Using Rhetorical Media to Meet Outcomes

and Satisfy Stakeholders

 


Abstract

In his 2010 response to Selfe (2009),  Hesse poses two central questions.  First, “Is the curricular space that our field inhabits ‘rhetoric/composing’ or is it ‘writing/composing?’” And second, “Whose interests should the composition class serve?” (p. 603).  How we answer these two questions greatly shapes how we design our first-year composition courses. 

In an attempt to advocate for the rhetoric/composing answer to the first of these questions, this web-text explores how rhetorical media is almost essential to fully meeting the expectations for first-year composition courses as outlined by the “WPA outcomes statement for first-year composition.”  It shows how emphasis on only writing can be counterproductive to the objectives established by the Writing Program Administrators or WPA. 

This text then responds to Hesse’s second question by outlining whose interests should be served through composition courses at the open door college.  Emphasis is given to the interests of four groups of stakeholders:  administrators, faculty, the community, and students.  Drawing on data before and after the implementation of a documentary film project in a second semester composition course, this text shows how rhetorical media can be used to meet the demands of these stakeholders.

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