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
I had every intention of posting this months ago but kept putting it off because I’m mildly intimidated by the awesome combination that is Collin + this book. Because I enjoy it so much, though, I think it’s appropriate for this to be my inaugural post for my summer-reading-for-exams extravaganza! *** Though perhaps tempting to…… Continue reading Lingua Fracta
This morning, I attended the workshop “Evocative Objects: Re-imaging the Possibilities of Multimodal Composition led by Jody Shipka, Erin Anderson, Kerry Banazek, and Amber Buck. Here is the workshop’s pitch: The workshop challenges the common tendency to conflate multimodality with digital media in the larger field of composition. Indeed, when they are considered at all,…… Continue reading Evocative Objects Workshop #4c13
Even though Crip Theory was published before Disability Theory, it was really useful for me to read them in the reverse order. It helped to read some strictly disability theory prior to diving into how it intersects with queer theory, which is admittedly not my field. My reading of this book was also aided by McRuer’s…… Continue reading Crip Theory: Cultural Signs of Queerness and Disability
The other night in my comp history/theory class, we were discussing Joseph Harris’s A Teaching Subject: Composition Since 1966. After a lively discussion about process–the real rewards of teaching it, the pitfalls, the confusion on how exactly to teach a process course that doesn’t end up with a final product that we value more than…… Continue reading What Is Process?
This is not a question that I could develop in a single blog post–particularly not an initial one. However, I think it is one worth asking over and over again. This evening was the first meeting of my Composition Histories & Theories class, and the first question on the syllabus is, “What is composition studies?”…… Continue reading What Is Composition Studies?
