The Norton Book of Composition Studies

by Susan Miller

A landmark collection by one of the field’s most distinguished scholars, The Norton Book of Composition Studies introduces new students to the historical development and most consequential themes and emphases of the field’s scholarship. An indispensable resource for every scholar in the field―both as textbook and as professional reference.

Genres: Nonfiction, Criticism, Teaching

1760 pages, Paperback

First published February 6, 2009

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Mostly on Storygraph · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must have for those interested in composition studies and pedagogy. Foundational collection.

[Joe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not the best summer reading, but certainly informative. I must admit that sometimes books like this make me question my interest in teaching composition. Oh, Peter Elbow, how I prefer you to this.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very dry collection of essays about composition studies. Very informative though. I am forced to read this for a class, because otherwise I could easily find more interesting reading material.

[D'Argo Agathon · Rating 1 out of 5]

A rather useless compendium of the current research into teaching composition. If you have an interest in the topic, by all means, dive right in, but this is the opposite of my literary and teaching interests.

I have never been shy in my position that "education science" and pedagogy are totally vacuous; it never ceases to amaze me how many pages some "critical theorist" can fill up with scientifically-stolen words that simply say, "we learn to write within a certain context."

This 1700 page tome of "research" only goes to further my hatred for the development of a pedagogy surrounding the teaching of writing. As an example, read this gem from James Berlin's article on the "ideology" of teaching composition, and his made up "social-epistemic" rhetoric: "the real is located in a relationship that involves the dialectical interaction of the observer, the discourse community in which the observer is functioning, and the material conditions of existence." Goodness gracious... one, yes, duh, we learn to write by establishing and directing relationships between author, message, audience, etc.; two, what the hell is "material conditions of existence" supposed to do with learning to write a bloody essay?! What does it even frakin' mean? Goodness, no more!

[Editorial note: I obviously didn't read this entire collection; more like a healthy sampling due to my assignments in grad school.]

[Phillip · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a thorough collection of readings on the history and theory of composition studies. There are a lot of good sections that would prove useful to anyone reading and researching most comp related topics. With such a wide variety of essays (and a useful alternative table of contents, which helps find essays by topic) there is almost certain to be something here on most subjects. Also, many of the essays included here are crucial reading in their own right.

However, there are a couple of significant limitations to the book as well. One of the main problems I found is that there is fairly little editorial background/context for many of these essays, so if the ideas/issues raised in them are not current concerns, the reader may not know that. For instance, if a 1983 essay is pushing for a process based approach to composition pedagogy, that may provide interesting background, but it isn't a current debate because many/most university comp programs utilize process based pedagogy. These essays--including papers from the 1950s and earlier--are included as important foundational material, but I would have liked to see more editorial attempts to contextualize various arguments (though I accept that those editorial contextualizations would soon be outdated as well).

[Nicolas A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

An intimidating collection of compositional theory that will reward the determined reader.

I was surprised at how often I found myself underlining passages of exceptional insight expressed through beautifully worded prose. My favorite essays were: "The Social Contexts of Argumentation" by Chaim Perelman, "Inventing the University" by David Bartholomae, "Uncommon Ground: Narcissistic Reading and Material Racism" by Barbara Schneider, and "Rhetorical Sovereignty: What Do American Indians Want from Writing" by Scott Richard Lyons.

There is scholarship in this anthology worthy of your inquiry and attention.

[Hannah Rose]

I enjoyed the articles in the collection, but many of them were pretty dense. I read this for a Theory and Practice of Writing class--that I dropped. I would recommend it for anyone interested in theories of writing and some empirical research--especially the Flower & Hayes research.

[Daniel Liddle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice collection of the usual suspects. Covers the foundations of the field. This might be one of the more useful norton anthologies I've had to buy.

[Mills College Library]

808.04207 N882 2009

[Laurel Perez · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want a solid history of composition studies, this is it.

[Adam Dorey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reading for an advanced composition course at metro state university of denver.