The Dissertation & the Discipline: Reinventing Composition Studies

To examine how reading and writing are carried out in school, we need to pay attention to the schooling of the dissertation. - from the Introduction Writing a dissertation can be joyful and reaffirming, but it can also feel like wandering into a labyrinth where dimly lit pathways twist and turn toward disaster. What is a dissertation supposed to look like? What is a dissertation supposed to do? Who is supposed toor allowed todecide? The Dissertation & the Discipline brings together both dissertation writers and advisors to grapple with these questions and formulate answers. Each chapter highlights the intersection of power and politics in this high-stakes rhetorical scene while exploring and describing a range of productive strategies. Critiquing standard narratives and traditional assumptions, The Dissertation & the Discipline offers a radical critique of dissertation writing and advisingand challenges us to consider how these practices can be deployed to expand our understanding of the very nature of Composition Studies.Cindy Moore is the author of 'The Dissertation & the Discipline: Reinventing Composition Studies', published 2002 under ISBN 9780867095203 and ISBN 0867095202.