This article analyzes the rhetoric of public attitudes toward composition, as represented in Stanley Fish's "Think Again" blog in the "New York Times" and in comments posted by his readers. Fish denounces the field of composition as highly politicized and anti-academic and advocates instead a belletristic, current-traditional…

Through an analysis of student writing and interviews, this article examines hyperbole as a neglected rhetorical device. The authors trouble notions of hyperbole as error and argue for a--reconceptualization of hyperbole as potentially highly communicative and able to convey emotional tone, passion, and significance while maintaining brevity.

This historical exploration tracks changes in rules concerning figurative language in nineteenth-century composition-rhetoric textbooks. The century's lessening of millennium-long restriction of the poetic allowed not only creative writing into academia but composition as well, as composition at its beginning was intertwined with creative writing.…

Explores the usage and grammatical agreement problems of the words "everyone" and "everybody." (HTH)

Explores the use of metaphor and personification in the "classics" of scientific and technical writing, and the current resistance to creativity in scientific writing. Suggests familiarizing students with the role of metaphor in scientific creativity. (HTH)

Analyzes the logical and stylistic flaws in George Orwell's "Politics and the English Language" and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.'s "Politics and the American Language," suggesting a new approach to the study of public language. (DD)

Important ideas and events in the history of rhetoric are examined in order to illumine the present situation, especially the problem of defining the concept of rhetoric. From Plato's hostility to rhetoric and Aristotle's epistomological rehabilitation of it to the later ethical emphasis of Cicero and the Medieval Christian rhetoriticians, the…

Notes the prevalance of advertising language and personae in student writing. Includes exercises that evoke the advertising voice, suggesting that using these as a stepping stone to teaching advertising is preferable to a separate advertising unit. (HTH)

Implication, a crucial aspect of style, can be accurately considered only in reference to the whole context in which a verbal communication takes place. (JH)

The research cited suggests separate language materials are not needed for college level black and white students. (JH)

Describes the principal characteristics of women's language and shows how composition classes often discriminate against women for using techniques they have been taught to use since childhood. (DD)

The implications of the "Students' Right to Their Own Language" resolution on classroom teaching and practices point to a continual need to reevaluate how communicative actions--linguistic diversities--of students are central aspects of the work within composition courses. This article revisits the historical significance and pedagogical value of…

An approach to written composition built upon knowledge of the linguistic environments of inner-city blacks is described.