Rhetoric and Composition as Intellectual Work

by Gary A. Olson (Editor)

In response to those who insist that rhetoric and composition should remain only a service discipline, editor Gary A. Olson’s Rhetoric and Composition as Intellectual Work demonstrates that it already is an intellectual discipline, that for at least a quarter of a century the field has developed an impressive tradition of intellectual work in a remarkable assortment of subject areas. Rhetoric and Composition as Intellectual Work suggests the diversity of intellectual projects that have and will continue to make rhetoric and composition more than a service to the university, more than a field devoted solely to improving writing pedagogy, and more than a preliminary to literary studies. This collection of nineteen essays by some of the most distinguished scholars in the discipline illustrates that rhetoric and composition has much to contribute to the intellectual milieu of the contemporary university, as the field continues to push its disciplinary borders and discover new sites of investigation.

264 pages, Paperback

First published March 25, 2002

Reviews

[Matt Sautman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Teaching Rhetoric as Intellectual Work May not be the best anthology of rhetoric pedagogy that I have read (Cross-Talk in Comp Theory, Teaching Developmental Writing, and Crossing Borderlands are amongst these anthologies), but its weaknesses stem mainly from the post-process pedagogy essays that emerge in the philosophy section. Having first encountered post-process in Duthier’s First-Time Up, I felt that Duthier had oversimplified their position in order to advocate his own personal brand, but the post-process pedagogical theory present in here really does have an anit-educational aesthetic to it that seems to disregard what teaching writing as a process enables us to do in the classroom. My only other complaint is that at times this book can read more like a history book than as a theory anthology, but there are still plenty of great sections in here that make this worthwhile for any teacher of First Year Writing.