Rhetoric Followers Want New Rhetoric - NewView Options Provides the Rhetoric of Newness

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) January 28, 2010 -- Provo, UT, -- Since the 1850s, there have been many complaints in educational circles about the teaching of writing. In 1936, an internationally regarded British authority on communications, I. A. Richards, indicated that colleges should "dismiss... to Limbo" the teaching of Rhetorical writing in freshman English.

In 1921, 1939, and 1959, distinguished members of the National Council of the Teachers of English also recommended the abolition of writing in Freshman English. And in 2003, the National Commission on Writing (NCW) called "for a writing revolution because there's a crisis in the teaching of writing in American schools - far too many of our students write too poorly to do college work." ( http://bit.ly/NCWReport )

Bill Drew, CEO of NewView Options, a company involved with teaching writing, thinks that the NCW is right to be worried. "Sure, there's a real crisis. But then, what do you expect when you keep trying to force an ancient system of speaking, communication, and writing on modern people, a system that should have died when the ancient Greek empire died about 2,000 years ago?"

What system is Mr. Drew referring to? "Rhetoric, of course. In the first place, Rhetoric was intended as a system for teaching Greeks to speak-not write-before huge juries of over 1,000 members. And the crisis is not recent - it keeps popping up, as scholar Robert J. Connors explained in his 1994 article, 'Crisis and Panacea in Composition Studies: A History' ( http://wrt-howard.syr.edu/Bibs/Crises.htm ). That's the whole history of teaching writing: a crisis, a quick fix cure-all, and then sweep it under the rug until someone hollers Crisis! again.

"Doesn't anyone know about the December 8, 1975, Newsweek cover article, 'Why Johnny Can't Write'? Same thing happened then - people got upset and excited, authorities vowed they would do whatever it takes to solve the problem, and then it was forgotten - until a new crisis raised its head in 2003 and authorities made the exact same promises. Seven years later, now, the crisis is being ignored and we're back to schooling as usual, with Rhetoric leading the way down the steepening decline. The 'crisis' will be worse next time, unless we trash Rhetoric."

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