Teaching Composition as a Social Process

In Teaching Composition As A Social Process, educator and scholar Bruce McComiskey advocates a social approach to teaching writing while opposing composition instruction that relies on cultural theory for content. This last is because relying on cultural theory for content often prejudges the ethical character of institutions and reverts unnecessarily to product-centered practices in the classroom. McComiskey persuasively argues for teaching writing as situated in discourse itself, in the constant flow of texts produced within social relationships and institutions. He urges writing teachers not to neglect the linguistic and rhetorical levels of composing, but rather strengthen them with attention to the social contexts and ideological investments that pervade both the processes and products of writing. Teaching Composition As A Social Process is enthusiastically recommended reading for teachers at all grade levels of composition development, and has great insightful values for school administrators and curriculum developers as well.