Proponents of reframing argue that prophetic pragmatism entails redirecting contemporary education reforms. While this judgment may defend our professional standing, it overlooks the consequences of redirecting reform's appeals to global competition, which preclude public participation in defining the goals and measures of literacy education. This…

This essay describes my design and implementation of a composition course focused on the Native American rhetorical device of survivance at work in debates on Indian removal and U.S.-Indian relations in general. Using a contact zone approach, I found that the course improved writing and thinking skills by pushing students out of their ideological…

Academic institutions mediate online literacy practices in meaningful and significant ways. This essay explores the nature of that mediational process, using a visual-spatial method to map out and conceptualize dynamics and structures that have a bearing on the work of composition. A key argument is that composition teachers are intellectually…

Explores possible intersections between composition and creative writing. Suggests that one practice in which creative writers engage (discussing the craft of writing) is worthy of compositionists' attention, because it establishes a broad area of shared concern between the two groups. Concludes that "it should seem quite evident" that…

I argue that examining two collections of essays designed for the preparation of new writing teachers and published twenty years apart provides some important clues to what has occurred to composition studies in the interval. Building on the framework I established in two previous CCC articles, I argue that composition studies has become a less…

Considers the recent history of writing centers and evidence that disrupts rather than confirms ideal conceptions about the function of a writing center. Discusses how "practical" writing centers have settled into a set of ideas about students and writing that needs examining. Examines the "troubling" affinities between recent arguments about the…

Considers how the Conduit Metaphor of language and communication has been roundly condemned by language scholars, including scholars in rhetoric and composition. Notes that it is time to reevaluate its importance and value. Notes that the Conduit Metaphor combines with the metaphor Language Is Power to form a prudentially applied ethical measure…

Offers institutional critique as an activist methodology for changing institutions. Claims institutions are rhetorically constructed human designs and are therefore changeable. Argues that rhetorical action in the area of professional writing and public discourse rather than the composition classroom and departments of English can provide the…