Why Composition Theory?

My only experience with what I now understand to be compositional theory came as an undergraduate at BYU in a teaching writing class required for all English Education majors. Thankfully, the English Education major was run by the English department and the College of Humanities and with only the non-subject specific courses that applied to certification for all teachers being taught by the College of Education and so the people teaching the course knew, and quite thoroughly at that, what they were talking about.

I had not before, nor have I since, (shame shame) payed much attention to what other writers - academics, or otherwise - have had to say on the subject of teaching writing. I remember reading many articles by Peter Elbow in the course, agreeing with him thoroughly, and enjoying him immensely, and reading Mike Rose and Tom Romano and finding the results intriguing. I have taught my own version of Tom Romano's multi-genre approach from Writing with Style four out of the five years I've taught, and thinking back on what he actually said in the book, wish that I had incorporated the ideas more thoroughly into the general teaching of writing. As a newly trained director of our school's literacy program, Mike Rose rings in a whole new light, and I find myself wanting desperately to re-read him as well.

This all leads me far afield of where I am supposedly focused - Why Comp Theory? - but this time, as in many other cases, I find I needed desperately to begin to write in order to see what I have to say, in order to see what I think.

So, why comp theory? I think that in order to teach anything one must understand it inside and out. And while I may or may not teach the teaching of writing, I certainly am thoroughly obligated to teach writing, and my approach can only be strengthened by obtaining a well developed understanding of the different approaches and theories out there, developed and taught by those with much more experience-and probably intelligence-than me. By doing so I would, theoretically, avoid struggling through the thicket of the educational jungle trying to carve new paths that indubitably parallel those carved by teachers/scholars who who have already traveled these paths. I benefit from familiarity with the theories that are being studied/applied to find the "best practice" techniques that are supposedly used when I am in the classroom.  

A further reason for studying composition theory is that, apparently, after a little reading, I have very little idea of what is happening in this conversation.  

(Bad Scott!  Study more!  Play Less!  Give Comp its due alongside literature!)

So for me why comp theory comes back full circle to even more basic questions:  Why study English?  Why, for pete's sake when most of the world still lives without a bachelor's degree, do I need a masters?  I am hungry to learn.  I am driven to improve.  Both bring great pleasure and great satisfaction.  The further I go, and the more questions I ask as I deal with the day to day frustrations and glories of being a public educator, the more I realize that the effectiveness of my drive depends on a continual effort to stoke and fill that hunger.