The title of this collection of original essays, Don’t Call It That: The Composition Practicum, refers to the battle many composition programs have had to fight to clarify that introductory graduate-level composition courses are more than “how-to-teach-writing” courses; they are, in fact, often sophisticated introductions to a dynamic field of study. According to editor Sidney I. Dobrin, “The new ‘practicum’ more often than not serves as an introduction to composition theory, to research methodologies, to pedagogical theory, to histories of composition studies as a discipline, and to larger disciplinary questions about writing, not just to teaching writing per se.”

This collection provides a provocative consideration of the scholarly questions surrounding the practicum. The role theory plays is intrinsically enmeshed with the questions of legitimacy often asked by departments, colleges, and universities: Should students receive credit for the course? Should faculty receive teaching credit for teaching the course? The first book to address the composition practicum as a contested site, Don’t Call It That also addresses the connections the site has to larger political questions about composition studies, writing program administration, and the role of theory in the discipline.

Contributors: Joe Marshall Hardin, Juan C. Guerra, Anis Bawarshi, bonnie lenore kyburz, Susan Kay Miller, Rochelle Rodrigo, Veronica Pantoja, Duane Roen, Samantha Blackmon, Shirley K. Rose, Kelly Belanger, Sibylle Gruber, Jonathan Bush, Georgina Hill, Jeanne LaHaie, Anne Trubek, Anthony J. Michel, Ruth Overman Fischer, Mary Lou Odom, Michael Bernard-Donals, Stephanie L. Kerschbaum, David Stacey, Joanne Addison, Jeff Rice, Lu Ellen Huntley, Deborah Murray, Rosemary (Gates) Winslow

356 pp. 2005. College. ISBN 0-8141-1221-8.

No. 12218