Carolyn Miller's oft-cited "Humanistic Rationale for Technical Writing," published in 1979, tries to give technical communication faculty more cultural capital in English departments controlled by literature professors. Miller replaces a positivistic emphasis in technical communication pedagogy with rhetoric. She shows how technical knowledge is…

Asserts that exploring convergences between composition and literature can bridge the gap between the two fields. (MM)

Urges the English teaching profession to heal the split between literature and composition teaching and to offer entry-level college students a freshman English program that combines the two disciplines. (AEA)

Problems of "dialect" exist in the field called "English," which is constituted by both composition and literature. The "ghettoization" of composition has created a hostile underclass, and many compositionists try to "pass" as literarists or at least unconsciously adopt the vocabulary and rhetoric of the…

One educator with much experience as a teacher and director of composition at a state university believes that academia simply has to have independent writing programs. Her conviction rests on two issues: the nature of the curriculum and the professional/psychological well-being of writing/rhetoric faculty. The process movement in writing pedagogy…

Reform in English studies is compromised by our tendency to talk like dilettantes, but behave like philologists. (JH)

Examines the question of teaching literature in the composition class in terms of an ideological gap between composition and literature which is maintained for political reasons, and reflected in the tenure process. (MM)

Crucial issues facing the departments of English in the 1960's prompt a reexamination of literature-oriented curriculums, staff preparation, enrollment trends, and international needs in the teaching of English. The implications of a shortage of qualified beginning instructors with a Ph.D. in literature suggest that teachers be trained in the…