Rhetoric and Composition as Intellectual Work

In response to those who insist that rhetoric and composition should remain only a service discipline, editor Gary A. Olson’s Rhetoric and Composition as Intellectual Work demonstrates that it already is an intellectual discipline, that for at least a quarter of a century the field has developed an impressive tradition of intellectual work in a remarkable assortment of subject areas. Rhetoric and Composition as Intellectual Work suggests the diversity of intellectual projects that have and will continue to make rhetoric and composition more than a service to the university, more than a field devoted solely to improving writing pedagogy, and more than a preliminary to literary studies.

This collection of nineteen essays by some of the most distinguished scholars in the discipline illustrates that rhetoric and composition has much to contribute to the intellectual milieu of the contemporary university, as the field continues to push its disciplinary borders and discover new sites of investigation.

Gary A. Olson is a professor of English and the coordinator of the graduate program in rhetoric and composition at the University of South Florida. A past editor of JAC, his fifteen books include the edited volumes of Philosophy, Rhetoric, Literary Criticism and Interviews: Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives on Rhetoric and Literacy with Irene Gale.