I'm enjoying the textbook reviews in class these last couple of weeks. It's interesting to see the similarities and differences in Composition textbooks. I've come to see myself as a consumer and Composition textbook producers as advertisers and commercial entities. This was never more true than when I presented an MLA tutorial prepared by Owl at Purdue this week. I've used this little PowerPoint before and never noticed the product placement, at least not as such. It's not even subtle. For the first time, as I used this resource, I felt like a sellout to "the man." Very weird.
Later in the week, I was clearing out my office at home and happened upon a Comp textbook I found on EBay some years ago. It boasts a 1967 copyright date, and is 891 pages long with not one single page of "Readings" we so highly value. This book is entitled Warring's English Grammar and composition. It is intense, covering grammar concepts I didn't study until I was a senior as an English major. The text begins at the sentence level and takes students through parts of speech, the phrase, complements, the clause, sentence structure, usage, punctuation, and finally all sorts of writing projects. It also covers using the library sources available in 1967. And, finally, oral communication, which was apparently part of the Composition class in that time.
Imagine having to lead our students through all these avenues today. Our classes take a mere 100 pages out of the middle of this vast text. And, it seems we (at least I) have plenty to accomplish in a sixteen-week course. I wonder many weeks instructors required to complete a course of this nature; and I wonder how successful they were.
Magi, it's really interesting that you bring in this perspective from historical composition textbooks. And, what's even more interesting is how the one you dug up differs from one I recently discovered. I recently discovered a textbook called Forming/Thinking/Writing by Ann E. Berthoff: http://www.amazon.com/Forming-Thinking-Writing-Ann-Berthoff/dp/0867090278 The book is less than 300 pages and spends no time on grammar. Instead, it focuses on the process of discovering and unearthing and thinking critically. There are "readings" in a way, but most of the readings are samples from student writing. However, this is bound like a trade-paperback book. There are no glossy pages. No color. No intricate layout. It reads like a book front to cover (which I have yet to see in contemporary books).
ReplyDeleteI'd be interested in comparing and contrasting the one you found and the one I found. Maybe we could learn something about how we got from there to here.