This work collects together the writings of Gertrude Buck (known for her work on the history of composition), aiming to show her thoughts on rhetorical theory, some selections from her textbooks on argumentative and expository writing, her poetry and fiction, and a play, Mother-Love.

Examines hundreds of compositions from 19th-century students at Mount Holyoke and other institutions. Finds that the first generation of women to attend United States colleges negotiated competing demands of service (to family and community) and of individual intellectual performance. Contrasts women’s compositions to men’s. Illustrates effects of gender on service, both as a concept and as an activity.

Unifying the many definitions and practices of is the notion of training the mind, which suggests that the technique of could usefully supplement courses designed to train people to think and write critically, analytically, or academically. In Riding the Ox Home: A History of Meditation from Shamanism to Science, Willard Johnson argues that meditation has no intrinsic goal or meaning; it is rather technique, way of developing consciousness (3). Coming from Hindu tradition, Ekneth Easwaran similarly defines as a systematic technique for taking hold of and concentrating to the utmost degree our latent mental power (9). Most frequently is discussed within spiritual context, yet for beginning college students, who often report difficulty keeping their minds on what they read, practice in could be as useful as other study techniques frequently taught, such as focused free writing, mapping, and dialogic reading logs. Yet work linking writing and remains on the fringes of our discipline. In this essay I want to review the scholarship on the connections between and writing, analyze objections to the use of in writing classroom, and suggest that writing teachers consider using with apprehensive or blocked writers, population I have studied and seen it serve. Most of my experience with and writing has occurred outside the academy; I've led workshops at bookstore, in therapist's office, and most frequently through Unity, center for spiritual growth. Teaching at spiritual site helped me shift my focus from helping writers produce good prose to helping them enjoy the process of meditating and writing regardless of the outcome. I have also guest taught in elementary and high school classes and typically offer an optional day of meditating and writing in my university writing courses. Despite enthusiastic student response, the marginality of meditative practice within the academy has discouraged me, as an untenured faculty member, from regularly offering to writing classes. Peter Elbow relates similar reluctance to bring new practices into his university classes: The

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