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742 articlesMarch 1998
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Hermeneutics and the Rhetorical Tradition: Chapters in the Ancient Legacy and Its Humanist Reception by Kathy Eden ↗
Abstract
RHETORICA 230 unify. As in the past, he continues to argue for the multiple moments of composition theory. George Pullman Georgia State University Kathy Eden, Hermeneutics and the Rhetorical Tradition: Chapters in the Ancient Legacy and Its Humanist Reception (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997), 119 pp. Those interested in the evolution of particular discursive practices that helped shape antiquity, especially the theoretical relationship between reading and interpretation, will benefit from this study in locating classical antecedents that ally rhetoric and hermeneutics. Unlike most studies of hermeneutics that spring from the Germanic tradition of Schleirmacher and Dilthey or the recent perspectives of Gadamer or Riceour, this study prizes the rhetorical precedent of an ancient mode of reading, known as interpretatio scripti, as crucial to the development of the field study of hermeneutics. By tapping into this rhetorical tradition largely overlooked in philological studies, Eden historically discerns and synthesizes a convincing case for the recognition and study of interpretatio scripti as a meaning making agent common to both the rhetorical and hermeneutical enterprises that have gained renewed prominence in humanistic inquiry today. In what may be the most valuable portion of the book, the first chapters construct the significance of interpretatio scripti as a model of reading that Roman rhetoricians inherited—from the Hellenistic rhetorical tradition—as "a loosely organized set of rules for interpreting the written materials pertinent to legal cases" (p. 7). As a point of origin, Eden moves decisively to Cicero, particularly De inventione and De oratore, in contextualizing how transforming character of interpretatio scripti often complicates treatments of proof and style in his rhetorical manuals, and plays a deciding role in appropriating legal arguments between the intention (voluntas) and the letter (scriptum) of an author or text under scrutiny. Interpretation, to Cicero, is understood in terms of controversy; thus interpretation theory (and by later implication Reviews 231 hermeneutics) finds a habitual home in rhetorical theory. Eden notes that while Cicero was not the first one to do this, his work has enjoyed the widest reception and can be seen as a generative point from which to track the influence of interpretatio scripti in her book's subsequent chapters. Such a discursive heredity becomes convincing as Eden links the interpretive principles of interpretatio scripti to the classical arts of poetry and grammar as seen through Plato, Aristotle and Plutarch. The prerequisite study of grammar, in classic times, is seen to develop similar concerns as its rhetorical counterpart in the coordinating and complementary notions of decorum and oeconomia which prove crucial in "underlying the hermeneutical concept of contextualization, historical and textual, respectively" (p. 41). Eden extends her coverage of the influence of interpretatio scripti through the Christian appropriation of classical culture, in Basil, Paul and most notably in Augustine. Amidst this backdrop of Patristic hermeneutics, Eden achieves a fine sense of dialogue between the concepts of Cicero, Quintillian and Augustine, and accommodates both a spiritual and historical order that extends into the rehabilitating humanism of Erasmus. Though less substantial than the first part of the book, the final few chapters bring the selected work of Philip Melanchthon and Flacius's Clavis scripturae sacrae into the interpretive landscape as a whole. In the end, this book serves a vital role in establishing the credibility of classical scholarship in legitimizing what Ricoeur would call the hermeneutics of tradition. As a centerpiece in the debate between the role of equity and spirit in the ancient act of reading, interpretatio scripti emerges as a meaningful landmark in charting the never-ending task of interpretation, and suggests an expansion in the intellectual history of both hermeneutics and rhetoric. As an instalment in the Yale Studies in Hermeneutics, this book works an effective balance between written economy and great scholarly depth. Such a stylistic blend should provide ample access points for both experts and novices interested in theories of interpretation, antiquity and rhetoric. RICHARD A. MILLER Bowling Green State University ...
February 1998
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1. Background to second language acquisition research and language teaching 2. Learning and teaching different types of grammar 3. Learning and teaching vocabulary 4. Acquiring and teaching pronunciation 5. Acquiring and teaching a new writing system 6. Strategies for communicating and learning 7. Listening and reading processes 8. Individual difference in L2 users and L2 learners 9. Classroom interaction and Conversation Analysis 10. The L2 user and the native speaker 11. The goals of language teaching 12. General models of L2 learning 13. Second language learning and language teaching styles
January 1998
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Abstract
Gualtiero Calboli From Aristotelian \é£iç to elocutio 1. Introduction o ver the last few years it has become fashionable to criticize Robert Pfeiffer for overestimating the contribution of the Stoics and underestimating drat of the Peripatetics towards the development of rhetoric, grammar and philology. In fact Aristotle deserves the credit for connecting rhetoric with dialectic and poetry, without losing sight of its practical employment in the assembly and courts of law. Another development of rhetoric which occurred after Aristotle and perhaps Theophrastus was the development of an excessive number of rules, especially in the doctrine of tropes and figures of speech. That happened during the second century B.C. on the island of Rhodes and may be considered a kind of Asianic rhetoric. It was introduced into Rome through at least two handbooks, Cicero's De Inventione and the Rhetorica ad Herennium. However, in 55 B.C., at the beginning of his Platonic dialogue De Oratore, Cicero disowned his early work {De orat. 1.5). 1 R. Pfeiffer, History of Classical Scholarship, From the Beginnings to the End of the Hellenistic Age (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968). 