Important Events in the History of Rhetoric and Composition
Catherine L. Hobbs and James Berlin, "A Century of Writing Instruction in School and College English." In James Murphy, ed. A Short History of Writing Instruction, 2nd Ed. Hermagoras Press, 2001. 247-289.
- > 19th Century higher education focused on “prepar[ing] an elite for leadership in society” (Hobbs & Berlin 249).
- > Morrill Federal Land Grant Act (1862) – Created public (state) universities specializing in agricultural and technical training. This was a new model for the university – one where students specialized, selected electives, and were trained as narrow “experts” in their chosen disciplines.
- > Harvard creates a new entrance exam in writing (1873-74) – This exam was meant to test writing, but had the ancillary effect of creating national reading lists, because students were asked to write on “such works of standard authors as shall be announced from time to time” (Hobbs & Berlin 251).
- > US Office of Education report “Reorganization of English in the Secondary Schools” (1917) – “English courses should emphasize personal and social needs rather than college requirements….As for writing, there was to be, as in the Committee of Ten report, a progression from creative and individual activities at the lowest grades to social and pore practical activities at the upper levels” (Hobbs & Berlin 259).
- > National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) sponsors the report “An Experience Curriculum in English” (1935) – “The report implied that both privatized expression and public discourse were to be encouraged in the classroom and were not in any way incompatible. Finally, the report came out against the mechanistic and formulaic methods of current-traditional approaches, most controversially in its recommendation that formal grammar training be abandoned in favor of teaching grammar as a part of composing” (Hobbs & Berlin 264).
- > G.I. Bill (1944) - The "Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944” was signed by President Roosevelt, leading the way to educational and training grants to veterans of World War II. For college composition classes, this influx of students represented a new kind of student – one who may have been underprepared in traditional academic terms.
- > College Composition and Communication Conference (CCCC) is formed (1949) – “The formation of the CCCC…signaled a renewed interest in composition at the college level, motivated in part by the large number of veterans attending college on the C.I. Bill” (Hobbs & Berlin 266).
- > Sputnik (1957) and the “National Defense Education Act” (1958) – The perceived threats from the Soviet Union and other foreign countries created the need for a national education plan – focusing first on science and technology, but also on English and language studies.
- > Dartmouth Conference (1966) – brought together American and British teachers of writing. British “growth” models were contrasted with American “specialization,” resulting in the American adoption of process models of composition.
- > National Writing Project (1973) – First established in San Francisco as the Bay Area Writing Project, this program “has established teacher-training centers to improve the teaching of writing in the schools in virtually every state” (Hobbs & Berlin 278).
- > “A Nation at Risk” (1983) – report issued by the national Commission on Excellence in Education that connects corporate interests to education. This and other reports like it give us the infatuation with testing, scores, and “accountability.”
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