This symposium enacts a debate over a high-stakes question for writing studies: How does standardization within and across writing programs enable or constrain our democratic aspirations? It includes: (1) "Everything-but-the-Kitchen-Sink Assessment " (Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein); (2) "Assessment, Coherence, and…

This symposium brings together a range of scholars to consider what economic forces have driven the development of independent writing programs, and how such programs are susceptible to economic conditions and pressures, perhaps even more so than neighboring disciplines in the humanities. It includes: (1) "Documents of Dissent: Hairston's…

This symposium, "Barack Obama's Significance for Rhetoric and Composition," aims to provoke and renew disciplinary conversations about the meaning of an age now nearly past, as well as to pose questions that resonate for presidential rhetoric generally. It includes: (1) "Obama's Rhetoric: Black Talk Flow, White Folk Fluent"…

Presents five articles (by administrators, faculty, graduate students, and writing center personnel) written in response to the "Progress Report from the CCCC Committee on Professional Standards" as well as the "Statement of Principles and Standards for the Postsecondary Teaching of Writing." (SR)