Talking Back: Senior Scholars and Their Colleagues Deliberate the Past, Present, and Future of Writing Studies

by Norbert Elliot (Editor), Alice S. Horning (Editor)

Overview

In Talking Back, a veritable Who’s Who of writing studies scholars deliberate on intellectual traditions, current practices, and important directions for the future. In response, junior and mid-career scholars reflect on each chapter with thoughtful and measured moves forward into the contemporary environment of research, teaching, and service. Each of the prestigious chapter authors in the volume has three common traits: a sense of responsibility for advancing the profession, a passion for programs of research dedicated to advancing opportunities for others, and a reflective sense of their work accompanied by humility for their contributions. As a documentary, Talking Back is the first history of writing studies in autobiography.
 

Contributors: Jo Allen, Ann N. Amicucci, Akua Duku Anokye, Paige Davis Arrington, Doug Baldwin, John C. Brereton, Judy Buchanan, Hugh Burns, Leasa Burton, Ellen C. Carillo, William Condon, Dylan B. Dryer, Michelle F. Eble, Jennifer Enoch, Joan Feinberg, Patricia Friedrich, Cinthia Gannett, Eli Goldblatt, Shenika Hankerson, Janis Haswell, Richard Haswell, Eric Heltzel, Douglas Hesse, Bruce Horner, Alice S. Horning, Asao B. Inoue, Ruth Ray Karpen, Suzanne Lane, Min-Zhan Lu, Donald McQuade, Elisabeth L. Miller, Rebecca Williams Mlynarczyk, Sean Molloy, Les Perelman, Louise Wetherbee Phelps, Stacey Pigg, Sherry Rankins-Robertson, Jessica Restaino, J. Michael Rifenburg, Eliana Schonberg, Geneva Smitherman, Richard Sterling, Katherine E. Tirabassi, Devon Tomasulo, Martha A. Townsend, Mike Truong, Victor Villanueva, Edward M. White, Anne Elrod Whitney, Kathleen Blake Yancey

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781607329763
Publisher:	Utah State University Press
Publication date:	05/01/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	472
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Norbert Elliot is research professor at the University of South Florida and professor emeritus of English at New Jersey Institute of Technology. He is coauthor of Early Holistic Scoring of Writing, with Richard Haswell, and Very Like a Whale: The Assessment of Writing Programs, with Edward M. White and Irvin Peckham, and coeditor of Writing Assessment, Social Justice, and the Advancement of Opportunity, with Mya Poe and Asao B. Inoue,and Talking Back: Senior Scholars and Their Colleagues Deliberate the Past, Present, and Future of Writing Studies, with Alice Horning.

Alice S. Horning is professor emerita of writing and rhetoric/linguistics at Oakland University. Her research is focused on the intersection of reading and writing, concentrating on students’ reading difficulties and how to address them in writing courses and across the disciplines. Horning’s work has appeared in the major professional journals and in books published by Parlor Press and Hampton Press. Her most recent book is Literacy Then and Now, published by Peter Lang. Her current project is titled Literacy Heroines: Women and the Written Word. She is editor of the Studies in Composition and Rhetoric book series for Peter Lang.

