Ever since the publish-or-perish era began sometime ago, academics in the humanities have experienced a widening gap between their two primary obligations, teaching and research. Bad enough for tenure-track junior faculty, the tension between the demands of writing, delivering, and publishing papers is even worse for graduate students because of…

When budget cuts affected the English department at the University of Georgia in 1991, the writing program was never cut sharply but did suffer in three important ways: class sizes in the freshman program went up, the department replaced full-time with part-time faculty, and a new assistant professor of rhetoric was not hired. Now most freshman…

The situation of the lecturers in the English Department at the University of Nevada Reno (UNR) is relevant to discussions of the conference on College Composition and Communication's Statement of Principles and Standards for the Postsecondary Teaching of Writing. A "second-tier" solution was implemented in 1981, and in 1993 the…

A survey examined the attitudes of lecturers in the English department at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington in an attempt to better define the role of the lecturer in the department. Twelve responses were received from 13 full and part-time lecturers. Results indicated that: (1) most favored a committee appointed by the chair using…

The dogma that art is beyond politics has cut off literary criticism from the full activities of our culture. (JH)

The separation of the mechanics of rhetoric from the ethics of rhetoric has had disastrous consequences, in education and in our public life. (JH)

The study analyzed the six reputational rankings of Ph.D-granting English departments that have been published since 1925. The major finding was that most of the highest-ranked departments have been at private universities despite the fact that almost two-thirds of degree-granting departments are located at public institutions. In addition, of the…

This study expands an annual survey conducted by George Worth from 1967 to 1982 for the Association of Departments of English Bulletin of average salaries in 92 English departments listed in the 1970 Roose-Anderson "ACE Rating of Graduate Programs." The present study includes the 106 English departments listed in "An Assessment of…

To determine how English department chairmen perceive the role of the freshman English director, a study surveyed English department chairmen from 250 randomly selected medium/small to large universities nationwide, representing every state (with a 54% response rate). The questionnaire solicited data about the tasks and responsibilities of…

University English departments are failing because of unclear goals concerning writing programs, an entrenchment of literature in the departments, and the hiring of untrained writing teachers. Many writing positions are nontenure track, require instructors to teach four sections of freshman composition, or require a Ph.D. in some aspect of…

A middle ground, between picky concern for correctness and mushy libertarianism, must be found on which to base effective freshman composition courses. (JH)

Liberal arts teachers must serve culture as well as credentialism, so that open-admissions does not mean a lowering of standards. (JH)

Literature is basically a private, silent enterprise--which is not served by the social, talky processes of the classroom. (JH)

Misconceptions about the teaching of writing prevail on many college campuses, partially because writing teachers fail to communicate with their colleagues. It is especially important for writing teachers to let their colleagues know that learning to write is a long term developmental process that needs support and reinforcement from the entire…

The training of doctoral candidates in English often does not match the kind of teaching they must do upon taking their first jobs: namely, training is in literature, while most jobs are available in composition. Even when acceptable composition teachers are found, keeping them in the face of budgetary restraints and declining enrollments is…