Conventional Topics and Reading at the CCCC (2012)

Over twenty years ago in a Journal of Advanced Composition article, George Otte stated [r]eading compositions weak spot (139). Nearly a decade later, Marguerite Helmers opened her edited collection about pedagogy with a statement that despite being surrounded by and things to read, assignments given and assignments read, the act of not part of the common professional discourse in studies. as praxis, she states, is the least studied of the present areas of research and emphasis in the field of rhetoric and composition. And in 2007, David Jolliffe wrote in a review essay that reading as a concept largely absent from the theory and practice of college composition (473). dearth observed by these scholars may seem strange given that sessions on at composition's biggest conference, the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC), have been noticeably filling over the past few years, indicating apparent interest in the subject.That not a bigger part of the conversations in scholarship also odd given that is, and always has been, the other part of the literacy equation. and writing are two sides of the same coin, a coin that has always had significant purchase but one with perhaps greater value now in this age of technology and concerted attention to college and career readiness. For the past ten years, organizations such as the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA), and the assessment organization ACT have released publications pointing to literacy problems in adolescents and young adults, particularly regarding ability.1 Alarmist publications are nothing new, but add to them the recent development of the Common Core state standards adopted by 48 states, standards that draw particular attention to teaching skills and the attention to deserve special note. Any of us teaching-any subject at any level-know firsthand how difficult it to get students to read for class. Their world one of short Facebook posts, text messages, e-mail, web pages focused on the visual and hypertext, and an abundance of communication delivered audibly or visually instead of needing to be read. Not only do they not want to read, they are in a context that continually mitigates the sustained attention necessary to read long and read deeply. Now more than ever seems a time to give attention at least equal to that we give students' ability to write.At the 2004 CCCC, Elizabeth Flynn and Patricia Harkin presented a featured session titled Reading Matters. session description in the conference program states that although and literacy were at one time topic categories at CCCC, their scholarship has diminished significantly in our field. Citing the loss of topic categories for reading,2 decreasing sessions, and few articles in journals, Harkin and Flynn's session discussed the loss to studies given this eclipse of reading. Four Cs a reasonable place to look for current treatment of subjects, including reading, in studies, perhaps more than in composition's journals because it can be so inclusive and make available so much research at one time. convention the major conference for scholar-practitioners in composition, typically drawing over 3,000 attendees each year. Generally between 500 and 600 sessions are offered at the CCCC, with an average of 1,500 speakers. For those published or unpublished, seasoned or novice, the Four Cs can be regarded as a collection of what are regarded-at least by conference proposal reviewers-as interesting and important contributions to the field. In her 2007 article in College Composition and Communication, The Erasure of Language, Susan Peck MacDonald also examined programs. She states, CCCC programs are useful because they offer a yearly snapshot of our professional concerns that can be charted to trace the dominance or disappearance of particular interests. …