Rhetoric Society Quarterly Jun 2001

Distinguishing formative and receptive contexts in the disciplinary formation of composition studies: A response to Mailloux

Martin Nystrand University of Wisconsin–Madison

Abstract

Abstract In his essay “Disciplinary Identities: On the Rhetorical Paths between English and Communication Studies,”; Steven Mailloux notes that “many compositionists in the seventies and eighties did not find it necessary to claim to be a scientific discipline “(16). I respond to this claim by focusing on the new discourse about writing that emerged in the 1970s in work by Emig, Shaughnessy, Flower & Hayes, and others. Distinguishing between the “formative “ (intellectual) contexts from which this work drew, and the “receptive”; contexts in which it came to valued, used, and resonate, I show that whereas the roots of this work were almost exclusively empirical, their effects in the receptive context, including beyond the academy, were deeply rhetorical.

Journal
Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Published
2001-06-01
DOI
10.1080/02773940109391208
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Topics
rhetorical criticism discourse analysis basic writing editorial matter
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (2)

  1. Keith (2008)
    On the Origins of Speech as a Discipline: James A. Winans and Public Speaking a…
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  2. Mailloux (2003)
    Practices, theories, and traditions: Further thoughts on the disciplinary ident…
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly

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