College English - Volume 66, Issue 5, 2004

The author suggests that if compositionists consider their work in the context of postmodern sciences such as chaos theory they may entertain the notion that order emerges from chaos in unpredictable yet comprehensible (albeit new and radical) ways. She offers the hope that such a notion may aid them in effectively resisting pressures to define themselves and their students, through practices such as retrogressive pedagogies and standardized testing, as the gatekeepers and practitioners of “order.”

The author examines the careers of Francis James Child, first professor of English at Harvard, and his followers George Lyman Kittredge and Stith Thompson to show how these early professionals’ decisions regarding audience and the relationship of literary and folkloric studies to composition helped to establish issues and audiences in English studies. She suggests that recognition of lingering limitations from the discipline’s early days may enable academics to consider different choices today.

Reviewed are:Public Works: Student Writing as Public Text, edited by Emily J. Isaacs and Phoebe Jackson; Re(Articulating) Writing Assessment for Teaching and Learning, by Brian Huot; and What We Really Value: Beyond Rubrics in Teaching and Assessing Writing, by Bob Broad.