Frank Aydelotte and the Oxford Approach to English Studies in America

Using a biographical approach, this book examines Frank Aydelotte's enduring contributions to English studies in America and the various social, cultural, educational, and personal forces that shaped his pedagogy. Educated at Harvard and Indiana, Aydelotte's seminal experience was becoming a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford in 1904. While at Oxford University, he experienced a system of teaching writing that he found superior to the Harvard formalism that dominated many American English departments at the time. This comprehensive work explores the three curriculums developed by Aydelotte: the 'thought' approach to composition developed at Indiana University, the technical communication curriculum developed at MIT, and the influential Honor's Program developed at Swarthmore College.