Asking, at core, if our writing inside and outside the classroom must advance erudition, Writing as Punishment chronicles how that script has been perverted to argue that 'writing is a viable tool for disciplining, controlling, brainwashing, shaming, demeaning, subjugating, and humiliating others.' This book more than proves its points. The writing is fantastically crisp; the thesis sound (and soundly provocative). However queasy-making, Schaffner's individual case studies are each perfectly selected. His conclusions are, to say the least, wickedly inspired."" - Scott Herring, author of The Hoarders: Material Deviance in Modern American Culture""This book's focus on the 'darker' side of writing is as intriguing as it is illuminating. Accessibly written and powerfully argued, Schaffner's book finds that the beliefs that underlie generative approaches to writing are the very ones that underlie its use of writing as punishment."" - Debra Hawhee, author of Rhetoric in Tooth and Claw: Animals, Language, Sensation
