College Composition and Communication Feb 2018

With “Increased Dignity and Importance”: Re-Historicizing Charles Roberts and the Illinois Decision of 1955

Kelly Ritter

Abstract

I revisit the so-called Illinois Decision of 1955, which eliminated basic writing from the University of Illinois Rhetoric Program and caused a chain of similar programmatic actions on other campuses nationwide. I contend that reviewing and archiving the Illinois Decision as a locally specific act with multiple actors besides WPA Charles Roberts historicizes a familiar narrative present today—namely, how WPAs address anxieties about writing in high school versus college, and how composition students and programs are beholden to ongoing institutional and extra-institutional imperatives regarding literacy and efficiency.

Journal
College Composition and Communication
Published
2018-02-01
DOI
10.58680/ccc201829490
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Open Access
Closed
Topics
rhetorical criticism basic writing literacy studies
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (1)

  1. Longaker et al. (2022)
    Archiving Our Own: The Digital Archive of Rhetoric and Composition at the Unive…
    College Composition and Communication

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