Moving student writing beyond academic discourse and into larger public spheres is a difficult task, but Christian R. Weisser’s study challenges composition instructors to do just that. This highly accessible book does what no other study has attempted to do: place the most current, cutting-edge theories and pedagogies in rhetoric and composition in their intellectual and historical contexts, while at the same time offering a unique, practical theory and pedagogy of public writing for use both inside and outside of the classroom.
By positing a theory of the public for composition studies, one which envisions the public sphere as a highly contested, historically textured, multilayered, and sometimes contradictory site, Weisser offers a new approach to the roles that compositionists might assume in their attempts to initiate progressive political and social change.
After first providing a historical context that situates composition’s recent interest in public writing, Weisser next examines recent theories in composition studies that consider writing an act of social engagement before outlining a more complex theory of the public based on the work of Jürgen Habermas. The resulting re-envisioning of the public sphere expands current conversations in rhetoric and composition concerning the public.
Weisser concludes with a holistic vision that places greater political and social import on addressing public issues and conversations in the composition classroom and that elucidates the role of the public intellectual as it relates specifically to compositionists in postmodern society.
This edited collection offers chapters based on presentations at the Second Latin American Association of Writing Studies in Higher Education and Professional Contexts International Congress (II ALES) held in Santiago, Chile, in 2018. Together, the contributors to the collection—drawn from nine countries and writing in three languages—highlight the many perspectives, resources, and traditions that enrich and expand international conversations about writing, writing instruction, and writing research. The multiple locations from which the chapters in this collection emerge contribute significantly to the situated findings and concerns they address, with the authors of each chapter considering the social, lingual, and institutional contexts shaping their work. Drawing on both robust traditions and cutting-edge research, this collection makes a distinctive contribution to discussions of writing in and beyond Latin America.
This book is also available as an open access ebook through the WAC Clearinghouse.
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