Lure of Literacy

Michael Harker is Assistant Professor of English at Georgia State University.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: A Necessary Beginning1. The Lure of Literacy2. The Sphinx Riddle of Freshman English: Examining Continuities of Literacy in the Great Debate3. Recovering the Reformists: Articulating the Educational Reforms of Compulsory Composition4. In This Spirit: The Rhetoric of Referencing a Current and Traditional Complaint5. "What Should Colleges Teach?": A Proposal for Compulsory Curriculum in First-Year Literacy StudiesNotesWorks CitedIndex

"Required reading for anyone with a stake in the compulsory composition debate … The Lure of Literacy demonstrates that curriculum reform with an eye toward the improvement of student learning is both necessary and achievable … Highly recommended." — CHOICE"Harker clearly builds on current scholarship and brings his inquiries down to the very pragmatics of the classroom. In a field full of critiques, but little substance, his voice is refreshing in that what he has been arguing about is fully fleshed out in his lesson plans at the end." — William H. Thelin, author of Writing without Formulas"The Lure of Literacy presents an incredibly accessible account of New Literacy Studies scholarship, which serves the book's larger purpose (i.e., to propose a First-Year Literacy Studies curriculum) extremely well. Unlike a lot of books that rush through a discussion of an assignment or course that illustrates the pedagogical impact of the theory or historical research, this book presents a carefully thought-out course, complete with identifiable outcomes and lessons, that really does seem to have the potential to address the persistent misconceptions of literacy that fuel the abolition debate." — Chris Warnick, College of Charleston