What current rhet/comp issues are you into?

December 3, 2008 1:04 PM

Describe some current issues in English Rhetoric and/or Composition that are interesting to you.

I'm a part-time composition instructor who's been out of grad school for a few years. I'm looking for research ideas with some currency in the field.

Also, an overlapping question: what noteworthy works have you read or written about the rhetoric or composition of new media lately?

posted by hpliferaft to writing & language (7 answers total)

Pedagogy issues related to distance learning students still seems to be a hot ticket. Bonus points if you're even mildly technical.
posted by answergrape at 1:22 PM on December 3, 2008

Have you already looked into recent presentation topics at CCCC? If not, I think that would be a great place to start looking for current issues in Comp.
posted by theantikitty at 2:19 PM on December 3, 2008

Literacy, defined in a number of different ways (e.g., critical, public, digital), seems to be a big theme as well.
posted by chicainthecity at 2:27 PM on December 3, 2008

Not to grouse, but I'm looking for answers that are more specific and discursively provocative.

What's interesting to you? What isn't?
posted by hpliferaft at 3:33 PM on December 3, 2008

Just off the top of my head, here are some of the conversations we've had in my (community college) English department: evaluating portfolios instead of individual papers, constructing and refining holistic grading rubrics, teaching genre writing vs. the academic research paper, and teaching "online literacy," for lack of a better term. Oh, and assessment, assessment, and more freaking assessment.

In terms of my personal interests, I've found Gerald Graff's writings on composition useful, and I've used his book They Say/ I Say in my comp courses with good results.
posted by bibliowench at 5:21 PM on December 3, 2008 [1 favorite]

New Media, which is not quite the same thing as composition online.


Also, see the work by Doug Downs and Liz Wardell.
posted by mecran01 at 6:35 AM on December 4, 2008

Most interesting to me is digital literacy, research and revision skills.

I spend a lot of time convincing my students that "the internet" and "the google" aren't sources but are delivery systems like a book. Many of them struggle at understanding what credible sources are and are confused to find that the credibility of the source sometimes depends on what purpose its being used for.

My students usually begin my 102 class with some heavy baggage related to revision. They have a hard time looking critically at their own work and at the work of others. Some don't have a methodical process for revision, and consequently their documents don't always turn out so well.

I used to look at Kairosnews a lot when I did things like CCCC but sometimes they can get too bogged down in debating specific technology.
posted by answergrape at 7:20 AM on December 4, 2008