In addition, CTR centers around the notion that discourse is delivered in a prescribed, mechanical form, leading to its pedagogical focus on grammar, spelling, syntax, and uniform style and arrangement.
Further, CTR promotes the idea that the purpose of writing is the product, which is expected to reflect a predefined, stagnant reality without consideration for process, authorial identity, or audience.
[4] Likewise, W. Ross Winterowd similarly contends that the pedagogy of CTR is dated and ultimately ineffective in his examination of a number of current-traditional textbooks.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the field of rhetoric and composition saw a process revolution, fueled by two distinct pedagogies: expressivism, both moderate and radical, and cognitivism.
[6] Fellow moderate expressivist Donald Murray maintains that writing is a process of discovery and experimentation, a search for truth in a specious world; his manifesto-like essay provides an apt summation of the arguments against the dated pedagogy of CTR.
[7] Likewise, Maxine Hairston recognizes the paradigm shift occurring in rhetoric and composition and calls for a non-prescriptive atmosphere in teaching, including less focus on grammar and syntax and, again, more concern with the process of growth experienced by the writer.
"[9] Simply put, moderate expressivism promotes the notion of process over product, a pedagogy that evolved in the height of the 1960s and in many ways reflects the ideologies of the era in its emphasis on freedom, expression, discovery, and a search for the writer's authentic self.
For example, In 1966, Susan Sontag published a collection of essays in which she stresses the importance of Happenings, "a cross between art exhibit and theatrical performance," in order to facilitate a sense of group identity, community, and engagement with audience through a shared, unique artistic experience.
[10] Radical expressivists Charles Deemer and William Lutz also suggest that English composition should be taught as and considered a sort of Happening.
Andrea Lunsford addresses the importance of understanding the cognitive mental faculties involved during composition, claiming that the best way to facilitate the writing process is through workshops and discussion rather than lecture-based instruction.
[16] Researchers like cognitivist Sondra Perl conduct extensive studies of the composing process and the stages through which a writer goes in order to better understand how to teach writing.
[17] Cognitivists Linda Flower and John Hayes see an exigency in composition studies to understand how and why a writer makes the choices they do during the writing process.
Patricia Bizzell directly attacks the early cognitivist contention that writing can be understood as distinct sets of mental processes, criticizing "inner-directed" theorists like Flowers and Hayes for focusing too much on the individual writer's language and learning processes and overlooking the importance of society and discourse communities in composition; on the other hand, "outer-directed" theorists like Bizzell recognize the extent to which thinking and language are conditioned by the social context and intended audience being addressed by the writer.
She calls for a new critical pedagogy "of the unknowable," suggesting a need to recognize the absence of universal notions of dialogue, rationality, or knowledge, and instead openly acknowledge the many differing social groups and discourse communities in every classroom.
The pedagogy of post-structuralism is marked by an attempt to redefine rhetoric as it relates to composition, drawing on post-modern ideology calling for new ideas in a modern world.
The fields of composition and rhetoric remain in flux, as scholars continue to debate regarding appropriate pedagogical methods and the best approach to teaching the art of writing.
More recent ideas in composition pedagogy include the notion of rhetoric's relationship to travel, on which pedagogues such as Gregory Clark[35] and Nedra Reynolds[36] have written.
While the goals, methods, and desired results in composition studies are debated and continue to evolve, the importance of writing to the field of education has been indisputably recognized.