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Preface to English composition |
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This section introduces readers to the relatively new academic discipline called, variously, rhetoric and composition, rhetoric, composition, and composition studies. The nine essays that follow attempt to answer several questions about the field: What is the nature of composition studies? What do people in the discipline concern themselves with? What is the relationship between rhetoric and composition, between theory and practice? What do we know about the recent history of the discipline? What bibliographical resources aid the work of composition specialists? How do they conduct their research? How do they interpret advice about teaching writing, especially when such suggestions conflict with one another? What role do departmental and institutional politics play in shaping the careers of composition specialists? What activities and rewards characterize a life in this profession? Because the discipline is new, having evolved in the last thirty years, many people are unfamiliar with its assumptions, history, bibliographical resources, methods of research, and professional activities. Others who may know something about English compositionare nevertheless uncertain that it deserves the status of a separate discipline. The following essays address both groups of readers. English compositiondistinguishes itself from other disciplines, whose focus is invariably on a body of knowledge or a set of texts, by its central concern with an activity, the act of writing. The major concern of most composition specialists is teaching writing well. To do this work effectively, they also attempt to answer broader questions about literacy by studying composing from historical, social, psychological, political, and academic perspectives, often borrowing useful concepts and methods from other disciplines. As members of an emerging discipline, composition specialists also encounter problems. They must learn new ways of thinking about their field, wrestle with terminology, develop better methods of teaching and research, create adequate bibliographical and research sources, and build support for their work among people who may be hostile, sympathetic, or indifferent toward it. This book discusses both the contributions composition specialists have made and the problems they have yet to solve in their interdisciplinary, collaborative efforts to understand how people learn to write. Although this brief introduction to English composition touches on many important topics, it also leaves out much. For example, none of the essays talks explicitly about how to teach writing, although all deal indirectly with this important concern. Nor do any of the essays discuss such particular subspecialties of the discipline as the study of writing outside schools and colleges or the assessment of writing ability. Our approach to the subject has been selective. However, most of the essays in this volume conclude with a list of Suggested Readings. These titles direct readers who want to learn more about a topic to additional sources.
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