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The Penn State Conference on Rhetoric and Composition
July 8-11, 1992

The Penn State Conference on Rhetoric and Composition, now
entering its second decade, is a four-day gathering of teachers and
scholars.  It offers a generous mixture of plenary and special-interest
sessions in a relaxed atmosphere; a chance for learning, leisure, and
reflection on composition and rhetoric; and an extended opportunity
to discuss professional concerns with nationally known speakers and
interested colleagues.

Each year the conference features plenary sessions, concurrent
sessions, workshops, and roundtable discussions on topics of current
interest. This year, the conference will run concurrently with the
Association of Departments of English (ADE) regional summer
meeting of department heads; several joint activities are planned.  In
addition, three special sessions will be offered on Saturday morning:
(a) New Ideas for Integrating Critical Writing and Critical Reading,
(b) Designing Effective Programs with Peer Tutoring and Peer Review
and (c) Program Assessment in English (sponsored by ADE).

Call for Papers

The program committee invites one-page proposals for papers and
workshops. Multiple submissions are encouraged. Please identify
each proposal as a

paper
whole session
workshop

On each proposal, please include (for each speaker)

the presentation title
your name
your professional affiliation
your home address (current and after June 1)
your home phone number (current and after June 1)
your electronic mail (e-mail) address (if you have one)

If you are willing to chair a session, please let us know that, too. Send
your proposals by April 6 to Davida H. Charney, 117 Burrowes
Building, Penn State University, University Park, PA 16802; phone
(814) 865-9703 or (secretary) 863-3066;  e-mail to IRJ at
PSUVM.PSU.EDU or fax to (814) 863-7285.

Although we receive a great many proposals, we can accept only
about one hundred papers. We will announce this year's program in
early May.

Papers

You may propose a single 20-minute paper or an entire session
(typically consisting of three related papers) on subjects involving
rhetoric and composition. Especially welcome are extensions,
applications, and critiques of the work of our featured speakers.
Other possible topics include rhetorical theory; the composing
process; technical or business writing; advanced composition; ESL;
writing across the curriculum; the history of rhetoric; teaching
methods; collaborative learning; tutoring and writing labs;
connections among reading, writing, and speaking; computers and
writing; legal, political, or religious rhetoric; literacy; language and
stylistics; basic writing; social implications of writing; writing in the
workplace; rhetorical criticism; rhetoric and literature; testing and
assessment; and the administration of writing programs.

Preference will be given to proposals that not only motivate the
issue, but also indicate a substantive scholarly or research approach
and point to interesting conclusions and implications.

Workshops

You may propose a 90- or 120-minute workshop on any of the topics
listed above.  We especially welcome workshops on innovative
pedagogical techniques and on state-of-the-art applications of
educational computing.  Strong preference will be given to workshop
proposals that clearly incorporate hands-on, interactive involvement
of the participants.

Saturday Morning Sessions

On Saturday morning, participants will have a special opportunity to
concentrate for an extended period on one of three important areas:
New Ideas for Integrating Critical Writing and Critical Reading, Peer
Tutoring and Reviewing, and Program Assessment in English.

New Ideas for Integrating Critical Writing and Critical Reading

Recognizing the intrinsic connections between reading and writing--
not only as socially constructive/interpretive acts but also as
cognitive skills--this session will examine productive ways to
integrate critical reading and writing in the classroom.  The session
will include presentations from featured speakers and participants,
as well as opportunities for extended critique and discussion of both
theoretical and pedagogical issues.  To propose a short presentation
for this session, follow the guidelines given under Call for Papers. Be
sure to give your proposal a title and add the label: Saturday
Morning--Writing/Reading.

Designing Effective Programs with Peer Tutoring and Peer Review

One of the most important advances in writing pedagogy of the last
decade has undoubtedly been the use of student peers to help other
students improve their writing.  This session will include both
presentations and interactive workshops that examine the practice of
peer support from a variety of perspectives, from practical concerns
such as effective peer training and supervision to studies of the
effects (positive and negative) of various peer activities.  To propose
a short presentation for this session, follow the guidelines given
under Call for Papers. Be sure to give your proposal a title and add
the label: Saturday Morning--Peer Tutoring/Review.

Program Assessment in English

Like other academic disciplines, English departments are under
increasing pressure to account for the effectiveness of their
programs.  This panel will explore how English departments can
work to satisfy administrative needs for evaluation without
compromising academic integrity.  Conference participants are
invited to attend this session, sponsored by the Association of
Departments of English, which will feature talks from university
administrators, experts in educational assessment, and leaders of
English departments.

Plenary Session Speakers

Donald McCloskey, our keynote speaker, is professor of history and of
economics at the University of Iowa, where he directs the Project on
Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI).  POROI grew out of the Iowa Rhetoric
Seminar, which he co-founded in 1980 to promote scholarly study of
rhetoric and collaborative approaches to writing among faculty in
diverse disciplines. His work on the rhetoric of inquiry has appeared
in numerous articles and books.  He coedited The Rhetoric of the
Human Sciences (1987) and authored Knowledge and Persuasion in
Economics (forthcoming), If You're So Smart: The Narrative of
Economic Expertise (1990), The Consequences of Economic Rhetoric
(1988), and The Rhetoric of Economics (1986), which has been
translated into Italian, French, Spanish and Japanese.

