The Shape of Theory: External Forces and their Effect on English Composition

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Composition has long been a reactionary body that changes to the forces around it. In fact it was reaction to students with weak skills in Latin and Greek that spawned the birth of writing instruction as we know it at Harvard in the late 1600s. Composition doesn’t proactively produce change in its own theory. It takes a great deal of external force whether it is socio-economic, political, gender, or underpreparedness that causes Composition Theory to reform and react to society. A confluence of “Perfect Storm” conditions foreshadows any big change in theory for English Composition because Composition follows a distinct cycle inferred by the examination of the field’s history. Theory and pedagogy exist and do whatever it is they do until some sort of outside societal pressure forces change. The change is usually reluctant and starts as a panicked claim of a looming “literacy crisis.” The crisis is usually the fact that incoming students are unwilling or incapable of reproducing the culture of those in power at the time. When theory changes, pedagogy changes as well. John C. Brereton states that the university as we know it, and the Composition class as we know it, didn’t begin until the 1870s. Before the Civil War there were no universities. There were colleges, though. Their business was educating elite male students through a standard four-year program with no majors, no sections, a few electives, and virtually no coursework outside of classics, math, and science. The goal was to enrich the mind and morals of our future leaders (Berlin, Kitzhaber). In the pre-1860 college, oral rhetoric was dominant and received all the attention. Written rhetoric’s importance and contributions largely went unnoticed. It was this shadow effect that eclipsed written Composition (Connors). And even though there was a more equitable balance of oral and written
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