Composition, rhetoric, and disciplinarity

This collection of essays responds to several exigences, among them a set of continuing tensions characterizing Rhetoric and Composition; a set of disagreements about whether or not we are, or should be, a discipline; and a nascent sense that at this particular moment in our history, Rhetoric and Composition is on the cusp of disciplinarity. After exploring this set of exigences, we turn to a rationale for this volume, in terms of why we should consider the disciplinary nature and quality of Rhetoric and Composition as well as the implications of identifying ourselves as a discipline, especially if we understand a discipline not as a site of consensus, but rather, in Ken Hyland's terms, as a context for debate and deliberation. And finally, given this context, we introduce the chapters of Composition, Rhetoric, and Disciplinarity.