ENC 5700-Fall 2025-Barajas

Theories of Composition focuses on the history of the field and the theories that inform composition studies in the 20th and early 21st centuries. The course will present an overview of these concerns by moving students through representative selections in the field’s scholarship (namely, many of the selections that the FSU Rhetoric & Composition Program requires for the doctoral qualifying exam in this area). The course will consider three central questions: What has the scholarship revealed about college-level writing as a practice and the composing of written artifacts more generally? What do the various theories seeking to explain the process and impact of the teaching of writing mean for the various stake-holders acknowledged in the scholarship? What direction is the field taking as a result of its history and current issues facing it?

Course requirements include reading scholarly texts; engaging in synchronous and asynchronous group discussions; leading discussions on class reading selections; completing a take-home midterm exam; and composing a final project that demonstrates awareness of the reaches of composition theory.