A Language and Power Reader
ISBN: 9780874219258
Platform/Publisher: Project MUSE / University Press of Colorado
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Chapters; Download: Chapters
Subjects: Critical discourse analysis; English language; Racism in language.;

A Language and Power Reader organizes reading and writing activities for undergraduate students, guiding them in the exploration of racism and cross-racial rhetorics.

Introducing texts written from and about versions of English often disrespected by mainstream Americans, A Language and Power Reader highlights English dialects and discourses to provoke discussions of racialized relations in contemporary America. Thirty selected readings in a range of genres and from writers who work in ?alternative? voices (e.g., Pidgin, African American Language, discourse of international and transnational English speakers) focus on disparate power relations based on varieties of racism in America and how those relations might be displayed, imposed, or resisted across multiple rhetorics. The book also directs student participation and discourse. Each reading is followed by comments and guides to help focus conversation.

Research has long shown that increasing a student?s metalinguistic awareness improves a student?s writing. No other reader available at this time explores the idea of multiple rhetorics or encourages their use, making A Language and Power Reader a welcome addition to writing classrooms.


Robert Eddy is an associate professor of English at Washington State University, and he was the department's director of composition from 2002 through 2010. He has directed writing programs in China and Egypt and won the University of North Carolina Board of Governors' Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2001. Victor Villanueva is Regents Professor in the English Department at Washington State University. He is the Edward R. Meyer Distinguished Professor in Liberal Arts and has been awarded the Sahlin Faculty Excellence Award for Research, Scholarship and the Arts; the Martin Luther King Jr. Distinguished Service Award; and the first National Council of Teachers of English Advancement of People of Color Leadership Award, among many others.

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