Composing a profession: World War, T.A.s, and writing myths

Abstract

An examination of composition in the forties, fifties, and early sixties yields insight into the professionalization of the writing instruction. During World War II writing teachers helped produce good soldiers in the Army Specialized Training Program and the Navy College Training Program. As these programs included basic writing, instructors of writing were situated in a new role: they produced individuals for temporary, but crucial positions. Parallels can be drawn between writing teachers, who produced soldiers for the war, and writing teachers of the fifties and early sixties, who trained T.A.s for composition classrooms. In both cases writing teachers were legitimized by functioning as a temporary agency, producing individuals for emergency positions. The demand for trained T.A.s, however, was an ongoing need as writing classes were overpopulated by students attending school on the G.I. Bill. The training of T.A.s by writing instructors helped professionalize the teaching of writing. Through T.A. training, writing teachers began to create a body of knowledge, to assume a monopoly on freshman composition, and to create service ideals. By the early sixties, conversations about the T.A. tapered off. CCCC members, however, reexamined the goals and purposes of CCCC, asking what type of organization CCCC should become. A discussion of the T.A.'s point of view follows, including an examination of the T.A. within a profession and the responsibilities of the profession to the T.A.