Composition in context

This collection of sixteen essays, authored by major scholars in the field of composition and rhetoric, offers an eclectic range of opinions, perspectives, and interpretations regarding the place of composition studies in its academic context. Covering the history of rhetoric and composition from the nineteenth century to the present, the collection focuses on the institutional and intellectual framework of the discipline while honoring Donald C. Stewart, a man who addressed the central paradox of the field: its homelessness as a discipline in an academic community that prides itself on specialization. Over the last two decades, composition - grounded in rhetorical tradition - has emerged as a foundation for liberal and professional studies. These essays, furthering the often disputed point that composition is indeed a discipline, are divided into three parts that examine three crucial questions: what is the history of composition's context? how does composition function within its context? how should we interpret or reinterpret this context? In the first part, the essayists investigate the history of composition teaching, noting the formative influences of the eighteenth-century S