Handa is da man-da!

I have often questioned the split between composition and rhetoric as they seem to go hand-in-hand. Survival of one without the other does not appear to be possible. Handa offers another issue as well and that is the struggle of visual to define the verbal. She suggests that due to the evolution of definitions of literacy and writing that there is need to continue redefining the foundations of English studies. However, according to Handa, one thing remains the same--elaborationism. This is "a set of cultural, pedagogical, and technical practices based on the idea that the formal composing and or reading process can produce more critical forms of consciousness" (15). She moves on to say, "As a fundamental assumption about the relation of language and thought, elaborationism represents a potential common thread that crosses not only the visual/verbal border, but also the boundaries that politically polarize and artificially stratify the discipline into curricular dichotomies of poetic and rhetoric, high and low, literature and composition" (15). While Handa takes her argument in a different direction, I like how she introduces the notion of all of these subjects sharing shelf space again. To clarify, I feel that the struggles between composition and rhetoric and communication and english are stubbornly maintained benefiting no one. I would like to see the day when these subjects mesh again to create well-rounded learning environments for those interested in Communication and English as a major. And to really dream big--it would be nice to see UTC build a space that allows for a peaceful coexistence of both departments allowing students to easily flow between the two gaining the knowledge they foresee is needed for their potential career. UTC would then find itself fulfilling Handa's hybrid of the visual and the verbal to assist in enhancing each to redefine literacy and writing.