The following terms refer to the three big concepts that Yancey believes must be considered when developing a new, relevant, and inclusive composition curriculum.
Circulation of Composition.
Circulation of composition is the the circulation of text across spaces, time, and media, and within educational culture. As Yancey quotes Charles Bazerman and David Russell, this circulation is when “writing is alive” (qtd. 312). Circulation is also known as activity theory, and it involves the remediation of texts across mediums. In other words, when text is moved from one medium to another, it is called remediation, for certain changes are required in order to adjust the text for that medium. With the numerous technological mediums available today, a successful writer must be familiar with this process in order to compose accessible texts.
Canons of Rhetoric.
Yancey recites these well known canons of rhetoric, which are invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery. She expands on these canons by pointing out how they are not merely separate entities. Rather, they are all intertwined. One example of this is that “what and how you arrange [a text] . . . is who you invent” (318). This idea is also important as it provides a new outlook on the canons and how they must be applied to composition curriculum.
Deicity of Technology.
The word decity comes from a linguistic term, deixis, which in this context refers to time and how meanings change (318). So the deicity of technology addresses how technology is changing, and therefore literacies are as well. This change opens up new uses and possibilities for composition. Exploring these possibilities is a way of “envisioning,” and one should build this envisioning into a new curriculum (320).
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