Defines magic as a process of inducing belief and creating community rather than as a product of an otherworldly incantation. Provides an historical survey of pre-Enlightenment relationships between magic and rhetoric. Proposes that the rise of current-traditional rhetoric coincides with the destruction and disappearance of the magical…

Represents a departure from the current trend against abstraction. Proposes a new formalism for the composition classroom. Argues that, when it comes to representing written arguments composed in response to multiple sources, existing schemes of argument are missing important abstractions about how authors use the arguments of others in the…

Suggests the distinction between reseeing and rewriting is the difference between substitution and combination. Claims that the epistemic approach imagines composition as a process through which the writer might learn something, and sees texts as indeterminate, open to further interpretation. (MS)

Presents Martin Greenspan's four-stage (preparatory, incubation, illumination, and verification) model of the creation of new thought. Argues that this model provides a way of seeing, identifying, and understanding features of writing to learn and learning to write that other composition theories have not permitted. (RS)

Proposes a set of strategies for connecting reading and writing, placing the discussion in the context of other pedagogical approaches designed to exploit the relationship between reading and writing. Explores ways in which students employ the strategies involved in "mining" a text--reconstructing context, inferring or imposing structure, and…

Supports outlining as an invaluable tool for teaching students how to prepare to write on subjects of a logical nature and for analysis of writing of like kind. (RAE)

Examines three phases of linguistics' influence on writing instruction. Suggests that the production of context-independent, explicit texts is too narrow a goal and that helping students imitate speech in their writing is a proper goal for an advanced composition class. (RAE)

Discusses the issue of the instructor's role in the classroom with respect to David Bartholomae's "Inventing the University." Suggests an approach informed by the literary and anthropological theories of Rene Girard. Deals with Girard's views on mimetic desire. Asserts the double-bind of this view--"imitate me; don't imitate…

Describes a writing course which shapes sequence and response to do justice to the potentially superior student writer. Emphasizes balancing and integrating reading and writing assignments; encouraging revision as an opportunity to think; optional conferences; and peer evaluation. (RAE)

Argues that if textbooks of writing give the best theories available to teachers and teachers of writing, particularly those who see this role as subordinate to that of scholar and teacher within their area of study, the teachers must first be convinced to become philosophers of composition. (RAE)

Argues that the antagonism which exists between rhetoricians and literary scholars derives partly from the disciplines' differing approaches to the act of writing. Suggests that literature and composition can most clearly be seen as compatible arts within the framework of the theory and history of rhetoric. (MS)

Investigates the processes which two college faculty members go through to generate knowledge that neither they nor anyone else has, to situate themselves so they can both formulate and answer questions that will contribute to the knowledge of their fields. Discusses applications of the research for teaching. (PRA)

Discusses literary and compositional theory and their pedagogical implications. Explores the disjuncture between theory and practice to argue for a reconceptualization of the nature and role of writing in the graduate curriculum. Touches on writing in graduate literature courses; invention, tradition, and individual talent; and academic genres.…

Evaluates the use of meditation as a basis for a descriptive writing assignment in advanced composition. (MS)

Describes a heuristic conceit, "the writer's stance," to help students overwhelmed by the complexity and possibilities of a writing task regain control of the process. Stresses the need for writers to select vantage points and frames of analysis for their academic writings. (SR)