Preface
The opening sentence of the preface to the first edition of The Bedford Bibliography in 1984 stated that "The study of composition is well established as a specialization in English, a serious discipline worthy of advanced graduate work." The former claim was based on the growing quantity and sophistication of scholarship in the field, on the rising numbers of composition specialists being hired and tenured, and on the appearance of more and more courses on composition theory and pedagogy in graduate school offerings. Still, the claim that the field was "well established" may have been just a little tendentious—a statement of confidence and hope rather than a clear fact. Today, though, the study of composition seems unequivocally well established. The latter claim in the opening sentence, that the discipline was worthy of graduate work, was true then as now. Then, however, we had vanishingly few colleagues with degrees in composition.
More scholars means more scholarship: Extraordinary growth in the quantity of scholarship in the discipline has been particularly evident to us in the time since the fifth edition of the Bibliography in 2000. Most notable is the proliferation of books, both edited collections and monographs. Relatively few books appeared in the 1984 edition—a half dozen collections of previously published articles and a couple of pedagogical books by single authors. In subsequent editions of the Bibliography, those numbers increased, to be sure, but preparing for the current edition, we faced hundreds of books in history, theory, literacy, communication, administration, and every branch of pedagogy. In addition, new journals have arisen and established ones have flourished. Each year since the late 1980s, the comprehensive CCCC Bibliography has recorded between sixteen hundred and two thousand items. Reviewing and selecting from this mass of material would have been impossible for the three of us alone. While we have benefited from suggestions offered by many readers and reviewers, for the current edition we have also formally enlisted nineteen consultants (identified and thanked in the Acknowledgments below) to sift through the materials in particular categories and suggest which books and essays should be considered for inclusion in the Bibliography. This task was not easy for any of us and making selections was very difficult.
For the most part, we have attempted to adhere to the same guidelines in the sixth edition that shaped the first: selecting materials that represent the theoretical and pedagogical concerns in composition studies today and those that will be useful to the working teacher of composition. We recognize, however, that the Bibliography has been used in graduate courses in composition and that there are now many teachers who are specialists in the field. Although we continue to believe that the job of the Bibliography is to introduce the wide range of valuable scholarship in the field to the many writing teachers who are not specialists, we have now included citations for works of history, theory, and research that are not, strictly speaking, "immediately applicable to classroom practice" but that engage pressing issues for the discipline. We have had nonetheless to make some uncomfortable decisions about what theoretical issues, scholarly disputes, and research findings might or might not be of interest to this audience and about which of the older pedagogical materials included in past editions of the Bibliography have retained or lost their usefulness. Some pieces that should be on the reading lists of courses in composition theory or cited as milestones in the development of the field will not be found here.
In this sixth edition of the Bibliography, we have grouped the 704 entries under five major headings and thirty subheadings (see the table of contents).
First, under the heading "Resources" appears information on basic tools for research in the field, in sections on "Periodicals" and "General Bibliographies." (Bibliographies on specific topics appear in the appropriate sections.) Under the second major heading, "History and Theory," we have three subheads. "The Rhetorical Tradition" cites primary texts from classical to modern times. "History of Rhetoric and Education" selects secondary texts covering the same time period. "Rhetoric and Composition Theory" collects important work done in recent years on discourse, argument, genre, ideology, approaches to composition pedagogy and research, and other theoretical concerns.
The third major heading has been renamed for this edition; "Composing, Literacy, and Rhetorics of Writing" introduces "The Process Movement," which includes entries that range over a period of nearly thirty years. "Literacy," the second section, includes works on literacy theory, cultural literacy, literacy programs, diversity, and teaching issues associated with these concerns. The following sections follow roughly the classical model of rhetoric, beginning with "Invention and Pre-Writing," and followed by "Arrangement" and "Argument." Works cited in "Arrangement" discuss systems for classifying the structures of paragraphs and essays, structures that can be used to teach patterns for composing. "Argument" treats arrangement issues affecting the entire structure of a text, such as the enthymeme or the Toulmin model. "Audience," the next section, groups works defining audience and its uses in teaching writing. The following section, "Revision," includes works on the place of revision in the composing process, especially as a way of developing ideas. Under "Style, Grammar, and Usage," corresponding to the third classical canon, "style," we have grouped works on sentence combining, other methods of increasing syntactic fluency in student writing, and prose style; we have also placed here works on teaching Standard English usage and grammar. Finally, "Response and Evaluation" includes works on responding to student writing, conference teaching, grading, portfolios, and assessment.
The fourth major heading, "Curriculum Development," begins with the section "Course Development," which includes works on writing course design and teaching. Then special topics are addressed: "Collaborative Learning" lists works on the theory and practice of writing groups and peer response. "Essay and Personal Writing" highlights works on the genre of the essay, on voice in writing, and on pedagogical techniques for helping students write more honestly and less pompously. "Literature and Composition" includes works on the theoretical connections between the two and on the use of literature in composition classes. "Advanced Composition" cites works on history and theory as well as pedagogical techniques for teaching advanced writing courses. "Basic Writing" features works that help teachers to understand the circumstances of underprepared writers, the conditions of multicultural basic writing classrooms, the kinds of errors beginning college writers make, and the effects on their writing of cultural and political considerations. The intersections of "Gender, Race, and Class" are represented in a section that addresses the influence of socially constructed gender roles and sexual orientation on writing, and techniques for feminist teaching. The implications for writing pedagogy of "Cultural Studies" appears next, followed by "Teaching English as a Second Language," which includes works analyzing the writing for students whose first language is not English. Issues concerning writing in the workplace are divided into two sections, "Technical Communication" and "Business Communication," and both categories evince new interest in visual communication.
The fifth major heading, "Writing Programs," provides introductory material on administrative concerns. "Writing Program Administration" addresses program design and evaluation, teacher training, and working conditions; "Writing Centers" cites theoretical and practical works on setting up and managing tutorial workshops, including tutor training; "Writing across the Curriculum" provides material on cross-disciplinary course design and on faculty development in interdisciplinary writing programs; "Electronic Writing Technologies" cites recent work on using computers, hypertext, and networks in writing instruction; and "Service Learning" cites resources for developing writing courses and programs that include a community-based
component.
In the annotations of articles and single-author books, we attempt to summarize the thesis and main points of the work. In annotations of edited collections, of which there are now a great many, we characterize the central theme of the collection and then list several of the authors and essays included, choosing titles that give a sense of the contents of the collection. In collections of previously published articles, we include cross-references if the article has been cited separately. For edited collections of new essays, however, we have as a matter of policy not cited articles separately when the entire collection is cited. We have been partial to edited collections whose themes are carefully articulated and whose contributors have adhered to the volumes' stated purposes.
The entries in The Bedford Bibliography are numbered consecutively. Numbers in brackets, used for citations in "A Brief History of Rhetoric and Composition" and for cross-references in the bibliographic listings, refer to these entry numbers and can also be used to locate items in the index.
In selecting works for The Bedford Bibliography, our chief concern has been to provide access to materials that would be helpful to practicing writing teachers. Even so, we have undoubtedly left out much that is important, despite our efforts—and the efforts of our consultants—to be fair if not exhaustive. We welcome, as always, suggestions for revision.