ENGL 6930: Composition Theory

Fall 2015 • Monday 4:00 - 6:40
CompTheoryStatementFall2015

Announcements

24 Aug

CompTheoryStatementFall2015
Opening discussion
Exchange email addresses.
Sources, critiques, &c. See MorgansNotes22Aug2011
Teaching Abstract and Critique Writing, pdf. Harris

for 31 Aug

The Givens in Our Profession, part 1

Murray, Donald. "Teach Writing As a Process Not Product."
Emig, Janet. "Writing as a Mode of Learning."
Perl, Sondra. "The Composing Processes of Unskilled College Writers."
Sommers, Nancy, and Richard L Graves. "Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers."
No outside reading required for this week.
MorgansNotes29Aug2011 - being update through 31 Aug
Presenters

Dale and Joel

7 Sep: Labor Day: No class meeting

14 Sep

What was new becomes given - and a backlash in post-process thinking

Ong, Walter. "The Writer's Audience Is Always a Fiction."
Ede, Lisa, and Andrea Lunsford. "Audience Addressed/Audience Invoked: The Role of Audience in Composition Theory and Pedagogy."
Kastman Breuch, Lee-Ann M. "Post-Process "Pedagogy": A Philosophical Exercise."
A critical summery (300 - 500 words) of one outside related reading. Summarized. Related readings and background reading on antifoundationalism on MorgansCompTheoryNotes12Sept.
Some unasked for advice on writing critical summaries: MorgansNotesOnAbstractCritiques
MorgansCompTheoryNotes12Sept
IdealReadersAndActualReaders
Presenters

Casey and Michelle

21 Sep

Part 2: Talking in Terms of Discourse

Kinneavy, "The Basic Aims of Discourse."
D'Angelo, "An Ontological Basis for a Modern Theory of the Composing Process."
Britton, "Spectator Role and the Beginning of Writing."
Rodgers, "A Discourse-Centered Rhetoric of the Paragraph."
MorgansCompTheoryNotes19Sept2011, with related readings
Presenters

Beth and Dean

From last week: Stadia as a measure in discourse. A paragraph can be seen as a unit of measure which is further divided into sentences. An indent, marginal mark, or blank line marks the stadia as distinct from one another. Cf bloc, as a collection of paragraphs.

Braddock, "The Frequency and Placement of Topic Sentences in Expository Prose."
Hartwell, "Grammar, Grammars, and the Teaching of Grammar."
Berlin, "Contemporary Composition: The Major Pedagogical Theories."
MorgansCompTheoryNotes26Sept2011
Presenters

Joel and Casey. Michelle on deck.

5 Oct Reflection

No assigned readings for this week, although you might want to re-read or read more widely.

Develop 750 words or so in which you consider what we have done in this course so far: what you're dealing with, thinking about, reading further on, &c. Refer to readings we have done, conversations we have had, outside readings, perhaps experiences in your first-year class to help you articulate the issues you're encountering in composition theory. One caveat: Stay with the work and consideration in relation to first-year writing. And a second caveat: Stay dominantly with comp theory.

Email your consideration to everyone in class by Sunday evening, 4 Oct, so we can all review and consider responses for our class meeting on 5 Oct.

MorgansCompTheoryNotes3Oct2011

12 Oct 19 Oct: Developmental Schemes

Flower and Hayes, "A Cognitive Process Theory of Writing."
Lunsford, "Cognitive Development and the Basic Writer."
Shaughnessy, "Diving In: An Introduction to Basic Writing."
Bizzell, "William Perry and Liberal Education."
MorgansCompTheoryNotes10Oct2011
Presenters: Michelle, Beth

26 Oct

Berthoff, "Is Teaching Still Possible?"
Bissell, "Cognition, Convention, and Certainty."

Skip Section Four

Bartholomae, "Inventing the University."
MorgansCompTheoryNotes26Oct2015
Presenters: Dean, Joel

2 Nov

Bruffee, "Collaborative Learning and 'The Conversation of Mankind.'"
Trimbur, "Consensus and Difference in Collaborative Learning."
Bizzell, "'Contact Zones' and English Studies"
MorgansCompTheoryNotes24Oct2011
Presenters: Beth? Casey

9 Nov

Multimodal composition

Lauer, "Contending with Terms."
Yancy, "Made Not Only in Words."
Rice, "Imagery."
Dean and Joel

16 Nov

Meeting cancelled. For 30 Nov, some readings on and practice in MultiModalComposition

Deadline for Multimodal Composition: Sun, 22 Nov. Email a link to the work to all of us in class.