Out of the Woods: Emerging Traditions in the Teaching of Writing

Twenty-five years ago, writing instruction was characterized by an approach that focused on linguistic and rhetorical form. Since then, we have gone into the woods in search of new approaches, focusing in turn on the writer and the writer's processes, on academic content, and on the reader's expectations. In our search for a new approach, we have come up against some thorny issues, five of which are described in detail: the topics for writing, the issue of real writing, the nature of the academic discourse community, contrastive rhetoric, and responding to writing. The difficulty of negotiating our way also makes us susceptible to false trails. The paper ends with a discussion of emerging traditions that reflect shared recognitions rather than provide new methodologies.