Gender, Reason, and Argument in Composition

Given that virtually all college and university students are required to complete courses in college composition, courses designed to prepare them to think and write in approved academic language, the field is a fertile one for feminist inquiry. Recent work on feminist epistemology and writing theory, combined with Richard Fulkerson's proposed four-part construct of any composition theory, can be used to examine the conventions of argumentative writing. Such writing typically uses adversarial metaphors, often privileges abstract conceptions of knowledge and, furthermore, may be based on metaphors for reason which denigrate emotion and exclude women. New techniques for writing about conflict, such as Josina Makau's "cooperative argumentation" and Catherine Lamb's use of mediation and negotiation in the writing process, may help our students understand that academic writing can integrate the "objective" with the "subjective" to create knowledge.