College English, Vol. 73, No. 3, January 2011

Table of Contents

• “We’re Here, and We’re Not Going Anywhere”: Why Working-Class Rhetorical Traditions Still Matter

  Nancy Welch

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  Abstract: Today’s composition courses should consider rhetorical strategies historically used by working-class movements, especially because this class still exists despite popular misconceptions that the world has fully entered a post-Fordist era.

• Rhetoric and Bullshit

  James Fredal

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  Abstract: The theory of bullshit put forth by philosopher Harry Frankfurt needs to be critiqued from the perspective of rhetorical theory, which can take into account how the identification of bullshit involves analyzing speaker, content, and audience as well as the interactions of these elements. More specifically, bullshit can be seen as an indifferent tampering with conventions of politeness, which makes it the antithesis of the kind of rhetoric we should teach.

• Reconsiderations: “Inventing the University” at 25: An Interview with David Bartholomae

  David Bartholomae and John Schilb

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  Abstract: First published in 1985, David Bartholomae’s “Inventing the University” has become perhaps the most often cited and discussed essay in composition studies. On the occasion of its twenty-fifth anniversary, the editor of College English interviews Bartholomae about the essay’s background, subsequent reception, and continued impact.

• Opinion: Teaching Bartleby to Write: Passive Resistance and Technology’s Place in the Composition Classroom

  Gregory Palmerino

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  Abstract: Drawing on the case of a student of his who, like Herman Melville’s Bartleby, simply preferred not to write, the author argues that current celebration of technology encourages passive resistance. He emphasizes that authentic, productive classroom experiences derive from in-person interactions that directly connect in relevant ways to students’ lives.

• Opinion: Language Difference in Writing: Toward a Translingual Approach

  Bruce Horner, Min-Zhan Lu, Jacqueline Jones Royster, and John Trimbur

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  Abstract: Arguing against the emphasis of traditional U.S. composition classes on linguistically homogeneous situations, the authors contend that this focus is at odds with actual language use today. They call for a translingual approach, which they define as seeing difference in language not as a barrier to overcome or as a problem to manage, but as a resource for producing meaning in writing, speaking, reading, and listening.

• Review: Basic Writing and the Future of Higher Education

  Deborah Mutnick

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  Abstract: Reviewed are Basic Writing by George Otte and Rebecca Williams Mlynarczyk; Basic Writing in America: The History of Nine College Programs, edited by Nicole Pepinster Greene and Patricia J. McAlexander; Before Shaughnessy: Basic Writing at Yale and Harvard, 1920-1960 by Kelly Ritter; The Rhetoric of Remediation: Negotiating Entitlement and Access to Higher Education by Jane Stanley; and The Way Literacy Lives: Rhetorical Dexterity and Basic Writing Instruction by Shannon Carter.

• Announcements and Calls for Papers

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