Natural Discourse

"Every student, to be sure, has written about the environment, and deplored the sad state of affairs in far-off shrinking rain forests and expanding deserts. But that is not really what this book is about. Rather than evoke such routine complaints, ecocomposition seeks to change the way we think about writing, and hence the way we think about the world we live in. For this is a book about rhetoric and deep theory of composition as much as it is about the natural environment." — From the Foreword by Edward M. White

"Natural Discourse provides a very good introduction to ecocomposition—the best I've seen—not only explaining how ecocomposition has developed over the past few years, but also describing how ecocomposition connects to some of the most basic and significant concepts underlying the study and teaching of writing. Perhaps most significant, the book begins the critical process of rethinking eco-studies' emphasis from interpretation to production. By showing that ecology can and does support composition's focus on textual production, this book makes the most convincing argument yet for ecocomposition." — Anis S. Bawarshi, University of Washington