The New Work of Composing

Edited by Debra Journet, Cheryl E. Ball, & Ryan Trauman

Book overview. This edited collection explores theoretical and practical questions about multimodal, digital production through lenses of rhetoric/composition, digital writing studies, English studies, and the humanities.
- Computers and Composition Digital Press
- Utah State University Press
Not Your Mother's Argument

Morgan Gresham and Roxanne Kirkwood Aftanas

Abstract. This chapter explores how identity and expectations change audience responses to our work as scholars. Using our own compositions as a point of departure, we argue that authors cannot use the master's tools of traditional argument to look at the new work of composition scholarship. As our discipline transitions to new compositions, we see the increasing expectation of a "second shift" of work that requires remediation into traditional argument if our work is to be viable. We push against this expectation, using our digital compositions to create feminist identities and scholarship.

APA Citation: Gresham, Morgan, & Aftanas, Roxanne Kirkwood. (2012). Not your mother's argument. In Debra Journet, Cheryl E. Ball, & Ryan Trauman (Eds.), The new work of composing. Computers and Composition Digital Press/Utah State University Press. http://ccdigitalpress.org/nwc/chapters/gresham-aftanas/
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Invitational Rhetoric

“The rhetorics of conquest, conversion, and advice all involve the intent of the rhetor to change the behavior and perspectives of others.... We have chosen to label [another type of] rhetoric invitational because it assumes the form of an offering, an opening, or an availability, and not an insistence. ...The primary and distinguishing feature of invitational rhetoric is a decision by the rhetor to eschew the intent to persuade” (Sonja Foss & Cindy Griffin, 1993, pp. 7-8)

Invitational rhetoric invites, rather than commands, our attention. Proposed as an alternative to argument, Foss and Griffin (1993) suggest that by choosing argument, we shift our attention and our power away from ourselves and our choices, thereby providing others with power over us. Buy into our argument if you will and contribute to our power; disagree and we lose political capital.

“Lack of acknowledgement of feminism’s successes, then, often means we select objectives and employ strategies that no longer seem to be be appropriate responses to the current rhetorical situation.” (Foss & Foss, 2009, p. 43)

“We propose two primary criteria for judging the effectiveness of interpretation-based rhetorical strategies. The first is to ask the question: ‘Am I creating the world in which I want to be living?’ Another way to think about this criterion is: ‘Does the communication in which I am engaged move me closer to the kind of world in which I wan to live?’ If the answer to these questions is ‘no,’ we try to stop what we are doing and do something else—something that does have the capacity to create the world we desire.” (Foss & Foss, 2009, p. 53)

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The New Work of Composing

Edited by Debra Journet, Cheryl E. Ball, & Ryan Trauman

Not Your Mother's Argument

Morgan Gresham and Roxanne Kirkwood Aftanas

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