Issues of Theory and Ideology

From WolfWikis

• Bitzer, Lloyd F. “The Rhetorical Situation,” In Contemporary Rhetorical Theory: A Reader. Ed. John Louis Lucaites, Celeste Michelle Condit, and Sally Caudill.New York: Guilfor P, 1999: 221.

• Ede, Lisa and Andrea Lunsford. “Audience Addressed/Audience Invoked: The Role of Audience in Composition Theory and Pedagogy.” College Composition and Communication 35.2 (May 1984): 155-171.

• Hawisher, Gail, E. and Cynthia L. Selfe. “The Rhetoric of Ideology and the Electronic Writing Class.” College Composition and Communication 42.1 (Feb. 1991): 55-65.

  Abstract: In “Rhetoric of Ideology and the Electronic Writing Class,” Hawisher and Selfe make a point of warning composition and rhetoric teachers of the perils of positive thinking in the acceptance of new technologies, when it is not counter-balanced by a realistic outlook on the negatives. There is a natural tendency for machines to embody the culture norms of a society and transfer those norms upon students and teachers alike. If teachers are not careful, these technological advances may be doing more teaching than the teachers are aware. The authors objections lie in the “uncritical enthusiasm that frequently characterizes the reports of those of us who advocate and support electronic writing classes.” Careful planning and examination will help teachers shift the perspective of these technologies away from the authority structures inherent in American society and toward a paradigm that encourages open ideological examination and expression of student writing.

• Herrick, James A. The History and Theory of Rhetoric: An Introduction. 2nd Ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2001.

• Kirtley, Susan. “Students’ views on technology and writing: The power of personal history.” Computers and Composition 22 (2005): 209-230.

  Abstract: As scholars, writers, and teachers, I believe that we should try harder to understand students’ perspectives on the use of computers in their academic work. This article begins to provide a sense of students’ perspectives on questions of technology, thus presenting a fuller picture of the context within which we teach. Drawing on a variety of methods, including a survey and the writings of a small group of students enrolled in a Writing and Technology course, this article expresses some of these stories generally hidden from an instructor's perspective and reveals that, despite what the media might tell us, students are not as prepared to utilize technology as we might assume. Furthermore, the student narratives suggest that English departments and writing programs can play an important role in assisting students who are unfamiliar with computer technologies, helping them to gain the computer literacy they need to succeed at the university.

• Murray, D. M. (1997). Teach writing as a process: Not product. In V. Villanueva, Jr. (Ed.), Cross-talk in comp theory (pp. 3-6). Urbana, IL: NCTE. (Reprinted from "The Leaflet", November 1972, 11-14.)
• Nold. Ellen W. “Fear and Trembling: The humanist Approaches the Computer.” College Composition and Communication 26.3 (Oct., 1975): 269-273.

  Abstract: Nold’s ground-breaking, and the first in the field of computers and composition, article recognizes the trend in the mid-seventies, to be fearful in humanist circles, of the integration of technology in writing and literature. Nold warns teachers that if they do not examine and possible embrace new technologies, the administrators may embrace the technology for them and possibly seek to replace them with the technology. Nold calls for a plea for power in humanist research to grasp the benefits of the new technology and integrate it into the teaching of humanist curriculum.

• Ong, Walter J. “The Writer’s Audience Is Always a Fiction.” PMLA 90.1 (Jan 1975): 9-21.

• Payne, Darin. “English Studies in Levittown: Rhetorics of Space and Technology in Course-Management Software.” College English 67.5 (May 2005): 483-507.

• Abstract: Seconding Johnathon Mauk’s call in these pages for greater attention to the politics of space, and extending it to the increasingly ubiquitous realities of virtual space, the author argues that course-management software systems such as Blackboard naturalize certain constructions of subjectivity for us and our students in ways inimical to our pedagogical goals. He argues that we and our students should not only be critically attentive to such constructions but should also wherever possible develop our own local, discipline-specific spaces in resistance to the homogenization of space and subjectivity they represent.

• Perelman, Chaim and Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca. The New Rhetoric: A Treatise on Argumentation. Notre Dame, Ind. U. of Notre Dame, 1969.

• Wood, Andrew F., and Deanna L. Fassett. "Remote Control: Identity, Power, and Technology in the Communication Classroom." Communication Education 52 (2003): 286-296.

  Abstract: This autoethnographic study examines the nature of identity and power between students and instructors in light of new instructional technology, discussing through a series of brief cases how in the academy today "[p]ower is distributed, embodied, and malleable" (p. 288) in the hands of both teacher and student.

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