| One property that unites several lenses in composition studies is their endorsement of a
"cognitive" perspective (Moffett 15; Emig 122; Flower and Hayes 365). Cognitive perspectives
emphasize the decision-making process behind a text: what compositional choices did an author
make to accomplish their rhetorical goals? Related to this notion is the "genetic" discipline of
literary criticism, which analyzes a writer's archival material to trace the compositional history
and writing process of a text itself (Hayman 7; Hay 531). This thesis seeks to conjoin these
perspectives through the use of a "compositional lens" for rhetorical analysis. This lens uses the
acronym "READ" (read, extract, adapt, discuss) to critically analyze texts and transfer concepts
they employ to new rhetorical contexts, specifically in first-year writing (FYW) classes. As a
primary example, James Joyce is used due to the abundance of writing techniques in his work.
Keywords: cognitive composition, genetic criticism, James Joyce, rhetorical analysis, FYW. |