Talk:Composition studies

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07:41, 18 May 2006 Matthewcurtis (Added Cultural Studies back as it is a composition pedagogy. Yes, they are not one in the same, but many instructors teach their courses based on a Cultural Studies framework.)

Cultural studies pedagogy is frequently viewed as an attempt to re-unite composition studies with literary studies, which makes the connection between comp-rhet and cultural studies that is suggested by a "See also" link far from uncontroversial. I think that it's important for this article to reflect that there is a much larger and more nuanced debate going on here. (Particularly as a lot of literature grads will be wikipedia'ing this article when they try to find new paths to take with their less marketable degrees.) Any conflation of the two fields of study denegrates composition as its own independent discipline.

Of course, more nuanced descriptions of these vital academic debates would be welcome in this article. It would also be nice to have an overview of pedagogies á la Tate et al.'s A Guide to Composition Pedagogies—In that way, your cultural studies "frameworks" can be described instead as the pedagogies that they are, and without confusing the larger disciplines.

Well, rather than simply deleting the link why don't you add this discussion the article? That's why I created this page -- so people would begin to ADD information. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Matthewcurtis (talk • contribs) 23:43, May 20, 2006 (UTC)

[edit] History and Rhetoric

Composition textbooks of circa 1900 do roughly what we now do in first-year courses, though these books were for 8th graders; they also do not generally distinguish between literary composition and other forms of writing, because the essay was still considered a literary genre. It is, therefore, necessary to tell the story of the history of composition as a distinct field. Where did it come from? Why is it taking over English departments? In this tale, one could include the ways in which composition courses have appropriated rhetoric from speech, communication, and philosophy departments. Also notable would be those who wish to "abolish" composition altogether. This story should probably include high school writing instruction and the advent of the Advanced Placement exam in composition, which compliments the AP exam in literature. Josh a brewer (talk) 17:37, 2 April 2008 (UTC)