Is anyone a fan of the (cancelled) television series called Firefly??? In that science fiction series, characters often referred to the “universe” as the “verse.” Nice word for us, don’t you think? English professors tend to care quite a lot about verses! Sometimes, when we are feeling cantankerous, we are more about this versus that, rather than any single ‘verse, but consider the following.
We can use the metaphor of the universe to organize a discussion of how we have come to the teaching of writing. The universe is full of stars, gravitational pull, constellations,” “solar systems,” “black holes,” and such. The universe remains a frontier for exploration, but it is not entirely unknown. If each of us add the name of a comp/rhet colleague who has been influential to our thinking or the title of an article or book which helps locate our current thinking about writing instruction, we will create a picture of our ELS “zodiac.” Are we all in the same “solar system” in our teaching, or are we “galaxies” away from each other?
Who are the comp/rhet theorists, researchers, teachers who have served as our stars?
Which articles or books have been so compelling that we gravitate to them?
What constellation of assumptions, research results, and practices do we occupy?