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February 08, 2005
Discussion Questions for Connors, Chapter 1
1) In the second half of Connor's chapter, in which he addresses four major effects of coeducation on rhetoric, he says several times that he doesn't have the space to give detailed support to a claim. Is this a valid way to address the limitations of writing a chapter? What should he have left out, or added in, to make a stronger case?
2) Connors acknowledges some work done on the history of women rhetoricians, but claims that the "few thin stories" (28) that have been uncovered prove how entirely absent women have been from the rhetorical field before the rise of coeducation. Does the absence of documentation prove the absence of the phenomenon?
3) How does the work done in this chapter stack up against the author's declared approach, as defined in the Introduction? In other words, did the introduction represent his epistemology fairly, and does his methodology (analysis) appear to be consistent with his stated approach?
Posted by clostran at February 8, 2005 07:00 PM