More Methodological Matters: Against Negative Argumentation

Abstract

The field of composition has always prided itself upon its theoretical and methodological diversity. In the first published address from a CCCC chair, Richard LloydJones rehearsed the field's typical gesture of pride and inclusion by reciting the laundry list of disciplines that contribute concepts and methods to composition: rhetoric, linguistics, literary criticism, cultural history, sociology, psychology, neurology, speech therapy, politics, communication theory-all that can be (27). The field of composition has likewise prided itself upon its long-standing commitment to research practices. Again we can look back to Lloyd-Jones' address, where he described the ethical badge of membership in our guild as the pursuit of knowledge and perhaps a larger truth (25). Perhaps naively, Lloyd-Jones seemed to assume unproblematically the connection between laudable practices and all of the forms of research gathered into the growing field of composition. But in the twenty years since this connection was articulated implicitly, the field has grown more narrow in its explicit articulation of the

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