Are you anxious? You look anxious and should be. English Studies is on shaky footing in which every aspect of its subject and method is a challengable territory. The English studies model is responsible for acculturating students into notions of high and low culture and inscribing and promoting the cultural values of the dominant culture.

Worthy pedagogical pursuits in a composition classroom, then, can examine how this acculturation happens through “textual representation and linguistic convention [as they] inscribe cultural values” (201).

Composition classes should feature three elements:

1. politicize teaching of academic rhetoric
2. make academic and disciplinary genres and conventions available sites for student articulations
3. make the critical position of author a realistic possibility for students (201-202)

These pedagogical elements will give students the agency as authors to realize their writings can arbitrate cultural values by inscribing their own subjectivities and values onto the cultural thoughtscape.

English Studies: a tightrope walk over dangerous terrains.