2 This is the opinion of F. Montanari in La philologie grecque à l'époque hellénistique et romaine, ed. F. Montanari (Vandoeuvres - Genève: Fondation Hardt, Entretiens XL, 1994), p. 29. I agree with him but recall that Pfeiffer also pointed out the importance of Aristotle and the Peripatos for Hellenistic philology: cf.z e.g., pp. 192; 197 of the Italian translation by M. Gigante and S. Cerasuolo (Napoli: Macchiaroli, 1973). 3 The origin and development of the doctrine of tropes and figures is not clear. It has been investigated by K. Barwick, Problème der stoischen Sprachlehre und Rhetorik (Berlin: Abhandlungen der sàchsischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Philol.-hist. Kl., Bd. 49, Hft. 3, Akademie-Verlag, 1957), pp. 88-111, but must be reconsidered now (see below)._____________ __ __________© The International Society for the History of Rhetoric, Rhetorica, Volume XVI, Number 1 (Winter 1998) 47 RHETORICA 48 The date of composition of De Inventione is about 87 B.C., only one year after Cicero heard Philon of Larissa in Rome, as has been recently noted by C. Lévy.4 5 Both Cicero's De Inventione (8887 B.C.) and the Rhetorica ad Herennium (86-82) were composed at a time when the democratic party dominated Rome and before Sulla came back from the Orient (82). I do not want to discuss the political position of the author of Rhetorica ad Herennium here, although the idea that he was a democrat has recently been confirmed by G. Achard and J.-M. David.6 In the period between the Ars Rhetorica written (but not completed) by the great orator M. Antonius (about 96 B.C.)7 and Sulla's dictatorship (82), there are about fifteen years of rhetorical activity8 during which the censorial edict by L. Crassus and D. Ahenobarbus of 92 was ineffective. This edict, as has been demonstrated by Emilio Gabba, became effective with Sulla who continued the action that the nobility's faction had brought under the law proposed by the tribune Livius Drusus in 91 B.C. in order to reorganize the Roman State.9 We know that the orator L. Crassus, a teacher of Cicero, was another of the promoters of this law but died before its approval. After considering Gruen's position on this subject, I 4 Cf. Cic. Brut. 306; Tusc. 2.9. When did Philo come to Rome? The answer is given by W. Kroll in his Commentary ad loc., p. 217f.: "Die glücklichen Erfolge des Mithridates verleiteten die Athener, an deren Spitze sich der Peripatetiker Aristo stellte, im J. 88 von den Rômem abzufallen und sich mit Archelaus, dem Feldherm des Mithridates, zu verbünden. Die Optimaten, welche treu zu den Rômem hielten, mufiten nun flüchten". Cf. also J.-M. David, Le patronat judiciaire au dernier siècle de la republique romaine (Roma: Ecole Française de Rome, Palais Famèse, 1992), pp. 371 f. C. Lévy, "Le mythe de la naissance de la civilisation chez Cicéron", in Mathesis e Philia, Studi in onore di...
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Abstract
The famous Awk is a well-known designation, but this label does not refer to a well-defined concept. The authors report here on an empirical study of the predominant types and patterns of awkward sentences in student writing. They suggest that four general types of syntactic problems—mismanagement of clause structure in errors of embedding, of syntax shift, of parallel structure, and of direct/indirect speech—are associated with four general patterns of semantic problems—mismanagement of idea structure in errors of subordinating ideas, of starting and finishing ideas, of adding ideas, and of incorporating ideas from sources. The authors argue that awkward sentences arise from a complex combination of semantics and syntax, as student writers struggle to manage the relationships among multiple ideas as well as the relationships among multiple clauses. These findings are used to suggest a number of possible pedagogical approaches to the problem of awkward sentences, including the use of read-aloud editing, the targeted teaching of grammar for syntactic editing, and the separation of ideas from sentence form for semantic editing.
October 1997
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Offers strategies for teaching grammar, literature, essay writing, democracy in letters to the editor, and oral presentations of the research paper.
September 1997
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Argues that Joseph Conrad’s political novels belie the sweeping and vague rhetoric sometimes used to describe them. States that Conrad, disillusioned with materialism in his political novels, imagines that “industrialism and commercialism” may foster wars between democracies. Contends Conrad’s interest is at least divided between a grammar of motives and a grammar of political cause and effect.
April 1997
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Formalizing Cognitive Grammar by Introducing Analogical-Operatorial (A-O) Mode of Language Use and its Implications for Audience Analysis ↗
Abstract
Formalization of cognitive grammar depends in an important way on modeling the process of assessing similarity. This article points out that such formalization is difficult to achieve within the present formulation [1] of the grammar and introduces a modification that will allow modeling the process of similarity. Next, it is suggested that the mechanism of assessing similarity in the modified analogical-operatorial version of cognitive grammar be that of analogical modeling presented in Skousen [2]. Finally, it indicates some consequences of the proposition for the practice of communication. The modification, the analogical-operatorial mode of language use, allows linguistic units, in addition to their function of representing the semantic meaning of these units, to serve as operators differentiating among semantic or other conceptual structures. This introduces inhomogeneity to the content purported with linguistic units and leads to preserving linguistic compositionality understood in a new sense. It also allows one to treat the pragmatic meaning in the same way as the semantic one, and accounts for a compact use of linguistic units. Using linguistic units to differentiate allows one to convey information not contained in the encoded meaning of these structures. This can be utilized to communicate more efficiently but also poses the danger of purporting unwanted meaning.
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Examines the roles of collaboration in the sciences and humanities by focusing on the complicated relationship between syntax and semantics. Uses scholarship on the social study of science to discuss strategies for collaboration in the humanities. Discusses why those studying language and literature are in a particularly good position to understand the nature of intellectual collaboration and its benefits.
