Date of Award
5-3-2007
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
English
First Advisor
Dr. George L. Pullman - Chair
Second Advisor
Dr. Marti Singer
Third Advisor
Dr. Mary Hocks
Abstract
Composition instructors agree writing instruction should focus on helping students become better writers. Pedagogical commonality, however, ends here. Composition instructors disagree about what constitutes good writing, what student should be learning, and how best to approach a composition classroom. I argue that pedagogical diversity among composition instructors is detrimental to the discipline of Rhetoric and Composition, because it has contributed to the public perception that we have no teachable content. Focusing around the removal of and reintegration of rhetoric from American college English departments, I argue composition studies and the rhetorical tradition have historically been viewed as separate disciplines. This project will illustrate that composition studies needs to reconnect to the rhetorical tradition in order formulate a unified practical pedagogical identity. With a unified pedagogical identity, composition studies can finally claim it has a teachable and defendable content: the production of better critical thinking skills.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.57709/1059478
Recommended Citation
Bacha, Jeffrey Alan, "Establishing Pedagogical Practicality by Reconnecting Composition Studies to the Rhetorical Tradition." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2007.
doi: https://doi.org/10.57709/1059478