Table of Contents

Contents Introduction: Seniority in Writing Studies by Norbert Elliot 1. Inside the Wave: The Professionalization and Future of Technical and Professional Communication by Jo Allen Response: Turning toward Social Justice Approaches to Technical and Professional Communication by Michelle F. Eble 2. Talking Brought Me Here: Sociolinguistics and African American Life by Akua Duku Anokye Response: Still Talking: Embracing Varieties, World Englishes, and the Power of Words by Patricia Friedrich 3. “The Times, They Are A-Changin’ ”: Reflections on the Evolution of Research and Policy in Large-Scale Writing Assessments by Doug Baldwin Response: “You Better Start Swimmin’ or You’ll Sink Like a Stone”: How Assessment Keeps Changin’ by Devon Tomasulo 4. Learning from the National Writing Project as a Kindergarten-University Partnership: Talking Back and Forth by Judy Buchanan and Richard Sterling Response: Talking Back and Forth between Memory and Legacy in the National Writing Project by Anne Elrod Whitney 5. Intimate Machines: Cultivating Wisdom in Elder Gardens by Hugh Burns Response: Toward a Research Agenda for Digital Intimacy by Ann N. Amicucci 6. Assessment as a By-Product of Ongoing Research: Identifying, Describing, and Nourishing a Campus Culture of Teaching and Learning by William Condon Response: From Assessment as Research to Empirical Education by Michael Truong 7. A Bedford Story: Taking the Measure of a Publisher by Joan Feinberg Response: On Being Useful by Leasa Burton 8. Framing and Facing Histories of Rhetoric and Composition: Composition-Rhetoric in the Time of the Dartmouth Conference by Cinthia Gannett and John C. Brereton Response: History Has Moved through Us by Katherine E. Tirabassi 9. Writing Wisdom: A Meditative Quilt by Eli Goldblatt Response: Doors, Walls, and the Paradox of Not Knowing by Jessica Restaino Response: Legacy and Invitation by Paige Davis Arrington, with Ann E. Berthoff 10. “Bottomless Mysteries” on the Margins: A Dream Interview by Janis Haswell and Richard Haswell Response: Toward Open Exchanges in a Networked World by Stacey Pigg 11. Aging through the Thirty-Year Rise of Professionalized Writing Administration by Douglas Hesse Response: Embracing the Accidental Trajectory by Eliana Schonberg 12. Reading Old and New: An Autobiography and an Argument by Alice S. Horning Response: Discovering Reading by Ellen C. Carillo 13. Rewriting the Language(s) of Language Differences in Writing by Min-Zhan Lu and Bruce Horner Response: Not Trajectory but Translation: Talking Back with and to Min-Zhan Lu and Bruce Horner by Dylan B. Dryer 14. Starting from Scratch: Practicing and Teaching the Work of Words by Donald McQuade Response: The Goal of Teaching Is to Become Obsolete by Eric Heltzel 15. Rethinking Basic Writing: Reflections on Language, Education, and Opportunity by Rebecca Williams Mlynarczyk Response: A Reckoning for Basic Writing by Sean Molloy 16. Contact Zones across the Disciplines by Les Perelman Response: Writing Research across Disciplinary Boundaries by Suzanne Lane 17. Identity Work: Continuities and Transformations in the Senior Years by Louise Wetherbee Phelps Response: Reading Identity Work through a Disability Lens: Care, Bodies, and Time by Elisabeth L. Miller 18. Raciolinguistics and the “Mis-education of the Negro”—and You Too: Race, Language, and the Elder in “Post-Racial” America by Geneva Smitherman Response: “I Love My African American Language. And Yours”: Toward a Raciolinguistic Vision in Writing Studies by Shenika Hankerson 19. Valuing New Approaches for Tenure and Promotion for WAC/WID Scholar/Administrators: Advice for Higher Education and the Writing Studies Community by Martha A. Townsend Response: Community: A Response to Marty Townsend by J. Michael Rifenburg Our Concluding Thoughts: Reflections on Seniority, Mentoring, Genres, and Cross-Generational Collaboration by Martha A. Townsend and J. Michael Rifenburg 20. Mode Meshing: Before the New World Was New by Victor Villanueva Response: Becoming in the New World by Asao B. Inoue 21. Fifty Years of Curriculum Changes: Looking In and Looking Out in College Writing Classes by Edward M. White Response: Shaped by the (Disciplinary) Past: An Intergenerational Response to Edward M. White by Sherry Rankins-Robertson 22. The Composing of Seniors: Navigating Needs, Tasks, and Social Practices by Kathleen Blake Yancey Response: The Composing of the 41 Percent: A Response to Kathleen by Blake Yancey Jennifer Enoch Afterword: Toward an Even Longer View by Ruth Ray Karpen About the Authors Index

Editorial Reviews

“The authors in Talking Back offer a rich array of interesting and keenly insightful perspectives on writing studies. These scholars help us understand where they—as well as the field and many of its subfields—have been, where they are now, and where they are headed. We see how these scholars have helped to shape writing studies—and how writing studies has helped to shape their research and teaching. What a delightful read!”
—Duane Roen, Arizona State University

"The perspectives of these elders alone would make an impressive book, but including the dialogue with less seasoned scholars makes this an indispensable collection. We will be talking about Talking Back for a long time to come."
—Anne Ruggles Gere, University of Michigan

"Overall, this edited collection speaks softly to those who have done their time, and boldly to those entering the field... There will never be another collection in our field like this, nor could there be. I feel so thankful for this curation of voices before the voices become echoes."
—Community Literacy Journal

"An excellent primer for curious undergraduates and new graduate students. . .  Overall, this volume provides a road map for emerging research on composition studies."
—CHOICE

From the Publisher