March 1997
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In past fifteen years, scholars in both composition and literature have called for a more integrated approach to reading and writing.1 essays in collection Composition and Literature: Bridging Gap edited by Winifred Horner, for example, stressed common interests of scholarship in these two domains. Similarly, Modern Language Association recommended in a 1982 report that MLA publications make deliberate efforts to stimulate thought and research about interrelations of literature, composition, and rhetorical theory (952). More recently, Peter Elbow has called for end of the war between reading and arguing that the primacy of reading in reading/writing dichotomy is an act of locating authority away from student and keeping it entirely in teacher or institution or great figure (17). Richard Lloyd-Jones and Andrea Lunsford have also emphasized importance of an integrated approach to reading and writing in curriculum, one that allows teachers to foster student learning in reading, writing, interpreting, speaking, and listening (316). Like Elbow, Lloyd-Jones and Lunsford insist that integration of reading and writing not only enables students to become more active learners but also is critical for educating students for participation in democracy (85). But while an integrated approach to reading and writing is certainly a worthy goal, scholars in literary and composition studies differ on fundamental issues that may preclude (or at least complicate) our attempts to develop pedagogies that allow students to connect their own texts with other texts they encounter both inside and outside classroom. One such issue involves very nature of texts themselves-what texts are, how they are produced, and how we should read them. assumptions, for example, about what it means to interpret a text diverge radically depending on whether text is a student text or a literary text. As David Bartholomae observes: The teacher who is unable to make sense out of a seemingly bizarre piece of student writing is often same teacher who can give an elaborate explanation of 'meaning' of a story by Donald Barthelme or a poem by e.e. cummings (255). Instructors who interpret elements such as narrative leaps, obscure references, and twisted syntax as errors in student texts read same elements in a literary work as
February 1997
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Current scholarship indicates that most writing students read and make use of teachers’ written comments on their drafts and find some types of comments more helpful than others. But the research is unclear about which comments students find most useful and why. This article presents the results of a survey of 142 first- year college writing students’ perceptions about teacher comments on a writing sample. A 40-item questionnaire was used to investigate students’ reactions to three variables of teacher response: focus, specificity, and mode. The survey found that these college students seemed equally interested in getting responses on global matters of content, purpose, and organization as on local matters of sentence structure, wording, and correctness, but were wary of negative comments about ideas they had already expressed in their text. It also found that these students favored detailed commentary with specific and elaborated comments, but they did not like comments that sought to control their writing or that failed to provide helpful criticism for improving the writing. They most preferred comments that provided employed open questions, or included explanations that guided revision.
January 1997
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Ars Poetriae: Rhetorical and Grammatical Invention at the Margins of Literacy by William M. Purcell ↗
Abstract
Reviews William M. Purcell, Ars Poetriae: Rhetorical and Grammatical Invention at the Margins of Literacy, Studies in Rhetoric/ Communication (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1996), 193 pp. In the context of the evolution from oral to written discourse in the classical and medieval periods of western Europe, Purcell discusses six texts on the art of versification, or artes poetriae: 1) Matthew of Vendome, Ars versificatoria; 2) Geoffrey of Vinsauf, Poetria nova and Documentum de modo et arte dictandi et versificandi; 3) John of Garland, De arte prosayca, metrica , et rithmica (Parisiana poetria); 4) Gervasius of Melkley, Ars poetica; and 5) Eberhard the German, Laborintus. Composed in the twelfth and thir teenth centuries, these texts are revolutionary in their adaptation of rhetoric and grammar to poetry, which in that period was usually read aloud or recited. The book offers a useful introduction to material which may be difficult for most undergraduate students to obtain or to under stand; however, the critical framework into which Purcell places these texts needs justification, as it is part of a growing debate on the history of orality and literacy. The book is divided into two parts. Part I, consisting of two chapters, establishes the two main assumptions of the theoretical framework into which Purcell has placed the six treatises on poetic composition. The first assumption sets up a diachronic dichotomy between orality and literacy, from the Greek tradition to the invention of the printing press. Purcell argues that rhetoric in classical Greece and Rome was a discipline designed for oral delivery. Grammar was a written activity, developed for analysis and correction of text. As the societies of the Middle Ages pro gressed in literacy, grammar was increasingly applied to written material. Thus, Purcell sets up an oral-literate time spectrum. He treats the ancient Greek and late medieval periods as two poles, the former primarily oral and the latter increasingly text-based or literate. Citing Paul Prill, Purcell asserts that the arts of poetry of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries stand at the cusp of the shift from orality to literacy. The second major assumption of Purcell's theoretical framework is that grammar and rhetoric exchanged functions along the oral-literate time spectrum. In the classical period, rhetorical theory was used as a system of composition for oral delivery, while grammar was a system to correct and to analyze written text. By the time the arts of poetry were composed, these roles had begun to be reversed: "Ultimately, with the advent of the printing press, the text became the thing in and of itself, moving away 107 108 RHETORICA from the oral end of the spectrum and toward the literate end. At the same time, rhetoric—a more orally focused technology—moved toward the literate, and grammar—a more literally focused technology—moved toward the oral. The tension created by the rhetorical/grammatical move ment is reflected in the theoretical treatises in the artes poetriae themselves" (p. 5). Part II consists of five chapters, arranged chronologically, on the artes poetriae which illustrate the developments in the matrix of orality, literacy, grammar, and rhetoric which Purcell has set up in the first section of his book. Purcell provides excellent summaries of these treatises by giving an overview of their sections on invention, arrangement, and style. Less attention is given to invention and arrangement, as the author's primary interest is the overlapping of grammar and rhetoric in the domain of style, a unique contribution of poetic theory in the Middle Ages. Purcell's study of figures in the artes poetriae shows how the medieval tradition leads to the systematic relation of style to stasis theory in Renaissance rhetoric. This is the most valuable contribution of the book. Purcell argues that these treatises are not simply extensions or adapta tions of classical rhetoric, but that they establish a unique genre of rhetori cal theory at a time when orality and literacy coexisted. To demonstrate this point, he observes that the existing editions of the texts can be mis leading in causing readers to assume a debt to the classical sources. For example, the Faral edition and the Nims translation of Geoffrey of Vinsauf's Poetria Nova...
