Rhetoric, Composition, and Context
ENGLISH 621
Rhetoric, Composition, and Context:
Contesting Textual and Socio-cultural Approaches
Spring 2004
David R. Russell
251 Ross Hall (294-4724; )
Office hours: M W F 2:00 – 3:00 and by appointment
Texts
Bourdieu, Pierre. Language and Symbolic Power. Cambridge: Harvard U P, 1991.
• A collection of Online readings.
Description
This seminar investigates the ways various notions and theories of context (or rhetorical situation) have been appropriated in composition studies and professional communication studies. By doing so, we will also be tracing the relations between the field of rhetoric and the fields of composition and professional communication through the lens of "context."
Composition and professional communication, through most of their history, emphasized text, leaving their contexts relatively untheorized--and rhetoric on the margins. But with the professionalization of composition and professional communication in the 70s and 80s, textual approaches came to be seen in many quarters as inadequate for the new professional projects in pedagogy, professional practice, and research. New theories of "context" have been appropriated by these fields to solve new problems that involve understanding where and when and how texts work beyond individual interpretive acts. And with new electronic technologies of writing, theories of context--and the uses of rhetoric--in composition and professional communication have become even more important--and contested.
We’ll view the history of composition and professional communication through a range of theories of context, in a roughly chronological way: Rhetorical situation, IP cognitive psychology, Bakhtin’s dialogism, Genre studies, Activity Theory, Articulation Theory, and Human-Computer Interaction. Through these theoretical lenses, we’ll examine the ways rhetoric has influenced composition studies and professional communication studies.
Course Procedures
The course has a seminar format, designed to help you pursue a significant research project of your choosing, which will perhaps lead to a conference presentation, publication, thesis, creative component, or dissertation. Papers will be submitted a week in advance of the presentation/workshop date, along with an article from the literature that best helps us understand the argument and context of the paper.
N.B.: I encourage you to consult with me during office hours or arrange a meeting time to discuss any aspect of the course: readings, lectures, discussion, and writing assignments.
Grades will be lowered for late papers unless extensions are arranged prior to the due date. Those presenting on finals week will have the option of taking an incomplete for ONE WEEK only.
Because it's important to keep up with the reading in order to have good seminar discussions, I will use a variety of methods we discussed in class to encourage that, such as Admit slips, group work, conferences, e-mail discussion, and editorial comment on seminar papers.
Assignments and Grading
One paper, 3000 to 8000 words (10-25 pp.), due in four parts: Proposal, draft, presentation, final draft 60%
Response papers / Proposals20%
Admit slips, group work, e-mail discussion, editorial work, etc.20%