sense of tradition as an active and activating force central to its work. (NH)