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Article
Harvard, Again: Considering Articulation and Accreditation in Rhetoric and Composition’s History
Rhetoric Review (2014)
  • Ryan Skinnell, San Jose State University
Abstract
First-year composition emerged at Harvard largely because of administrative attempts to address institutional, as opposed to pedagogical, issues. In particular, Harvard administrators sought to improve articulation with public high schools in order to increase enrollments, attract new populations of students, and retain matriculants. First-year composition provided a mechanism for doing so. Because of first-year composition’s value for articulation, it was endorsed by accreditation associations and consequently spread across the country as accreditation did. Articulation and accreditation were not expressly concerned with writing instruction, but they ultimately had profound effects on the development of writing instruction in American higher education.
Keywords
  • archival research,
  • Harvard,
  • articulation,
  • accreditation,
  • Charles W. Eliot,
  • first-year composition,
  • history,
  • historiography
Publication Date
2014
Citation Information
Ryan Skinnell. "Harvard, Again: Considering Articulation and Accreditation in Rhetoric and Composition’s History" Rhetoric Review Vol. 33 Iss. 2 (2014) p. 95 - 112
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/ryan_skinnell/5/