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Sir Walter Raleigh’s Speech from the Scaffold: A Translation of the 1619 Dutch Edition, and Comparison with English Texts by John Parker, Carol A. Johnson ↗
Abstract
112 RHETORICA On the whole, while his critical assumptions need to be supplemented with recent scholarship on orality, literacy, and the history of education, Purcell's work is useful because it summarizes material which is not easily available to most undergraduate students. His discussion of the content of the poetic manuals will be helpful to those who are not familiar with Latin, or whose libraries do not contain the printed editions of the texts, some of which are out of print or only available in microfilm (e.g., Catherine Yodice Giles' Ph.D. dissertation, the only English translation of Gervasius of Melkle/s Ars poética; Traugott Lawler's edition and translation of John of Garland's Parisiana poetria; and Evelyn Carlson's translation of Eberhard the German's Laborintus, her 1930 M.A. thesis). The appendix of figures, with definitions, is especially useful, along with the bibliography of sources relat ing to the poetic treatises. In a subsequent edition, the author might consid er including a chart comparing the classical definitions of these figures with those in the medieval poetic manuals, to illustrate how the medieval manu als depart from the classical tradition, a point which Purcell emphasizes. However, undergraduate students who seek broad outlines and neat categories for material must be cautioned, just as Purcell shows, that mate rial frequently resists tidy schematization; that principles of grammar and rhetoric overlap in figurative language; and that medieval poetics adapts and transcends classical theory in a variety of ways. Illustrations of how this theory operates in poetic texts and cultural contexts, and in relation to various views of language change and interaction, are needed to support the critical assumptions in this book. William Purcell has made an impor tant beginning in an area which has long been overlooked in the history of composition and literary criticism: medieval poetics, a field in which the criteria for measuring orality and literacy await further study. Elza C. Tiner John Parker and Carol A. Johnson, Sir Walter Raleigh's Speech from the Scaffold: A Translation of the 1619 Dutch Edition, and Comparison with English Texts (Minneapolis, MN: Associates of the James Ford Bell Library, 1995), ii + 79 pp. Sir Walter Raleigh's speech from the scaffold, October 29,1618, in the Old Palace Yard at Westminster, has lived long as an "exit" speech of con siderable historic importance, especially familiar to students of British public address. It was included in David Brewer's older anthology and in Reviews 113 the excellent An Historical Anthology of Select British Speeches.1 Scholars of the history of rhetoric do not need to be told that one of the initial steps in their explorations is to answer the question, "What did that orator really say?" Whose version, manuscript or printed, was the closest to the event, and how reliable are the available versions? We remember how Thucydides dealt with the problem in the fifth century BCE: "With references to the speeches in this history, . . . some I heard myself, others I got from various quarters; it was in all cases difficult to carry them word for word in one's memory, so my habit has been to make the speakers say what was in my opinion demanded of them by the vari ous occasions, of course adhering as closely as possible to the general sense of what they really said."2 So what did Pericles and others really say? Only when the step of description is accomplished as well as possi ble, can the rhetorical critic with the greatest meaningfulness enter into sound analysis and insightful evaluation. With painstaking and thorough scholarship, Parker and Johnson dig deeply into their chosen terrain. They construct a succinct and wellwritten sketch (pp. 1-11) of the man and his role in the late Elizabethan and early Stuart eras. "Entrepreneur, politician, poet, historian, explorer, colonizer" (p. 1), Raleigh was a central figure in his time, a time when "the line between dissent and treason was not always apparent" (p. 5). Parker, Curator Emeritus of the James Ford Bell Library, and Johnson, Assistant Professor in the University Library, enter into a microscopic, forty-three-page comparison of the eight available printed versions of the...
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When people read silently, they unconsciously translate what they read into a speech-like code that facilitates word identification and the creation of meaning. This article examines that phenomenon—known as silent speech—based upon the published research of cognitive psychologists and psycholinguists. The author develops a phonological model of reading based upon published results of experimental investigators to determine the relationship between cognition and silent speech. The author then applies the model to technical communication. The applications include the use of punctuation, pronouns, and abbreviations, as well as introducing new words, writing to satisfy the speech instinct, cultivating a human voice, and revising technical documents.
December 1996
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Abstract
The essays in this book, stemming from a national conference of the same name, focus on the single subject required of nearly all college studentscomposition.Despite its pervasiveness and its significance, composition has an unstable status within the curriculum. Writing programs and writing faculty are besieged by academic, political, and financial concerns that have not been well understood or addressed.At many institutions, composition functions paradoxically as both the gateway to academic success and as the gatekeeper, reducing access to academic work and opportunity for those with limited facility in English. Although writing programs are expected to provide services that range from instruction in correct grammar to assistingor resistingpolitical correctness, expanding programs and shrinking faculty get caught in the crossfire. The bottom line becomes the firing line as forces outside the classroom determine funding and seek to define what composition should do.In search of that definition, the contributors ask and answer a series of specific and salient questions: What implicationsintellectual, political, and institutionalwill forces outside the classroom have on the quality and delivery of composition in the twenty-first century? How will faculty and administrators identify and address these issues? What policies and practices ought we propose for the century to come?This book features sixteen position papers by distinguished scholars and researchers in composition and rhetoric; most of the papers are followed by invited responses by other notable compositionists. In all, twenty-five contributors approach composition from a wide variety of contemporary perspectives: rhetorical, historical, social, cultural, political, intellectual, economic, structural, administrative, and developmental. They propose solutions applicable to pedagogy, research, graduate training of composition teachers, academic administration, and public and social policy. In a very real sense, then, this is the only book to offer a map to the future of composition.
October 1996
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Re-presenting Remediation John Bell Academic Castes, Academic Authority, and the Educational Centrality of Writing Kenneth A. Bruffe ResponseKeith Hjortshoj Toward a Broader Understanding of the Rhetoric of Punctuation Michael Hassett Response John Dawkins
May 1996
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Reviews of 3 professional books: Revising the Rules: Traditional Grammar and Modern Linguistics by Brock Haussamen reviewed by David J. Cranmer; Grammar in Many Voices by Marilyn N. Silva reviewed by David J. Cranmer; Writings from the Workplace: Documents, Models, Cases by Carolyn R. Boiarsky and Margot K. Soven reviewed by Lois Birky.
