WRITING IN THE ACADEMY - THE FEMINIST RESPONSE

The author presents a feminist theory of writing instruction as a challenge to the male power of dominance over students exercised by 'The Essay'. The theory has these characteristics: it encourages a revisionist history of the profession of English; it investigates the traditional forms of communication that the profession encourages in the curriculum; it provides an alternative approach to traditional rhetorical variables, it seeks to incorporate this alternative view into daily classroom practice and it anticipates political challenge, basing its response on both political and rhetorical action.