Sunday, October 08, 2006
Living with rhetoric and composition
 “Writing is a tool of discovery,” said Dr. Michael Kearns during an interview. “Writing is about inquiry. In the act of writing, students are finding things out and learning to learn.” Kearns is professor of English, chair of the English Department, and serves with Dr. Kenneth M. Gillam as acting co-director of composition. The English Department offers three courses in the Rhetoric and Composition program for first- and second-year students. The courses introduce rhetoric, composition, critical thinking, and argumentation. The term rhetoric, within the English Department, refers to the use of language to inform and persuade. This understanding of the term originated with classical philosophers, whose goal was to provide form, means, and strategies of persuading an audience through oral arguments. Today’s casual use of the term, frequently with the adjective “mere” as in “mere rhetoric,” is very far from how the English Department wants students to understand rhetoric. Plato and other philosophers developed rhetoric as a skill to order and clarify arguments essential to the discovery of truths. Gillam, assistant professor of rhetoric and composition, said that rhetoric and composition was a sub-discipline in the 1960s and in the last 40 years, it has exploded into a full discipline. Through the sequence of courses offered, USI students embrace a larger view of writing and apply what is learned to any writing situation. Since the courses fulfill core curriculum requirements, students across all disciplines are enrolled in the courses. “The same principles apply for a student writing a lab report, a resume, a letter of application, or a eulogy for a dead parent,” Kearns said. The department introduces computer-assisted writing to students enrolled in English 100, a preparatory course to emphasize strategies for focusing, developing, and organizing writing. The first assignment in Dr. Gillam’s English 100 class is to read a contemporary book by Randal Kenan called Walking on Water. Students examine how Kenan explores perceptions of race, religion, and more. English 101 is the first-year course in rhetoric and composition and is designed to support core curriculum goals of critical thinking and effective communication. English 201 emphasizes the responsibilities of written inquiry and structured reasoning. As acting co-directors of composition, Kearns and Gillam set a direction for the writing program at USI. They recruit faculty, assess faculty and the program, select text books, and prepare a rhetoric and composition handbook for new faculty. “The handbook is a teaching book filled with such things as department policies, sample syllabi and other program nuts and bolts, and program goals,” said Kearns. Both professors also teach upper level English courses for majors and students who want to teach high school English. Gillam has a Ph.D. from Illinois State University. He joined the USI faculty in 2003. He is a member of the National Council of Teachers of English and the Association of Writers and Writing Programs. Kearns graduated with a Ph.D. from University of California Davis. He came to USI in 2002. His publications include Metaphors of Mind in Fiction, Psychology, Rhetorical Narratology, and articles on 19th century writers, rhetoric and composition, and narrative theory. Kearns is currently working on a book that compares how two major nineteenth-century American writers, Emily Dickinson and Herman Melville, practiced the craft of writing and established their authority as writers by engaging in non-print and non-commercial publishing. More about the rhetoric and composition program can be found at www.usi.edu/libarts/english/Composition. |
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