History of Composition Studies
English 512
Sibylle Gruber

 
 

A Brief Overview

Formal Study of Rhetoric: 5th century B.C.E.
    Greek rhetoricians: Plato, Aristotle, Sophists
    Roman rhetoricians: Cicero, Quintilian

• 5-stage model of the process of composing a speech

• thought precedes writing
• sorting of discourse forms according to social function

• Augustine's reinterpretation of rhetoric to suit Christian purposes
• redirection of deliberative discourse from political to religious ends
• prescriptive: lists of rules and examples that illustrate them
• "trivium": grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic

• rediscovery of Cicero and Quintilian in the Renaissance (16th Century)
• classical models written in the vernacular (Leonard Cox, Richard Sherry, Thomas Wilson, George Puttenham)
• Erasmus: On Copia (1512).
• Peter Ramus: wanted to shift the focus from the trivium to the classical division of the stages of composing, focus on rationality

• Scottish influence
• study of persuasion connected with the scientific discipline of psychology
• Hugh Blair: Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles-Lettres (1783). This was adapted as the standard text in Yale and Harvard until the end of the 19th century
• focus on moral qualities and the social leadership role of well trained orators
• George Campbell: Philosophy of Rhetoric (1776). This work extends the purpose of rhetoric beyond persuasion to eloquence
• Alexander Bain: English Composition and Rhetoric: A Manual (1866). He developed the essay structures, or modes of discourse: narration, description, exposition, and argumentation.
• U.S.: people of refinement are needed in a nascent democracy; leaders need to learn the psychology of  persuasion

• Boylston Professorship of Rhetoric
• Edward T. Channing: held the Chair for 32 years, continued the Scottish emphasis on belletristic taste and the psychology of persuasion; shifted the emphasis from speaking to writing; prescriptive teaching of grammar, style and organization.
• Francis Child: turned the study of English from rhetoric to literature; after that, rhetoric is hardly mentioned in English departments
• development of "the canon"

• 1911: NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English)
• First President: Fred Scott: promoted on understanding of writing that reemphasized self-expression and the adaptation of prose to its social purposes
• progressive reform movement: challenged the idea that the goal of higher education in America should be to empower an elite. Instead, progressives believed that the purpose of education is to integrate a diverse population into a community of productive citizens.
• pay attention to the needs of each student
• John Dewey
• free writing instruction from the service of canonical literary studies
• correctness remained a goal, justified by its usefulness beyond school
• stressed the communicative function of writing
• progressive education aimed to study students' abilities, needs, and achievements scientifically

• 1930s: New Criticism: put its emphasis on the close analysis of literary texts--> far removed from rhetorical study and composition pedagogy
• 1940s: separation in English Departments between literary study and the teaching of writing was complete
• positive influences of New Criticism: made it possible to see the relation between thought and language as fundamental (changing a word in a poem changes its meaning, e.g.)
• 1949: CCCC (Conference on College Composition and Communication) and CCC
• CCCC worked to improve the conditions of graduate assistants
• CCCC championed the cause of semantics and linguistics
• high standards for new research

• renewed attention to classical sources
• increased interest in stages of the writing process and in style as an expression of personal ethos
• pre-writing: invention and arrangement
• 1966: Conference at Dartmouth College: self-expressive uses of language; interaction among teacher and students; collaborative activities
• James Moffett: Teaching the Universe of Discourse (1968)
• Ken Macrorie; Peter Elbow: Expressivist writing, "Authentic-voice pedagogy"

• influence of cognitive psychology and psycholinguistics
• "composing" process:  focuses on the cognitive activities involved in writing
• Janet Emig
• "Composing" is what goes on in the writer's head and is then recorded in writing
• development of structured invention techniques that would guide the student through an optimal composing process
• study of the composing process: no longer neatly linear, but recursive and hierarchical (Linda Flower and John Hayes).
• cognitive theories ran into problems when confronted with college students who did not speak/write Standard English
• William Labov: showed that the new diverse classroom population was not cognitively deficient but linguistically and culturally diverse.
• 1974: CCCC: Students Right to Their Own Language
• Basic Writing: Mina Shaughnessy: Errors and Expectations (1977)
• Writing across the Curriculum (WAC): try to educate students and faculty about the importance of writing in different fields (Toby Fulwiler)

• focus on the social nature of writing
• research into cognitive processes continued, but now it was informed by new interest in how these processes are conditioned by social circumstances
• Mike Rose, Shirley Brice Heath
• James Kinneavy's work on the modes of discourse becomes influential. He classifies rhetorical situations according to their emphasis on the writer (expressive), audience (persuasive), subject matter (referential), or verbal medium (aesthetic).
• search for a social theory of writing became interdisciplinary. Composition scholars studied all aspects of language
• the view that rhetoric is epistemic (creating and shaping knowledge) was widely shared. This also meant that there is no value-free and neutral language and that it requires interpretation.

• graduate degrees in composition and rhetoric
• publications have increased
• increased interest in the history of rhetorical theory and education in writing
• relationship between rhetoric and literary studies is still uneasy
• increased consciousness about the intersections of personal work life and national political life.
• gender, class, and race are considered important aspects in the study of rhetoric and composition
• pedagogical innovations with a liberatory political agenda
• writing is seen in social and cultural contexts