College Composition and Communication Dec 2011

Re-envisioning Religious Discourses as Rhetorical Resources in Composition Teaching: A Pragmatic Response to the Challenge of Belief

Michael-John DePalma

Abstract

In this essay, I offer William James’s notion of pragmatic belief as a framework for re-envisioning religious discourses as rhetorical resources in composition teaching. Adopting a Jamesian pragmatic framework in composition teaching, I argue, entails two pragmatic adjustments to current approaches. The first adjustment concerns the way we think about the relationship between academic discourse and religious discourse. And the second adjustment relates to the stances we adopt when responding to religious students’ texts. Along with outlining these adjustments, I illustrate the ways James’s framework productively informed my response to a faith-based narrative that an evangelical student wrote in one of my first-year writing courses.

Journal
College Composition and Communication
Published
2011-12-01
DOI
10.58680/ccc201118390
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Open Access
Closed
Topics
rhetorical criticism discourse analysis first-year composition writing pedagogy teacher development editorial matter
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (7)

  1. Williams et al. (2026)
    Rhetoric and Affect: The Role of Faith in Student Writers’ Wayfinding
    Written Communication
  2. Ware (2022)
    “God’s Absence During Trauma Took Its Toll”: Dialogic Tracing of Literate Activ…
    Written Communication
  3. Kelvie (2018)
    More Than Preaching to the Choir: Religious Literate Activity and Civic Engagem…
    Literacy in Composition Studies
  4. Bean (2018)
    Critical Literacy for Older Adults: Engaging (and Resisting) Transformative Edu…
    Literacy in Composition Studies
  5. Thomson-Bunn (2017)
    Student Perspectives on Faith in the Classroom
    Pedagogy
Show all 7 →
  1. Pavia (2015)
    Taking Up Faith: Ethical Methods for Studying Writing in Religious Contexts
    Written Communication
  2. Ringer (2013)
    The Dogma of Inquiry: Composition and the Primacy of Faith
    Rhetoric Review

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