I am also not an expert in this topic but, evidently, from the comments following the article, even composition profs don't recognize their field in that article and even suggest that IHE dropped the ball on reviewing the article (whatever process they use for selecting articles). I would say you probably haven't missed an important issue in the teaching of composition as much as the grad student who wrote that article missed the point.
Rick Dr. Rick Froman, Chair Division of Humanities and Social Sciences John Brown University Siloam Springs, AR 72761 [email protected] ________________________________________ From: Christopher D. Green [[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, December 23, 2008 8:46 PM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: [tips] Stop Using Rhetoric to Teach Writing :: Inside Higher Ed I spend a fair bit of my time thinking, reading, and occasionally writing about higher education. So I find it rather jarring when I reading something that demands and end to what is purported to be a widespread practice that I had never heard of before. Actually, I've long thought that we should be more open to, and more reflective upon, the rhetorical practices in which we (academics, scientists, psychologists, teachers) engage. But I've never thought that teaching Aristotle's rhetoric had come to displace "critical thinking" (vague as that phrase is) in the undergraduate curriculum. Then again, I don't hang out near composition classes much. Has anyone else run into this recently? Here's a long column decrying the rise of rhetorical analysis as having been a key part of the academy's response to the pressure put upon it by conservative critics over the course of the past eight years. http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2008/12/23/kugelmass Festive Festivus! Chris -- Christopher D. Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 Canada 416-736-2100 ex. 66164 [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> http://www.yorku.ca/christo/ ========================== --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected]) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
