In the last year, there has been some buzz in the field of rhetoric and composition over a document called the Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing, which, from what I gather, is designed to provide some key terms for ongoing debates about what writing instruction should be. The document, however, is rather quiet about the particulars of teaching writing, choosing to get at the subject obliquely, through the privileging of two descriptive categories, “habits of mind” and “experiences.” In carefully worded, committee-approved prose, the authors assure us that the habits of mind they delineate here “are crucial for all college-level learners” and that the particular forms of experiences described herein “contribute to [these] habits of mind.” Continue reading →