Dear ATEGers,
If you attended ATEG this past July, you saw and heard Don
Stewart discuss Francis Christensen's "Notes Toward a New
Rhetoric: Six Essays for Teachers," first published in 1967. The
essays were reprints of wonderful articles Christensen had written for
College English and 4Cs. Two of them "A Generative Rhetoric
of the Sentence" and " A Generative Rhetoric of the
Paragraph" were especially influential at a time when the writing
process was just getting underway. He told his readers that
"we do not really teach our captive charges to write better--we
merely expect them to." And then he showed us how to teach
them. I learned so much about crafting sentences and paragraphs
from him. And everything I know about restrictive/nonrestrictive
punctuation and absolute phrases came from his chapters on those two
subjects!
The second edition of "Notes" came out in 1978, after
his death. His wife, Bonnijean, added three more essays. But
"Notes Toward a New Rhetoric: Nine Essays for Teachers" has
been out of print for several decades.
Until now.
In July Don explained that he had acquired the rights to the work
from Bonnijean. And thanks to Don, this wonderful book is now
available again. He had it printed by Booklocker, a POD (print
on demand) publisher.
It's available from them: www.booklocker.com
Just put in the title: Notes Toward a New Rhetoric" and
click "buy paperback." I should tell you that you'll find a
Martha blurb on the back cover. And it's a nice cover, indeed.
And speaking of ATEG, I hope that you will make plans to join us
this coming summer at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon--just a
few miles from my hometown! If you've been thinking about a
Western vacation, this is your chance! I've already made my airline
reservations. The dates of the conference are July 11-12 (with a
minicourse on the 9th and 10th.) Watch for registration
information in the ATEG Newsletter.
Martha