Problem Definition in Academic Writing

English departments have always had great influence upon how writing was conceived of and taught, and that influence is now being extended through writingacross-the-curriculum programs and the new interest in mapping the world of discourse. From both the domains of composition pedagogy (e.g., Maimon) and literary theory (e.g., Culler 210-26) have come convincing arguments for examining traditional literary concerns in relation to nonfictional discourse. Curiously, however, English department writing itself has received little or no scrutiny as a form of nonliterary discourse. Despite proliferating theories about how readers construct interpretations, theories of literary interpretation have focused on the discourse conventions of literature and paid little or no attention to those of written interpretation. We have generally ignored both the process of writing a literary interpretation and the nature of the final written product. We are in the curious position, then, of knowing a great deal about writing without having undergone much self-examination about our own discipline-specific processes or discourse forms.