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Annotated Bibliography Books

James Kinneavy

Discourse Studies in Honor of James L. Kinneavy which provides a bibliographic listing of James Kinneavy’s work. The annotations remain my own with a few additions to the bibliography. I have kept the same format as it appears in the original work edited by Gabin with the exception of the last two entries to the “Articles and Anthologized Section” and three new sections including Interviews, Criticism, and In Honor Of.

Books

The Design of Discourse. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1969.

In this work, his greatest contribution in the field, he develops a discourse theory rooted in Aristotle’s communication triangle. His work has been so influential that it has been the basis for the development of a dozen or so textbooks. In the first chapter, Kinneavy claims that he wants to bring cohesion to a chaotic field. Relying on the notable scientific historian Thomas Kuhn, Kinneavy explains that the discipline suffers from a preparadigmatic state, “That is, there has not yet been erected a comprehensive system of the discipline which has received some general acceptance and which could serve as a framework for research, further speculation, innovation, even repudiation” (Kinneavy 2). By detailing the history of rhetoric, Kinneavy synthesizes many theories and approaches, dating from Greek and Roman antiquities to modern rhetorical theories and practices of his time. The last four chapters focus on the four aims, reference, persuasive, literary, and expressive, and their history, definitions, and applications. The expressive aim has more contemporary roots, dating back to the seventeenth century, as opposed to the other three which develop from the different approaches of Isocrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero. Supporting Kinneavy’s four aims and the communication triangle is the idea of “situational context” or kairos, which he defines as the right discourse fitted to the appropriate situation. His approach decenters the modes and ran contrary to the formulaic pedagogical approach common in many composition courses before and during the 60s and early 70s.

This book is designed as a sequel to a previous book entitled Aims and Audiences in Writing: however, both books can be read and used separately. In Writing: Basic Modes of Organization, the authors discuss the various ways of organizing a discourse, highlighting the thinking processes and stylistic choices involved in writing to persuade, inform, prove a thesis, convey information, or write a poem. The authors note that a single theory or technique cannot be applied to all modes indiscriminately. Focusing on narrative, description, classification, and evaluative modes, the textbook provide samples of different forms of modes, explaining how the aims dictate the type of mode and its organization. Furthermore, they detail the mode’s definition and the different ways in which the sample writers have organized and stylized their work. At the end of each section, the authors provide various assignments in which the writer can become more familiar with the mode and its variations and practice writing their own discourse.

Greek Rhetorical Origins of Christian Faith: An Inquiry. New York: Oxford UP, 1987.

In this book, Kinneavy explores the New Testament concept of faith and its relationship to the Greek concept of pistis. The Greek term pistis meaning persuasion also is the same word the New Testament writers use to mean faith. Historically, many scholars have not connected the New Testament concept of faith to either the Hebraic concept or the Greek concept of persuasion. However, Kinneavy argues that semantically the Greek use of pistis possesses many of the same attributes of the Christian understanding of pistis with which the New Testament writers would have been very familiar. Kinneavy presents his argument semantically, historically, and analytically. In his semantic argument he traces the derivation of the Greek pistis and the Christian notion of pistis by comparing the terms and their similarities. Historically, he traces how the New Testament writers would have become familiar with this term by detailing the political situation of the New Testament writers’ time and in particular the education which was available to them. Through analyzing the appearance of the word pistis and some of its derivations in New Testament passages, Kinneavy demonstrates how the use of pistis coincides to its usage in ancient Greece. In the last chapter, Kinneavy outlines his hypothesis and its limitations.

This textbook designed to be used in a classroom over a period of fifteen to sixteen weeks discusses the aims and modes in composition writing. The introductory chapter begins with a discussion of the text itself and introduces the aims which are further defined in the subsequent chapters. The following chapters are arranged similarly. For example, Chapter 2 begins with a discussion of the expressive aim and then provides examples. Next, the authors suggest different methods of prewriting and the applications to the communication triangle which will determine the content of the expressive piece of writing. Organization and style are addressed in the drafting stage, and afterwards the piece is analyzed in terms of the communication triangle. Last in the writing process, the authors discuss revising and editing, ending with a checklist the writer can use to ensure that the elements of the piece are in place. The chapter ends with further reading and suggested writing assignments which the authors claim can adapt themselves to collaborative groups. In the introduction the authors explain that they are trying to combine both the product and process approaches. As they describe, “A systematic process is oriented to an expected product, and a successful product emerges from a thoughtful process. A process without a foreseen product is problematical; a product without intelligible process is pure luck” (xi). (with John E. Warriner). Elements of Writing. Chicago: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1993. 14 vols., each with a teacher edition.