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The Contributionsof Winifred Bryan Horner

“When [we] fail to see the ability to reason, to read, to write, and to communicate as a skill vital to a democratic society, not only is [our] commitment to democracy empty but democracy itself stands in imminent peril.”

Winifred Horner attributes her achievements to“[t]hree main factors—hard work, the support of [her] family and [her] friends in the rhetoric/composition community, and MU’s English Department—they made me what I am” (1). Looking at her long, distinguished career proves that hard work, tireless dedication, and the support of family and community has served her and academia well. Dr. Horner has been instrumental in the founding of rhetoric and composition as a scholarly field and received the 2003 Exemplar Award: “For someone who is an example of excellence in scholarship, teaching and service to the profession of English. The highest award of the National Council of Teachers of English.” She was instrumental to the founding of the National Council of Writing Program Administrators, the Rhetoric Society of America, the Coalition of Women Scholars in Rhetoric and Composition, and was the first Radford Chair of Rhetoric and Composition at Texas Christian University, as well as TCU’s Cecil and Ida P. Green Distinguished Emerita Professor. One need only to look at the wealth of research produced by Dr. Horner during her distinguished career to realize how well deserved these awards are.

support within academia. In her article “Freshman Composition: The Long Tradition,” published in 1979, she examines the trend of using freshman composition as the “training ground” for first-year teaching assistants (4). With a keen sense of wit, Horner outlines the challenges confronted by a graduate student trying to teach writing, as well as those inherent to the students, and asserts that this practice continues due to the lack of “legitimate research, genuine scholarship, and academic prestige”, and on “basic ignorance about the nature and goals of rhetoric and composition” (3). Addressing her fellow professionals, Horner outlines a need for revision in attitudes toward composition, as well as a re-visioning of composition that would include it as a viable and worthy area of academia. Believing that it is imperative for educators to understand that composition is more than simply writing about a piece of literature, she argued that rhetoric and its two thousand year-old history adds much in the way of legitimacy, pride, and methods of instruction.

research of the eighteenth-and nineteenth-century Scottish Universities. Working to prove rhetoric’s link with writing, Dr. Horner painstakingly sorted through archival material, and published her initial findings in “Rhetoric in the Liberal Arts: Nineteenth-Century Scottish Universities,” and set the stage for her three-part series on the liberal arts programs of four nineteenth-century Scottish Universities.

Andrews archival material established a connection between composition and rhetoric, and produced a way and means for further research by future scholars. Knowing that research was the only way to substantiate rhetoric as a scholarly field, Horner scoured archival material and produced the annotated bibliography, “The Eighteenth Century. The Present State of Scholarship,” which is still considered an invaluable tool for rhetoric scholars. The prior research that had declared the nineteenth-century as rhetoric’s point of demise based on the absence of published lecturer notes was proven incorrect. Dr. Horner’s research revealed student notes as an alternative source of documentation, and offered a clear view of nineteenth century pedagogy. Unlike student notes of the twenty-first century, nineteenth-century students “dictates” were often verbatim transcriptions of a professor’s lecture and thus, provide much in the way of researchable material. Ultimately, Horner’s research viably linked rhetoric and composition with liberal arts and opened the way for further and future scholarly research

at the University of Glasgow revealed surprising links to the current “writing across curriculum” programs. The link between then and now was that Jardine “supported rhetoric, discussion, and writing as a way of learning in conjunction with lectures,” and serves as evidence of the link between rhetoric and composition in the nineteenth-century (87). Given that most of his students were poor and not previously trained in classical rhetoric, Jardine used methods of critical thinking in order to benefit both their speech and writing. Realizing that most of these youths were going to pursue careers in the highly prospering merchant class, Jardine realized that their skills needed to suit more than literary debates, and therefore, provided them with the analytical oral and written skills necessary to survive in a working society. His teaching methods included theme writing for all classes, lectures, discussion, exams (oral and written), and peer-reviews.

Universities, Dr. Horner continue to search for better ways of teaching rhetoric and composition. Aligning the Speech-Act Theory and writing, she worked to prove that words are layers of “meaning [and] highly dependent on the relationship of speakers and hearers” (96). In a classroom setting, this would mean a full exploration of the intent of the speaker and hearer. Again, Horner is able to align spoken and written words with rhetoric, while opening her student’s eyes to the multitudes of possible outcomes when one uses words.

diligently to “make writing the responsibility of every professor,” thus proving instrumental in the establishment of “writing across curriculum” programs throughout the country. In her continued pursuit to align writing with rhetoric, Dr. Horner has championed “rhetoric [as] the heart of the arts education” and helped to establish the University of Missouri’s Campus Writing Program and its “writing intensive” requirement that all undergraduates must meet which includes a freshman composition component and two “writing intensive” courses. As a founder of rhetoric and composition, Winifred Bryan Horner has earned her place many times over. Her prestigious career has yielded numerous publications, awards, honors, student accolades, and has helped to establish rhetoric and composition as a scholarly, respected, and viable field.

Works Cited