Anne Ruggles Gere, professor of English and of education at the
University of Michigan, is well known for fostering substantive work
in composition at the national level, as a series editor of the MLA
Series on Research and Scholarship in Composition, as Trustee and
Chair of the Board of Trustees of the NCTE Research Foundation, and
most recently, as the 1992 Program Chair for CCCC.  Her own research
encompasses both the theory and pragmatics of composition, as
demonstrated by her articles and books on collaborative writing,
such asWriting Groups (1987), and by her textbook, The Active
Reader (1990).  Her latest volume, Into the Field: the Site of
Composition Studies, a collection of essays describing the interaction
of disciplines within composition studies, is forthcoming from MLA.

Steven Mailloux is professor of English and Comparative Literature at
the University of California at Irvine.  His work examines the
relationships among rhetoric, literary theory, cultural studies, and
hermeneutics.  His book, Rhetorical Power (1989), defines and
demonstrates the productivity of rhetorical histories of specific
interpretive acts.  It builds upon his earlier works, Interpreting Law
and Literature (1988) and Interpretive Conventions:  The Reader in
the Study of American Fiction (1982).  Recent essays include 'The
Turns of Reader-Response Criticism' (1990), 'The Rhetorical Politics
of Editing' (1991), and the forthcoming "Misreading as an Historical
Act:  Cultural Rhetoric, Bible Politics and Fuller's 1845 Review of
Douglass' Narrative."

Featured Speakers

Jeanne Fahnestock is associate professor at the University of
Maryland, where she has served with distinction as director of the
Professional Writing Program.  Author of many essays on coherence,
argument, and scientific rhetoric, she is also co-author of A Rhetoric
of Argument and Readings in Argument.  She and Marie Secor of
Penn State are currently at work on A Rhetoric of Style.

Gerard A. Hauser is professor of Speech Communications at Penn
State, director of the University Scholars Program, and co-editor of
Philosophy and Rhetoric.  He has published numerous articles and
reviews on rhetorical theory and criticism and is the author of
Introduction to Rhetorical Theory (1986).  His present research
focuses on political rhetoric.

Richard Larson, professor of English at the Herbert H. Lehman College
of the City University of New York, served as editor of College
Composition and Communication from 1980 to 1986.  His early work
analyzed discourse structure at the sentence and paragraph levels.
His most recent work (sponsored in part by the Ford Foundation) has
focused on writing curricula and assessment.

Carolyn Miller, professor of English at North Carolina State
University, is well-known for her work on the rhetoric of science and
technology.  Her essay "A Humanistic Rationale for Technical Writing"
(1981) and her edited collection, New Essays in Technical and
Scientific Communication (1984) both received awards from NCTE as
outstanding contributions to scientific and technical communication.
Her most recent work focuses on rhetoric and community.

Christine Neuwirth, associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University,
develops computer aids for writing and researches the effects of such
tools on individual writers, on collaborative learning, and on
classroom interaction.  Her article, "The Role of External
Representation in the Writing Process: Implications for the Design of
Hypertext-Based Writing Tools' (1989), won the Ellen Nold Award
for best article on computers and composition.

Sondra Perl is associate professor of English at the City University of
New York.  Her long-standing interest in the writing process led her
from case studies of unskilled writers to ethnographic studies of the
writing classroom.  This work has appeared in numerous essays and
a coauthored book, Through Teachers' Eyes: Portraits of Writing
Teachers at Work (1986).  Her current work focuses on feminist
pedagogy and the discovery of voice in student writing.

Gary Schumacher, professor of psychology at Ohio University, has
researched both reading and writing processes.  In recent articles in
Written Communication and Research in the Teaching of English, he
has explored how justified we are to proclaim that "writing is
learning." Other recent articles include "Writing in Constrained
Genres" (1987) and "The Relationship Between Content Knowledge
and Topic Choice in Writing" (1989).

William L. Smith, professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh,
likes to test current practices in basic writing, writing assessment,
and sentence-combining.  Recent publications include "Editing
Strategies and Error Correction in Basic Writing" (1987), 'Computers
in the Basic Writing Classroom' (1990) and the forthcoming
"Assessing the Adequacy of Holistic Scoring as A Writing Placement
Technique."


For More Information
About program content
Davida Charney
117 Burrowes Building
The Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA 16802
phone (814) 865-9703
secretary (814) 863-3066
FAX (814) 863-7285
E-mail to IRJ at PSUVM.PSU.EDU

About registration and housing
Chuck Herd
409 Keller Conference Center
The Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA 16802
phone (814) 863-3550
FAX (814) 865-3749