Assembling Composition (Studies in Writing and Rhetoric)

Drawing on historical studies as well as on current innovations of composing, Assembling Composition provides a new framework for understanding composing. As Kathleen Blake Yancey, Stephen J. McElroy, and their contributors detail, assemblage theory explains disparate composing practices—from postcard production in the early twentieth century to database-informed composing in the twenty-first, from museum-inspired collecting to creative repetitions of authentic Native American practices. And as a key concept, assemblage has been field tested in several settings, including first-year composition, upper-level writing courses, and graduate courses. Assembling Composition speaks particularly to four dimensions of assemblage: Ways that assemblage helps us theorize current digital and material composing practicesWays that employing assemblage as a key term and practice in the teaching of writing can assist both teachers and studentsWays that assemblage has historically contributed to everyday composingAnd ways that we can interrogate assemblage as an ethical practiceCollectively, these chapters complicate and enrich our understandings of composing, our sense of what constitutes a text, and our expectation of the potential effects of texts. Read more