April 1996
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This review of the relationship of law and art in the litigative context explores ways in which the methodologies of the novelist and other artists can be invoked by the lawyer in structuring and developing a case and presenting it to a court. To the litigators who transcend the form books and stereotypes and see their cases with a fresh eye, neither the law nor the facts are fixed in stone but rather created to meet the deepest realities of the case within the context of our most fundamental values and beliefs. Litigators, by the way they define and project the issues, can affect, even determine, what law and facts are legally relevant and dispositive. They must devise and write the story that threads the client's way out of the labyrinth. Mastery of the formal requirements of litigative writing is only a necessary first step. Freewriting; Hemingwayesque choice of words and syntax; harnessing the symbolic, often hidden, power of language; achieving the dramatic potential of case presentation—all these and more from the creative artist's repertoire empower litigators to win their cases. Resort is made not only to the applicable statutory, regulatory, and case law but also to the processes of the like of Cezanne, Conrad, Hemingway, Tolstoy, Joyce, Aristotle, and Faulkner.
December 1995
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Abstract
Preface - new! improved!! not tested on animals!!! introduction - the air in your Aero 7 shades whiter beanz meanz Heinz - what makes slogans stick? it is. are you? - sentence types and sentence structure players pleas - puns, associations, and meanings you in the shocking pink shellsuit - pronouns and address bread wi' nowt taken owt - languages and varieties as signs do we have time for a coffee? - conversations and everyday life shall I compare thee to a pint of bitter? - metaphor see above, see above, see above...words and pictures concentrated Persil supports trees - green ads and agency AIDS, ads and them vs. us audiences, effects and REG.
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Preview this article: Teaching Punctuation as a Rhetorical Tool, Page 1 of 1 < Previous page | Next page > /docserver/preview/fulltext/ccc/46/4/collegecompositioncommunication8721-1.gif
July 1995
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The Effectiveness of Leading Grammar/Style Software Packages in Analyzing Business Students' Writing ↗
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This study compares the effectiveness of five leading grammar/style analysis software packages in analyzing business students' writing. The software exhibited considerable differences in the following areas: correctly identifying various mechanical and style errors, avoiding annoying and misleading false error messages, and providing helpful remedial advice. No prior research study has empirically compared grammar/style analysis software along all these important dimensions. PowerEdit was found to be the overall superior package, demonsrating proficiency in detecting errors in punctuation, sentence structure, passive voice, and weak wording. The results have significant implications for utilizing grammar/style analysis software to improve students' writing.
February 1995
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Preview this article: The Grammar and Rhetoric of Inclusion, Page 1 of 1 < Previous page | Next page > /docserver/preview/fulltext/ce/57/2/collegeenglish9139-1.gif
January 1995
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To find out more about the communication needs of people in business, the author sent questionnaires to 2,200 chief executive officers (CEOs) and directors of personnel or training. I received 207 answers. Respondents believe that oral communication before a small group is important and that principles of communication should be stressed over formats for letters and memos. They believe reading and editing, as well as grammar skills, are very important. In many respects, the results of this survey are similar to those of others done across the country in the past 20 years, but there are some comments on reading, editing, and writing letters with bad news that were not part of earlier surveys.
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This article discusses collaborative design in the context of developing a Toolbook hypertext intended to introduce graduate students to the fields of rhetoric and professional communication. It examines the new grammar and rhetoric of hypertext, discusses the importance of document planning within an emergent design, and argues for a functional aesthetic.
October 1994
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The major problem with report writing is not primarily due to poor grammar or mechanics—often blamed by the technical community. The real problems stem from lack of, or poorly developed, point and audience awareness. Such problems can render reports useless for the audience and for the author. These major deficiencies and many lesser deficiencies, however, can be avoided effectively and painlessly if authors follow a simple outlining approach in writing their reports.
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shot through as the term is with local contexts, different approaches, and standardized grammar tests. Any article or research report on writing has to be read carefully for how its author describes writing. are equally elusive. Sometimes they are called remedial, implying that they are retaking courses in material that already should have been mastered. Sometimes they are called developmental, suggesting a cognitive or psychological problem. At other times and in other places, they may be called Educational Opportunity Students, suggesting division by access to education. Or they are just basic, requiring foundational or fundamental instruction in writing. As a case in point, several years ago, I wrote an article, on the writing program at Indiana UniversityIndianapolis, published in the Journal of Basic Writing. Impossibly, it seemed to me, I found an article on Harvard University's writers in the same issue in which my own article appeared. Surely, we weren't talking about the same students, nor the same writing. And, indeed, we were not. While the students I wrote about were having trouble producing any text, even text with attendant problems in organization and mechanics, the Harvard students were instead having problems with originality, creativity, and elaborating arguments (Armstrong 70-72). Yet the presence of basic is tenacious in English departments and we might want to ask ourselves why the term-which seems only to give some vague indication of a deficiency-continues to signify something important to us. The signification of the term is often masked by the way basic is
July 1994
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The prescriptive principles often used to improve writing in general genres have little relevance to the very complex legal prose found in acts or other technically legal documents. This article explores some of the stylistic complexities of definitions and requirements in a Canadian Provincial Act, and generates and justifies fifteen recommendations for creating a plainer legal language in acts. The recommendations range from orthographic presentation, referencing, and sentence arrangement to complex listing, clause separations and punctuation. Although only the English language version of the Act is studied in detail, reference is made to the French version where that is helpful.
