May 2, 2003

The Misunderstood Discipline of Composition Studies

To the Editor:

"Is the field of composition studies contributing enough to efforts to teach students to write? Should the field be judged by how it helps writing instruction, or by the value of its research?" On the surface, the questions asked in The Chronicle's online Colloquy, prompted by "Deconstructing Composition" (March 21), seem to suggest an argument about the value of teaching a particular subject compared with the value of research about that subject. That is certainly an