College English - Volume 73, Issue 2, 2010

The malcliché, far from being the throwaway material of unfortunate misspeak, and far from being the ugly stepchild of something already detestable, can be a vital source of new semantic complexity as well as an unconscious artistic creation worthy of our attention.

Judy Garland’s correspondence with magazines and fans in the early 1950s serves as a case study of rhetorical strategies that might operate in celebrity life writing aimed at reparation and self-justification.

Recalling moments when he appeared in court or participated in similar proceedings, the author argues that English professors must be ready to defend the values they represent.

Self-disclosure should be not given some special status in student writing or in teaching. Nor should it be employed simply because it is an alternative to more traditional academic discourses. Instead, self-disclosure should be evaluated with the same rigor and respect that we bring to those other discourses, and should be employed only when it is an equally good or better rhetorical choice.