April 1994
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Edward A. Kearns, Michael Walker, Kathleen McCoy, Mark Balhorn, Four Comments on "The Politics of Grammar Handbooks: Generic He and Singular They", College English, Vol. 56, No. 4 (Apr., 1994), pp. 471-475
October 1993
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Composition theory generally has ignored grammar over the past 15 years, focusing instead on what has been described as “classifications of texts and relations among writers, readers, and subject matter.” Nevertheless, composition has been and continues to be strongly influenced by the model of language that is implicit in modern grammar. This model proposes that language is rule governed and, as a result, is deterministic. Transformational-generative grammar is the most well-known articulation of the model among composition specialists. This article describes the general features of the model and discusses some of the ways it has influenced composition. After assessing the various weaknesses of the rule-governed model, the article outlines a new model of language that is being developed in cognitive science by David Rumelhart, James McClelland, and others working in parallel distributed processing. This alternative model is associational and probabilistic and is grounded in connectionist theory and research. An association model of language provides composition specialists new perspectives on writers, research, and theory. The article concludes by suggesting possible ways to reconsider the act of composing and related theories.
September 1993
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June 1993
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Abstract
Chaucer's 'A Treatise on the Astrolabe' despite its medieval roots, still serves as a model for incorporating coherent organization, appropriate content, accurate and precise descriptions, personable tone, effective metadiscourse, and varied sentence structure and length in modern technical writing. This article explores how Chaucer merged his logico-rational self (as exhibited in the work's deliberate organization and thorough content) with his humanistic self (as shown in his simple style and personable tone). This is shown to be an effective technique for humanizing and strengthening a technical document. By following the lessons learned from Treatise, modern technical writers can minimize the semantic and psychological noise of a document, while maximizing the accurate and comfortable transmission of its content.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">></ETX>
May 1993
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Eberhard the German and the Labyrinth of Learning: Grammar, Poesy, Rhetoric, and Pedagogy in Laborintus ↗
Abstract
Abstract: Eberhard the German's Laborintus, the first of the artes poetriae to be printed, has received comparatively little scholarly attention. Both Kelly and Murphy have noticed that the work conveys a pedagogical emphasis. This essay, however, demonstrates that Laborintusis not merely a manual for teachers of verse. Rather, the work is a delightful maze of verse, grammar, and rhetoric, a labyrinth of learning containing an allegorical account of grammar,poesy, and rhetoric. On one level, the rhetorical figures are used as inventional schemes for the composition of verse in proper meter. However, the examples used in Eberhard's account of the rhetorical figures also contain Christian homilies on faith and action that are exemplary primers for teachers. The homilies in tum underscore Eberhard's pedagogical theory, which is ultimately the key to his labyrinth.
April 1993
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Abstract
This article describes a method for motivating second-language (L2) business communicators to increase their English proficiency through the use of double translation. The lesson is explained and illustrated in light of current research on both L2 pedagogy and intercultural communication theory. Examples of double translations are offered, along with anecdotal observations concerning the positive effects of the lesson. These data support the notion that teaching methods that empower L2 communicators while involving them in ideas are preferable to traditional grammar and syntax exercises.
March 1993
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Abstract
(1993). Mirroring ourselves? The pedagogy of early grammar texts. Rhetoric Review: Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 418-435.
1993
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Abstract
Recent scholarship wrestles with the issue of creating a setting within centers that encourages genuine collaboration between those who seek advice (or input) and those who give it. Some scholarship suggests that too often the people who fund, administer, and use centers see the facilities as primarily remedial. Among problems, this attitude promotes the us-and-them mentality that Richard Leahy cautions against (45) • Lex Runciman, too, blames misconceptions about the meaning of tutor and tutoring for assumptions made by students, administrators, and tutors themselves that writing centers serve only bad (Defining 28) and are little more than emergency rooms for critically ill grammar. Both scholars urge us to create an environment which everyone is free to develop his or her own best processes (Leahy 45), where good writers go order to make enlightened decisions about context, organization, idea development, tone, and the (Runciman, Defining 33). To create such a place, Leahy urges us to foster a community of people who love and like to share their with each other (45). As a logical first step, Runciman suggests we abandon terms that carry remedial connotations (e.g. tutor a.nd tutoring and adopt terms that more accurately describe who we are and what we do. Although I agree that we need to encourage an enlightened, collaborative environment in centers, I believe we can achieve this goal (whether or not we rename ourselves and our work) through the intelligent and humane use of humor.
