"...readers of LiCS will find a strong argument for how understandings of literacy are fundamental to the work that compositionists do, making this book useful not only to those doing similar work but also to be shared with colleagues who have less familiarity with literacy studies. The Lure of Literacy presents a model of how theories of literacy can be applied to the debates that beset compositionists again and again, offering a way out of their unproductive cycles." - Literacy in CompositionThe Lure of Literacy promises to transcend the stale and unproductive debate on freshman composition that has gripped English studies for more than a century. It is the first book to chart the origin of the discussion from the early twentieth century to the advent of the New Literacy Studies. Michael Harker recontextualizes proposals to abolish compulsory composition and reimagines pedagogical conditions in English studies in order to present a different model for first-year writing. This new model for compulsory composition programs focuses on students' attitudes about composition and interrogates the very idea of literacy itself.

Acknowledgments Introduction: A Necessary Beginning 1. The Lure of Literacy 2. The Sphinx Riddle of Freshman English: Examining Continuities of Literacy in the Great Debate 3. Recovering the Reformists: Articulating the Educational Reforms of Compulsory Composition 4. In This Spirit: The Rhetoric of Referencing a Current and Traditional Complaint 5. "What Should Colleges Teach?": A Proposal for Compulsory Curriculum in First-Year Literacy Studies Notes Works Cited Index