The Relationship of Rhetoric and Composition

1. Lisa Ede and Andrea Lunsford ask if the audience is an actual one or a fictional one and argue that either position is too simple. In fact, they claim that traditional rhetoric supports this split and the separation between audience from writing and situation. By oversimplifying the act of making meaning through written discourse, each side has not adequately to recognize the fluid, dynamic character of rhetorical situations and the integrated, interdependent nature of reading and writing.

2. C.H. Knoblauch argues that the classical perspective of Aristotle and Cicero still has the greatest impact on writing instruction. The consequence of this is that teachers impose an Ideal Text on students and emphasizes the passive retrieval of information during the reading process. By resisting this approach, the writing teacher can show that the goal isn't to have the perfect text but making deeper connections and recognizing that writing is a way of knowing.

3. Sharon Crowley claims that "composition is not rhetoric." She argues that there is a political and historical reason to connect the two. Instead, first-year composition has become more firmly entrenched in university curricula than ever before. Also, current teachers are more influenced by Marx and cultural studies rather than being inspired by the study of rhetoric. At a minimum, to be considered rhetoric, a discourse must conceive of it as an art of invention, and must be given a central place to the systematic discovery and investigation of the available arguments in a given situation.

4. Edward Corbett supports the modernization of classical rhetoric for contemporary students in order to empower students to voice oppositional politics. He recognizes the rhetorical turn in composition as an opening for process focus and less product emphasis, such as understanding argument and the look at ancient texts as models of successful texts. In this view, oratory strategies are applied to text creation. The precepts of classical rhetoric can guide students in writing.

5. Richard Young attempts to synthesize a complete rhetorical system which is in some ways built on and in some ways departed from the classical model. He wants to rethink rhetoric from its foundations, using concepts borrowed from Carl Rogers' nondirective therapy. In this "new rhetoric" mutual cooperation is promoted through a dialogue which moves past mutual hostility.