NOTE: Though you should feel free to address these questions with
any of your readings, your essay should reflect a comprehensive reading
of the CompRhet core list.

Here are the May 2007-2008 faculty-authored prelim questions. They will remain in effect through August 2009.

1. How are the politics of language expressed in the field of composition and rhetoric?

2. What is the role of conflict in writing?

May 2006-07 (Must be completed by May 2008)

1. As you have come to understand the field of composition and rhetoric, what are the serious mistakes, gaps or lost opportunities in our theory, research, and/or methodologies? What might account for them? How might they be redressed? Or, more succintly: What time is it in composition
and rhetoric?

2. In what ways is writing organized by circumstance? And how do our answers to that question impact our theories, practices, and pedagogies?

May 2005-2006 (Must be completed by May 2007)

1. When and why is writing hard?

2. How, when, and why did Composition & Rhetoric come to be a scholarlyand institutionalized discipline in postsecondary American departments of English? What configuration of interests propelled it to become the field it is? And what does the character of our core reading list itself tell us about the nature of our field?

Last Updated: November 1, 2007 For any questions, including accessibility issues, contact the Web Administrator Best if viewed at 800x600 or !higher!