For more than four decades, the dominant model for pedagogy and research in the field of composition has been a how-centered process approach to writing instruction, which involves studying the writing that students produce to expose the various stages of their writing process. By looking at notes, outlines, and multiple drafts, often presented by students together in the form of a portfolio, instructors can identify unproductive habits that students may have and provide techniques that help them improve their writing. In this groundbreaking volume, Kyle Jensen critiques traditional...

This collection is organized around the concept of abduction, a logical operation introduced by Charles Sanders Peirce that explains how new ideas are formed in response to an uncertain future. Responding to this uncertain future with rigor and insight, each essay imagines new methods, concepts, and perspectives that extend writing studies research into startling new terrain. To appeal to a wide range of audiences, the essays work within foundational areas in rhetoric and composition research such as space, time, archive, networks, inscription, and life. Some of the essays take...