Nov. 16, 2004
Contact: Gordon Ovenshine 724-738-4854;
SRU ENGLISH PROFESSORS WRITE “IN
SEARCH OF ELOQUENCE”
SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – Two Slippery Rock
University English professors have written a book that aims to
improve college students’ writing by further integrating
principals of composition and rhetoric into all academic
departments, known as writing-across curriculum.
“In Search of Eloquence” by Dr.
Cornelius Cosgrove and Dr. Nancy Barta-Smith argues that academic
departments should dialogue on writing’s role in degree
programs, scholarship and professional practices and adapt teaching
methods for a more centralized approach.
start talking to faculty outside of English, you challenge and
expand the pedagogy of writing,” Cosgrove said. “How
students write often times varies from discipline to discipline, in
terms of the style and kinds of arguments used. This kind of
cross-discipline talk and sharing of knowledge might lead to
writing instruction that is truly
Hampton Press, Inc., the 220-page book includes chapters on writing
as argument and persuasion, defining genres, style and further
steps toward eloquence. The authors expect most readers to be
academics, particularly those in composition studies. They hope it
leads to more writing-across curriculum at
Barta-Smith authors interviewed eight professors at SRU about
writing and integrated their extensive comments into the text of
their book. The authors conclude a comprehensive rhetorical
education is possible only through the full involvement of faculty
in every academic discipline.
“The book links scholarship on
rhetoric, composition and English studies to the perspective of
faculty outside of English,” Cosgrove said.
acknowledge most graduates will use their writing skills to advance
their employers’ goals, not in the idealistic, academic sense
of exploring truth and knowledge. Therefore, they developed a
concept called “functional expertise,” which identifies
how writing contributes to the practice as well as the study of a
discipline or profession.
In the past,
English departments traditionally prepared students for graduate
school. In calling for a more centralized, universitywide approach,
Cosgrove and Barta-Smith argue students need “practical
savvy,” writing skills that incorporate expert knowledge with
an application to their chosen career path.
they say sport management majors need to learn the writing style of
the field. Ditto with math, exercise science, physical therapy and
other professions. Cross-disciplinary dialogue between professors
in English and those departments will enable teaching methods to be
adapted for greater effectiveness, the authors
prominent English academics, Dr. David Bleich of the University of
Rochester and Dr. Art Young of Clemson University, provided
positive comments for the back cover.
called it a pioneering work, noting, “There is so much rich
and useful information here, found in the form of fluently
presented, reflective, thoughtful opinion by faculty members from
whom we rarely hear.”
said, “This book will be important to
writing-across-the-curriculum practitioners and administrators and
will serve as a model for cross-campus talk about teaching and
#PN, PR, PgN