Theory and Practice of Composition and Rhetoric

GRADUATE COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATION READING LIST SELECTED BY THE GRADUATE FACULTY

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MA candidates who sit for the composition and rhetoric examination should be able to demonstrate a comprehensive knowledge of the history of rhetoric, history of writing instruction, composition theory, rhetorical theory, and rhetorical criticism. Area experts from among the graduate faculty offer the following works for students to read in preparing for the exam:

HISTORY OF RHETORIC:

Bizzell, Patricia, and Bruce Herzberg, eds. The Rhetorical Tradition: Readings from Classical Times to the Present. Boston: Bedford Books, 1990.

Glenn, Cheryl. Rhetoric Retold: Regendering the Tradition from Antiquity Through the Renaissance. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1997.

Jarratt, Susan. Rereading the Sophists: Classical Rhetoric Refigured. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1991.

Kennedy, George. A New History of Classical Rhetoric. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1994.

Murphy, James J., and Richard A. Katula. A Synoptic History of Classical Rhetoric. 2^nd ed. Davis: Hermagoras Press, 1994.

Welch, Kathleen. The Contemporary Reception of Classical Rhetoric: Appropriates of Ancient Discourse. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1990.

HISTORY OF WRITING INSTRUCTION (READ ONE):

Berlin, James A. Rhetoric and Reality: Writing Instruction in American Colleges, 1900-1985. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1987.

Miller, Thomas P. The Formation of College English: Rhetoric and Belles Lettres in the British Cultural Provinces. Pittsburgh: U of Pittsburgh P, 1997.

COMPOSITION THEORY (READ ALL ARTICLES AND AT LEAST ONE BOOK FROM THE FOLLOWING LIST):

Berlin, James A. “Contemporary Composition. The Major Pedagogical Theories.” College English 44.8 (Dec. 1982): 765-777.

---. “Poststructuralism, Cultural Studies, and the Composition Classroom: Postmodern Theory in Practice.” Rhetoric Review 11.1 (Fall 1992): 16-33.

Britton, James N. Language and Learning. Miami: U of Miami P, 1970.

Elbow, Peter. Writing without Teachers. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1973.

Flower, Linda, and John R. Hayes. “A Cognitive Process Theory of Writing.” CCC 32.4 (Dec. 1981): 365-387.

Murray, Donald. “Writing as Process: How Writing Finds Its Own Meaning.” Eight Approaches to Teaching Composition. Eds. Timothy R. Donovan and Ben W. McClelland. Urbana: NCTE, 1980. 3-20.

Shor, Ira. Critical Teaching and Everyday Life. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1987.

Wiley, Mark, Barbara Gleason, and Louise Wetherbee Phelps. Composition in Four Keys: Inquiring Into the Field. Mountain View: Mayfield, 1996.

RHETORICAL THEORY (READ THE WORKS BY BURKE AND AT LEAST ONE OTHER BOOK):

Burke, Kenneth. A Grammar of Motives. New York: Prentice-Hall, 1945.

---. “Definition of Man.” Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature and Method. Berkeley: U of California P, 1978. 3-24.

---. “Epilogue: Prologue in Heaven.” The Rhetoric of Religion: Studies in Logology. Boston: Beacon Press, 1961. 273-316.

---. “Rhetoric Old and New.” The Journal of General Education 5 (1951): 165-203.

---. “Terministic Screens.” Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature and Method. Berkeley, U of California P, 1978. 44-62.

Covino, William A., and David A. Jolliffe. Rhetoric: Concepts, Definitions, Boundaries. Needham Heights: Allyn and Bacon, 1995.

Grant-Davie, Keith. “Rhetorical Situations and Their Constituents.” Rhetoric Review 15 (1997): 264-279.

Kinneavy, James. A Theory of Discourse: Aims of Discourse. New York: Prentice-Hall, 1971.

Lefevre, Karen Burke. Invention as a Social Act. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1986.

RHETORICAL CRITICISM (READ BURKE AND AT LEAST ONE OTHER SELECTION):

Burke, Kenneth. “The Philosophy of Literary Form.” The Philosophy of Literary Form. 3^rd ed. Berkeley: U of California P, 1974.

Booth, Wayne C. The Rhetoric of Fiction. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1961.

Cooper, David. “Rhetoric, Literature and Philosophy.” The Recovery of Rhetoric: Persuasive Discourse and Disciplinarity in the Human Sciences. Eds. R. H. Roberts and J.M.M. Good. Charlottesville: U of Virginia P, 1993.

de Man, Paul. Blindness and Insight: Essays in the Rhetoric of Contemporary Criticism. 2^nd ed. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1983.

Hernandi, Paul. Ed. The Rhetoric of Interpretation and the Interpretation of Rhetoric. Durham: Duke UP, 1989.

Richter, David H. Falling Into Theory: Conflicting Views on Reading Literature. 2^nd ed. Boston: Bedford, 2000.

*Rev. 1 August 2014