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Abstract
In The Idea of a Writing Center, Stephen M. North takes task his colleagues in university English departments for their unenlightened views: For them, a writing center is illiteracy what a cross between Lourdes and a hospice would be serious illness...(435). In the nineties when multiculturalism is all the rage and American universities attract larger and larger numbers of international students. North and his kind may need take on a different Goliath. Now that we've overcome the idea of writing centers as the proofreading-shop [s]-in-the basement (North 444), we may need battle the idea of writing centers as sentence-scrubbers-for-foreignstudents as my colleague Ray Smith says. But if the writing center does not exist merely to serve, supplement, back up, complement, reinforce, or otherwise be defined by any external curriculum (North 440), how is it ever become a place where non-native writers can receive remediation and guidance? What changes will have be made in the philosophy of the writing center and in the job descriptions of tutors? Anyone who has worked in a college writing center for any length of time will know the plight of international students who have demonstrated some level of English proficiency by achieving a requisite score on a discrete-item grammar and vocabulary test such as the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language). However, scores (enough get in the door) do not always translate into satisfactory academic writing (enough leave with a diploma in hand). As undergraduates, these students join
September 1992
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Abstract
That errors in writing are somehow is no news to the field of composition. Yet there is a recurring discrepancy in the approach compositionists take toward this dimension of written error. On the one hand, what counts as an (or as correct) in writing is generally recognized as social: most compositionists freely acknowledge the of the controversial imposition of standards of correct notation as a set of arbitrary conventions. On the other hand, the production of particular errors is regularly identified and treated as social but as individual, evidence of an individual writer's cognitive or perceptual difficulties, trouble knowing and/or seeing error. We might account cynically for the discrepancy between recognition of what might be called the sociality of errors and the focus of research and teaching on error as a sign of ethical irresponsibility. I would argue, however, that this discrepancy results from an impasse in how the sociality of error has been theorized. To acknowledge that errors are seems to mean primarily that one acknowledges the of the regularization of conventions for writing English, a regularization which, coincidentally, has favored the syntactic forms of dialects spoken by more powerful social groups. But all this seems to be viewed as afait accompli, history in the sense of something in the past about which there is little now to be done, a digression that takes attention away from the immediate problems of our students and their writing. The proper focus of attention for researchers and teachers of writing, it seems largely to be assumed, is on matters of student cognition and perception of error. In her 1985 review of Research on Error and Correction, Glynda Hull testifies to this state of affairs. Hull acknowledges that [m]ost of the controversy correctness in writing has finally to do with power, status, and class, but observes that much recent research on error can be viewed as walking a middle ground in the controversy, neither despairing that students must learn a privileged language nor grieving overlong that there is a cost (165, 166). This research takes as its purpose not a delineation of the social and political implications of error and correctness but an investigation of those mental processes involved in making errors and correcting them (167).1 Note that researchers pursuing such matters do deny the social controversy surrounding errors. But
July 1992
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Abstract
Since the rise of college-level spelling instruction, pedagogies have been few, based primarily on “demon lists” of spelling words and injunctions to students about developing “informed doubt.” This study examines spelling instruction historically, then describes a large-scale analysis done in 1986 of the spelling errors found in 3,000 nationally gathered and stratified student essays. The result of this research is a new and somewhat unusual “demon list” indicating that the most commonly misspelled words are homophones, spellings based on pronunciation, and visual errors. The study then examines the changes wrought in student spelling by the advent of word processing with and without associated spell-checking, examining 100 word-processed essays with and 100 without spell-checking. This research indicates that word processing greatly increases the number of spelling errors unless spell-checking is used. The study concludes by exploring the question of what the future may hold for spelling pedagogies.
May 1992
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Abstract
Literacy in the United States: Readers and Reading Since 1880, Carl F. Kaestle, with Helen Damon-Moore, Lawrence C. Stedman, Katherine Tinsley, and William Vance Trollinger, Jr. Richard Arthur Courage Academic Literacies: The Public and Private Discourse of University Students, Elizabeth Chiseri-Strater Ronald A. Sudol Writing Space: The Computer, Hypertext, and the History of Writing, Jay David Bolter David Kaufer, Chris Neuwirth, and Myron Tuman At the Point of Need: Teaching Basic and ESL Writers, Marie Wilson Nelson Vivian Zamel ESL in America: Myths and Possibilities, Sarah Benesch Nancy Duke S. Lay Grammar and the Teaching of Writing: Limits and Possibilities, Rei R. Noguchi Constance Weaver Rhetorical Grammar: Grammatical Choices, Rhetorical Effects, Martha Kolln Thomas J. Farrell Doing Grammar, Max Morenberg Paul Jude Beauvais Textbooks in Focus: Handbooks A Writer’s Handbook: Style and Grammar, James D. Lester New Concise Handbook, Hans P. Guth The Scott, Foresman Handbook for Writers, Maxine Hairston and John J. Ruszkiewicz Dennis Shramek Selected Essays of Edward P. J. Corbett, Robert J. Connors James L. Kinneavy Interviewing Practices for Technical Writers, Earl E. McDowell Alice I. Philbin
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Abstract
