Composition: History & Theory: 1930 - 1939
Thesis-Driven Textbooks
Description
Robert J. Connors in “The Rise and Fall of the Modes of Discourse” (1981) connects the paradigm shift toward thesis-driven textbooks in the early 1930s to the separation of rhetoric from English Departments. Connors traces this displacement from 1920 and highlights that during this time period (1920-1930s) there was a lack of concern for the integrity of composition pedagogy. Composition textbooks during this time, for the most part, were begin written by literary scholars who wanted to put food on the table.
Date of Upload
3/13/09