This is the first book to provide a careful treatment of theoretical issues that underlie composition teaching, theory, and research.

Lee Odell and his contributors believe that composition professionals in the classroom must approach their work with what Peter Elbow calls a "theoretical stance." Teachers of writing need to take an active role in composing the theories that underlie efforts to teach their students to write. Behind everything that composition teachers do are fundamental assumptions about knowledge and the processes of teaching and learning, about the goals of education, and about the role of writing in people’s lives.

Odell’s introduction examines the basic relationships between theory and practice. To explore specific sets of assumptions about knowledge, education, and writing, he has gathered together a group of major composition scholars, including Shirley Brice Heath, Jim W. Corder, and Anne J. Herrington. Although each author addresses a different issue, they all invite the reader to join them in the process of identifying and shaping the theories that make up the profession.