Notes on Rhet/Comp, Ideology, and the Classroom in Delhi and Buffalo

Abstract

For many English department graduate students in America who have completed their earlier higher education in India, the teaching of writing and rhetoric and composition, or rather “rhet/comp,” can be puzzling, though this is changing with the proliferation of writing centers and academic writing courses in some Indian universities. Having taught composition in classrooms in India, as well as now in the American university where I am a graduate student, I find comparing the two experiences strange yet necessary. Therefore, I have in this article collected observations on the ideological ecosystem which informs my teaching now, along with reflections on classrooms where I have taught before. With this, I also offer comments on Delhi University and its emerging environment of writing instruction to see what lies ahead, and what we might want to think of as we continue to make composition syllabi for our students.