I realized today that I have lots of notes from the annotated bibliography component of my comprehensive exams that I never posted here, so I thought I’d post some this week. I try to offer a general sense of any text I read in these posts (argument, methodology), but I also pay particular attention to how these texts…… Continue reading Disability Rhetoric
In the preface to his book, Gold offers some context for his site selection and the arguments he plans to develop. The purpose of his book is to examine rhetorical education at three historically neglected institutions: Wiley College (a private HBCU), Texas Woman’s University (a public all-women’s college), and East Texas Normal school (an independent…… Continue reading Rhetoric at the Margins: Revising the History of Writing Instruction in American Colleges, 1873-1947
Black or African American Language (BL or AAL) is a style of speaking English words with Black flava—with Africanized semantic, grammatical, pronunciation, and rhetorical patterns. AAL comes out of the experience of U.S. slave descendants. This shared experience has resulted in common speaking styles, systematic patterns of grammar, and common language practices in the Black…… Continue reading Word from the Mother: Language and African Americans
Once a way of thinking becomes so ingrained that no one bothers to question it, the most effective way to make it show up is to attempt the opposite argument that no one would even consider investigating. (10) Hawk begins his book with the claim that composition has misrepresented and reduced vitalism. Vitalism—“a set of…… Continue reading A Counter-History of Composition: Toward Methodologies of Complexity
It was useful to read Crowley after Berlin and interesting to see her whole argument in this collection of essays as opposed to the one chapter I had been assigned to read before this (“A Personal Essay on Freshman English,” which made her seem so extreme that it was difficult to even fathom her argument).…… Continue reading Composition in the University: Historical and Polemical Essays
Some things about reading for exams are wildly stressful—like trying to figure out how to cram all the books on the reading list into an unbelievably short period of time. Others, though, remind me of why I’m interested in this field. Re-reading Berlin was one of those reminders—not necessarily because I’m head over heels for…… Continue reading Rhetoric and Reality: Writing Instruction in American Colleges, 1900-1985
The ability to create a sense of community, and thus the possibility of social and political life as we know it, depends upon the human capacity for communication. Lucaites & Condit 1 This anthology introduction also seems appropriate to introduce (part of) what I’ll be blogging about this semester. One of the classes I’m taking…… Continue reading Contemporary Rhetorical Theory, an Introduction
Accessing Rhetoric 