Review by Choice Review
Haswell's book is an idiosyncratic but ultimately convincing examination of how college students develop as writers and how teachers interpret--and misinterpret--such development. The book draws on extensive research in composition, rhetoric, philosophy, and cognitive development, as well as on Haswell's experience as a college teacher of writing and as a director of composition at a large state university. In 14 chapters, Haswell mixes anecdote and theory to examine why college students write the way they do and how teachers can most productively measure, monitor, and guide the growth of student writers. He assesses the current confict between ^D["expressivist^D]" theories that emphasize the individual student's voice and ^D["constructionist^D]" ones that stress the social and academic modes of discourse that mold students' writing. Haswell himself is a constructionist who seeks a flexible pedagogy that honors the individual. The book includes specific recommendations for curriculum design and for constructing sequences of assignments aimed at enhancing the growth and maturity of writing that college students produce. The bibliography is extensive and useful. Highly recommended for libraries with solid composition and rhetoric holdings, and especially for libraries that will be used by prospective teachers of college writing.
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
