Written Communication Jul 1993

Where did Composition Studies Come from?

MARTIN NYSTRAND ; STUART GREENE ; JEFFREY WIEMELT

Abstract

Composition Studies emerged as a scholarly research discipline during the 1970s as (a) empirical methods became available to investigate the problem of meaning in discourse and, concomitantly, (b) the work of an international writing research community became institutionalized in the form of new journals and graduate programs. Distinguishing their efforts from prior histories of the field, the authors argue that the development of composition studies needs to be understood as part of a broader intellectual history affecting linguistics and literary studies, as well as composition. Reviewing basic tenets of formalism, structuralism (including both constructivism and social constructionism), and dialogism as root epistemologies organizing the recent histories of these disciplines, the authors conclude with a discussion of the dominant and often parallel themes that have characterized evolving conceptions of language, text, and meaning in composition, literature, and linguistics since the 1950s.

Journal
Written Communication
Published
1993-07-01
DOI
10.1177/0741088393010003001
Open Access
Closed
Topics
multilingual writers affect and writing

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (17)

  1. Mazzolini (2023)
    The Institute, the Archive, and the Smoke-Filled Room
    College Composition and Communication
  2. Carter (2023)
    Apples and Oranges: Toward a Comparative Rhetoric of Writing Instruction and Re…
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  3. Nunes (2013)
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  4. Igland et al. (2002)
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  5. Ongstad (2002)
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  2. Evensen (2002)
    Convention from Below
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  3. Spinuzzi (2002)
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  12. Nelms (1994)
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Cites in this index (27)

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    The Role of Task in the Development of Academic Thinking through Reading and Wr…
    Research in the Teaching of English
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