Not long after the war, the prescriptive function found its way into writing
as, in 1874, Adams Sherman Hill offered the nation’s first composition courses
at Harvard. The 18thcentury had seen grammar instruction alter its focus from
the study of Latin to include prescriptive notions of what constituted correct
English. Another change was related to the connection between grammar and
rhetoric. Throughout much of Western history, grammar and rhetoric were dis-
tinct areas of instruction. Grammar was concentrated at the elementary level
and was used to develop basic literacy, whereas rhetoric was for advanced stu-
dents and provided facility in speaking. The study of logic usually was part of
the study of rhetoric, following Aristotle, who provided a lengthy discussion of
logic as a method of argumentative proof in hisArt of Rhetoric.Starting in the
Middle Ages, grammar was studied at the advanced level, but primarily to fur-
ther the understanding of Latin. However, rhetoric had been undergoing a tran-
sition since the 4thcentury, when St. Augustine’s work on biblical exegesis and
a variety of social forces reduced the status of speaking (primary rhetoric) and
elevated the status of writing (secondary rhetoric).
This shift accelerated during the Middle Ages. Advances in science increased
the importance of logic and diminished the importance of rhetoric’s five of-
fices—invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery—which historically
had been vital components of rhetorical studies. Then, in the 16thcentury, Peter
Ramus launched an attack on rhetoric with his master’s thesis, entitled “All of
Aristotle’s Doctrines Are False,” and went on to make some striking claims. He
argued that rhetoric should be subsumed under logic, rather than the reverse, and
that rhetoric itself involved nothing more than style and delivery.
Ramus’ martyrdom in the Massacre of St. Bartholomew (1572) ensured that
his ideas were disseminated throughout Europe. The consequences of their in-
fluence become clear when we consider that invention in rhetoric had always
provided thecontentof discourse. If rhetoric has no content and no means of
developing content, all that remains is style. In addition, the close connection
between logic and grammar inevitably led to a perception that style—that is,
rhetoric—was largely about the study of grammar. This was the message of Al-
exander Bain’s (1866)English Composition and Rhetoric,in which he argued
thatrhetoric was composition,thereby completing the subordination of pri-
mary rhetoric that had begun with St. Augustine. Teaching rhetoric ceased
being about public speaking and became all about teaching writing.
Furthermore, as Crowley (1990) noted, the focus on style ended the centu-
ries-long emphasis in rhetoric ongeneratingknowledge—its epistemic func-
tion—and rhetoric became a vehicle for merelytransmittingknowledge, what
was already known. Crowley stated that “the best to be hoped for from writing
was that it would copy down whatever writers already knew. What writers
14 CHAPTER 1