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Luke Jordan Lyman Barner Dr. Lauren Mason ENGL 1101H 9 September 2013 Working Outline Summary: Dr. Elbows essay seeks to expose weaknesses in the fields of composition and literature and suggest ways to eliminate those weaknesses by applying traits of one of the fields to the other. The essay also subtly suggests that composition is not given due credit, and literature takes more than its share of recognition. I. Premise: A. Conflict between fields of the fields of literature and composition 1. Elbow claims that composition programs are underfunded and more practical than literature programs, which have more funding 2. Composition is growing while literature is weakening B. maintaining the marriage (Elbow 534) C. Exploring the cultures or traditions (Elbow 534) of literature and composition D. What literature and composition have to offer to each other Personal connection to the subject: A. Pathetic appeal it is based on personal experience not scientific studies. 1. This is probably a nod to the literature audience, who may be more receptive to a more artistic/less rigid argument. 2. Elbow has been teaching in college for forty years, bases his feel/sense on his experiences throughout the years. B. Elbow mentions late in the article that composition lacks recognition in scholarly fields. This essay may be an effort to legitimize the field in the eyes of English scholars. What composition has to offer literature: A. Teaching based on interaction and workshop-style activity--...designed to create experiences (Elbow 535) B. Composition values teaching as equal to scholarship, as opposed to literature where teaching is considered lower C. Composition values not just teaching, but the students themselves. D. Students need to learn how to both engage with a text emotionally as well as read it critically E. Literature should teach writing in addition to its traditional course content

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IV.

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F. People in literature culture should become more open-minded and refrain from being so judgmental toward people who have different tastes G. Literature should take note of how composition works on a structural level, because it is becoming less unified, which has been a positive trait for composition, but also comes with disadvantages that literature could have difficulty dealing with. H. (Elbows summary) Literature should learn less pretension, more acceptance of students and more open-mindedness, less obsessive criticalness, and just sitting with, attending to, or contemplating a text (Elbow 543) What literature has to offer composition: A. Teaching metaphorical language as an acceptable part of composition, as it allows students to exercise the full extent of their linguistic and cognitive ability B. Composition should learn to value finer works of English C. Playfulness and style (534) D. Composition should not oversimplify or be as reductive as it is E. Structure, so that composition can gain status as a field of scholarship amongst higher-ed groups such as the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Chronicle of Higher Education Fronts on which both cultures could improve: A. Making use of both rhetorical language and figurative language B. Valuing refined taste in English without incorporating elitism or snobbery C. Both should learn that a lack of a central methodology or single-vision center (544) can be a positive thing for a field of scholarship and teaching, and learn to value pluralism.

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Works Cited Elbow, Peter. The Cultures of Literature and Composition: What Could Each Learn From the Other? College English, Vol. 64, no.5, (2002): 533-546. Web. 11 September 2013.