Preface Acknowledgments Introduction PART I The Structure of Sentences Chapter 1 An Introduction to Words and Phrases Chapter Preview Form Classes Nouns The Noun Phrase Verbs The Verb Phrase NP + VP = S Adjectives and Adverbs Prepositional Phrases Grammatical Choices Key Terms Chapter 2 Sentence Patterns Chapter Preview Rhetorical Effects The Be Patterns The Linking Verb Pattern The Intransitive Pattern The Basic Transitive Verb Pattern Transitive Patterns with Two Complements Sentence Pattern Summary The Optional Adverbial Questions and Commands Punctuation and the Sentence Patterns Basic Patterns in Prose The Short Paragraph Key Terms Rhetorical Reminders Punctuation Reminder Chapter 3 Our Versatile Verbs Chapter Preview The Expanded Verb Using the Expanded Verb Special Uses of the Present Tense Other Auxiliaries The Passive Voice Using the Passive Voice The Obscure Agent Well-Chose Verbs: Showing, Not Telling Key Terms Rhetorical Reminders Chapter 4 Coordination and Subordination Chapter Preview Coordination Within the Sentence Parallel Structure Coordination of the Series Climax Coordination with Correlative Conjunctions Subject-Verb Agreement Compound Sentences Conjunctive Adverbs and Transitional Phrases Compound Sentences with Semicolons Compound Sentences with Colons Punctuation Pitfalls The Compound Sentence: Punctuation Review Subordination: The Dependent Clauses Revising Compound Structures Key Terms Rhetorical Reminders Punctuation Reminders Part II Controlling the Message Chapter 5 Cohesion Chapter Preview Reader Expectation Repetition The Known-New Contract The Role of Pronouns Personal Pronouns Demonstrative Pronouns The Role of the Passive Voice Other Sentence Inversions Parallelism Repetition versus Redundancy Key Terms Rhetorical Reminders Chapter 6 Sentence Rhythm Chapter Preview Intonation: The Peaks and Valleys End Focus Controlling Rhythm The It-Cleft The What-Cleft The There Transformation Rhythm and the Comma Power Words Correlative Conjunctions Adverbials of Emphasis The Common Only Key Terms Rhetorical Reminders Punctuation Reminder Chapter 7 The Writer's Voice Chapter Preview Tone Diction Verbs and Formality Nominalized Verbs and Abstract Subjects Contractions Metaphor Metadiscourse The Overuse of Metadiscourse Point of View Key Terms Rhetorical Reminders Punctuation Reminders Part III Making Choices: Form and Function Chapter 8 Choosing Adverbials Chapter Preview The Movable Adverbials Adverbs Prepositional Phrases Proliferating Prepositional Phrases Noun Phrases Verb Phrases Dependent Clauses Punctuation of Adverbial Clauses Movability of Adverbial Clauses The Because-Clause Myth Elliptical Adverbial Clauses Key Terms Rhetorical Reminders Punctuation Reminders Chapter 9 Choosing Adjectivals Chapter Preview The Noun Phrase Preheadword Modifiers Determiners Adjectives and Nouns Modifier Noun Proliferation The Movable Adjective Phrase Postheadword Modifiers Prepositional Phrases Adjective Phrases Participial Phrases The Prenoun Participle The Movable Participle The Dangling Participle Relative Clauses The Relatives The Broad-Reference Clause Punctuation of Phrases and Clauses A Punctuation Rule Revisited Key Terms Rhetorical Reminders Punctuation Reminders Chapter 10 Choosing Nominals Chapter Preview Appositives The Colon with Appositives Avoiding Punctuation Errors The Sentence Appositive Nominal Verb Phrases Gerunds The Dangling Gerund The Subject of the Gerund Infinitives Nominal Clauses Nominals as Delayed Subjects Key Terms Rhetorical Reminders Punctuation Reminder Chapter 11 Other Stylistic Choices Chapter Preview Absolute Phrases The Coordinate Series Repetition Word-Order Variation Ellipsis Antithesis The Deliberate Fragment Key Terms Rhetorical Reminders Punctuation Reminders PART IV Your Way With Words Chapter 12 Words and Word Classes Lexical Rules Parts of Speech The Form Classes Nouns Plural-Only Forms Collective Nouns Proper Nouns Verbs Adjectives Adverbs Derivational Affixes The Structure Classes Determiners Auxiliaries Qualifiers Prepositions Particles Conjunctions Pronouns Personal Pronouns The Missing Pronoun Case Errors The Unwanted Apostrophe The Ambiguous Antecedent Reflexive Pronouns Intensive Pronouns Reciprocal Pronouns Demonstrative Pronouns Indefinite Pronouns The Everyone/Their Issue Key Terms Rhetorical Reminders Punctuation Reminders PART V Punctuation Chapter 13 Punctuation: Its Purposes, Its Hierarchy, and Its Rhetorical Effects The Purposes of Punctuation Marks Syntax Prosody Semantics The Hierarchy of Punctuation The Rhetorical Effects of Punctuation Key Terms Glossary of Punctuation Glossary of Terms Bibliography Answers to the Exercises Index
April 1992
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Abstract
Despite intense research efforts by both advertising and communication researchers, there is no definitive answer to the question of what makes a print advertisement successful. Yet, common wisdom contends that lexicon, syntax, and text layout have much to do with how readers perceive advertisements. This study, an extension and refinement of two of our previous studies, tests this assertion by assessing reader reactions to a broad range of lexical, syntactical, and text layout conditions, both in isolation and interactively. Our results suggest that in affecting readers' perceptions, the role of each of these elements independently is not quite as critical as perhaps assumed. Nonetheless, this research does suggest that certain perceptions are significantly affected by specific lexical, syntactical, and layout combinations, which indicates that creating effective advertisement text requires tailoring the copy to the target audience and thinking of the text as a synergy of both language and text layout elements.
January 1992
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Abstract
This article contains results from a literary analysis of fifty scientific papers selected from the top 100 most-cited papers appearing in the Science Citation Index for the period 1945–1988. Most papers are from the field of biochemistry and became citation superstars because their authors discovered a method or material that numerous others could use in their own research. The typical paper has two authors, two tables, six figures, and twenty-two references. It adheres to the conventional topical organization, with the topics distributed as follows: 2 percent abstract, 5 percent introduction, 25 percent methods and materials, 50 percent results, 10 percent discussion, 4 percent conclusion, and 4 percent reference list. Tables and figures occupy about 30 percent of the article. With respect to the writing style, the average sentence is somewhat long (24 words) but not unreasonably so, and the sentence structure is simple greater than half the time. Moreover, sentences tend to rely heavily on to be verbs (about 80% of sentences have at least one) and abstract nouns (0.66 per sentence). Explanations for the typical form and writing style in these papers are provided.
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Abstract
There are differences of vocabulary, grammar, and usage in American English and British English. As international interchange of information increases, we must alert writers and editors to these differences, and encourage them to find forms of expression common to both versions of English. If they do not, their texts may create difficulties, not only for readers using English as a foreign language, but also for native speakers of American English or British English.
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Abstract
With the vocabularies of their own disciplines, students majoring in technical subjects can access fresh insights into how writers write. For example, the symbols of computer flowcharts may bring insights when used to monitor rhetoric. Charts of organizational hierarchies, such as those that many corporate executives use, may illuminate equally well the shifting hierarchies of the characters in a work of fiction. Graphs and charts of syntactic and lexical networks may reveal the hidden structures of a narrative. An engineering major needs to see how a writer engineers words, a business major to see how a writer establishes hierarchies, a computer science major to see how a writer devises the flow of rhetoric. If we encourage students to explain literature with the professional vocabularies of their own disciplines, we can train them as lively apprentices, not as drudges. If we English teachers heed our students' special vocabularies, we may expect students to examine our own jargon more thoughtfully, such as the vocabulary by which we chart subordination and punctuation. Literature is everyone's heritage. No discipline monopolizes the critical insight or the vocabulary with which to articulate it.