The Centrality of Style

In The Centrality of Style, editors Mike Duncan and Star Medzerian Vanguri argue that style is a central concern of composition studies even as they demonstrate that some of the most compelling work in the area has emerged from the margins of the field. Calling attention to this paradox in his foreword to the collection, Paul Butler observes, "Many of the chapters work within the liminal space in which style serves as both a centralizing and decentralizing force in rhetoric and composition. Clearly, the authors and editors have made an invaluable contribution in their collection by exposing the paradoxical nature of a canon that continues to play a vital role in our disciplinary history."

About the Editors

Mike Duncan is an assistant professor of English at the University of Houston-Downtown, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in professional writing and rhetoric. He has published articles on style and related issues in journals including College English, JAC, and Rhetoric Society Quarterly, as well as in edited collections.

Star Medzerian Vanguri is an assistant professor in the Division of Humanities at Nova Southeastern University. She teaches first-year composition and courses in writing and rhetoric at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Her research interests include style, discourse analysis, onomastics, authorship, and classroom writing assessment. Her article, "Style and the Pedagogy of Response," was recently published in Rhetoric Review.

Publication Information: Duncan, Mike, & Vanguri, Star Medzerian (Eds.). (2013). The Centrality of Style. Perspectives on Writing. Fort Collins, Colorado: The WAC Clearinghouse and Parlor Press. Available at https://wac.colostate.edu/books/centrality/

Publication Date: February 17, 2013

Contact Information:
Mike Duncan: duncanm@uhd.edu
Star Medzerian Vanguri: sm1850@nova.edu

Table of Contents

In PDF Format     In ePub Format

Front Matter

Foreword, Paul Butler

Introduction, Mike Duncan & Star Medzerian Vanguri

Part One: Conceptualizing Style

Introduction to Part One: Conceptualizing Style, Mike Duncan & Star Medzerian Vanguri

An Ethics of Attentions: Three Continuums of Classical and Contemporary Stylistic Manipulation for the 21st Century Composition Classroom, William C. Kurlinkus

Stylistic Sandcastles: Rhetorical Figures as Composition's Bucket and Spade, William FitzGerald

Using Stylistic Imitation in Freshman Writing Classes: The Rhetorical and Meta-Rhetorical Potential of Transitions in Geoffrey of Vinsauf's Medieval Treatises, Denise Stodola

Architectonics and Style, Russell Greer

Making Style Practically Cool and Theoretically Hip, Keith Rhodes

Jim Corder's Generative Ethos as Alternative to Traditional Argument, or Style's Revivification of the Writer-Reader Relationship, Rosanne Carlo

Teaching Style as Cultural Performance, Chris Holcomb and M. Jimmie Killingsworth

Inventio and Elocutio: Language Instruction at St. Paul's Grammar School and Today's Stylistic Classroom, Tom Pace

The Research Paper As Stylistic Exercise, Mike Duncan

Part Two: Applying Style

Introduction to Part Two: Applying Style, Mike Duncan & Star Medzerian Vanguri

Style in Academic Writing, Nora Bacon

Tracking Interpersonal Style: The Use of Functional Language Analysis in College Writing Instruction, Zak Lancaster

Multimodal Style and the Evolution of Digital Writing Pedagogy, Moe Folk

Voice, Transformed: The Potentialities of Style Pedagogy in the Teaching of Creative Nonfiction, Crystal Fodrey

Fighting Styles: The Pedagogical Implications of Applying Contemporary Rhetorical Theory to the Persuasive Prose of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Hays, Luke Redington

Style and the Professional Writing Curriculum: Teaching Stylistic Fluency through Science Writing, Jonathan Buehl

Toward a Pedagogy of Psychic Distance, Erik Ellis

What Scoring Rubrics Teach Students (and Teachers) about Style, Star Medzerian Vanguri

Perspectives on Writing

Series Editor: Susan H. McLeod, University of California, Santa Barbara

This book is available in whole and in part in Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF). It is also available in print at Parlor Press.