The Rhetorical Paideia Song (Composish)

by Ralph Wahlstrom

play me

The rhetorical paideia - Richard Lanham’s little notion

Breaks the composition mold – adding image, sound and motion

I knew it pretty well – it was in my dissertation

So I was on the train – but I hadn’t reached the station

Then in 1997 - at Buffalo State College

I was asked to teach a class – show my composition knowledge

I asked, I read, I looked around – and found myself still wishin’

Someone could tell me what it was – This Advanced Composition

Soon enough I figured out – nobody really knew

In fact nobody cared how I would do what I would do

The future held such promise – There was so much left to know

So I poured a cup of coffee, and I promptly let it go

Then I came across the I-Search – A different kind form

A conventional invention – that was slightly off the norm

A form that blended research with narrative and so

I vowed to bring it home – Then I promptly let it go

Let it go, let it go, Oh I promptly let it go

I vowed to bring it home – Then I promptly let it go

And then, as often happens, there began an evolution

At least in my Advanced Comp course – it’s partly the solution

Blending Lanham’s Word Electric with the I search text conventional

I found my class becoming more coherent, more intentional

But still I wanted more – I knew we could do better

We had image, sound and motion – On the paper we had letters

And then one night it hit me like a ball at Bowl-A-Rama

That what this class was missing – was performance, it was drama

It was dram , It was dram, Oh I tell you it was drama

What this class was missing – was performance, it was drama

Electronic text , the I-Search, and Performance are the three

That together create text and experience, you see

Aesthetic, kinesthetic – multiples of the addition

A snappy little number I call Advanced Composition

Composish, Composish, Advanced Composition

A snappy little number I call Advanced Composition