by Bremen Vance (Original)
Teaching writing requires instructors to address a question that does not have a clear answer: what type of writing should students consider good writing? Because the quality of writing can be judged only with an eye on the context in which it is read, writing instructors are forced into the unfortunate and impossible role of oracle when they are asked to foresee the future writing occasions and tasks that students will encounter. We would better serve students by equipping them with tools for navigating unfamiliar terrain themselves. Students need, as it were, a rhetorical map and compass in finding their way.
Hey, that’s my article!