(Re)Locating the Rhetorical Commonplaces of Failure and Risk-Taking

Abstract

We argue that intellectual risk-taking offers unacknowledged potential for the writing classroom. But in order to incorporate intellectual risk into the RCWS classroom, we need a theory of its role and pedagogical practices to operationalize it. Our article puts forth a theory of intellectual risk-taking as a rhetorical, deliberative activity and offers six pedagogical topoi (emerging from survey data) where instructors and students are likely to encounter risks in their writing process. The topoi serve as inventional prompts for students, instructors, and programs interested in helping students to cultivate rhetorical capabilities as writers.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Declaration of Interest Statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Notes

1 We wish to thank RR reviewers Kellie Sharp-Hoskins and John Trimbur for their insightful feedback, questions, and suggestions, which greatly improved this manuscript.

2 The Teagarden et al. study referenced here and throughout this article was conducted by the present authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Carolyn Commer

Carolyn Commer is an assistant professor and Director of the Rhetoric and Writing PhD program at Virginia Tech. Her research interests include rhetorical theory and pedagogy, public deliberation, and higher education policy. She teaches courses on ancient and modern rhetorical theory, critical theory, and technical editing and style. Her work has been published in Composition Studies, Argumentation and Advocacy, Journal for the History of Rhetoric, and Literacy in Composition Studies. She can be reached at [email protected].

Ana Cooke

Ana Cooke is a scholar, writer, and editor whose research interests include professional writing, rhetoric of science and technology, public discourse and risk communication, and writing studies. She is a former assistant professor of English at Penn State University and Assistant Director of First-Year Writing at Carnegie Mellon. She has taught courses in composition, professional writing, and contemporary rhetorics of science and public discourse. Her work has appeared in Composition Studies and the Journal of Technical Writing and Communication.

Justin Mando

Justin Mando is an associate professor of English at Millersville University of Pennsylvania. His research interests center on science writing, environmental rhetoric, and rhetorics of place and citizenship. He teaches courses in science writing, technical writing, environmental advocacy writing, rhetorical theory, and discourse analysis. His book, Fracking and the Rhetoric of Place, was published by Lexington. He can be reached at [email protected].

Alexis Teagarden

Alexis Teagarden is an associate professor of English and Communication at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, where she also directs the First-Year English program. Her research interests include writing pedagogy and its intersections with web literacy and intellectual risk-taking as well as faculty development and evaluation practices. Her work can be found in WPA: Writing Program Administration, Composition Studies, Forum: Issues about Part-Time and Contingent Faculty, and Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy. She can be reached at [email protected].