Rereading Bartholomae and Fulkerson: Two Major Compositionists

Wincharles Coker (PhD  Candidate)

Department of Humanities
Michigan Technological University, USA

Abstract

This review brings to light key theoretical concerns that preoccupied the thoughts of two perceptive American compositionists: Bartholomae and Fulkerson. In their respective articles “Inventing the University” and “Four Philosophies of Composition”, the two argue strongly about the need for composition instructors to be specific in their writing tasks, and advocate that the writing process should place students at the core and not the periphery of engagements in order to maximize instructional contact between teacher and student. The articles are seminal and rich in content for theoretical, practical, and methodological applications in the modern ESL classroom.

Key words: audience awareness, discourse community, registers, rhetorical knowledge

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