Please note this is a temporary site. We are moving the contents to a new one shortly.

Abstract/About this Site

Much writing about current trends in composition programs centers on the pedagogical uses and effects of computers; however, while computers are often reified as a new literacy driving composition, we often neglect to look at the multiple underlying power structures that Foucault and Bourdieu would say are just as instrumental in forming and shaping the discipline. 

By analyzing the development of the writing program at Michigan Technological University, a CCC Fall 2004 Writing Program Certificate winner, we hope to show how power structures within the department, between disciplines, and between the university and national trends shape writing programs, and thus shape the discipline as a whole. 

Our analysis begins by looking at the history of the department and focuses on its current embrace of computerized design/visuals in the composition classroom.  This case study will demonstrate that a major aspect of a flourishing department (and the discipline it represents) is the ability to successfully negotiate within these power struggles, which are both a threat to its survival and an impetus to evolve.

MTU 2004-2005 Catalog

We began this project by looking at the changes in MTU's writing program as noted in course catalogues printed from the school's beginning to the present.