The common ingredient that I find in all the writing I admire ... is something that I shall reluctantly call the rhetorical stance, a stance which depends on discovering and maintaining in any writing situation a proper balance among the three elements that are at work in any communicative effort: the available argument about the subject itself, the interests and peculiarities of the audience, and the voice, the implied character of the speaker. I should like to suggest that it is this balance, this rhetorical stance, difficult as it is to describe, that is our main goal.

Topic Suggestions

• Should colleges and universities serve to pass on to students the great traditions and values of Western culture?

• Do colleges and universities need to change to accommodate students once excluded from the university?

• Should colleges and universities emphasize a unified view of culture and the commonalities among people, or should they emphasize people's differences?

• What is (and should be) the relationship between the college/university and society?

• What should be the relationship between teachers and students in the classroom?

• In what ways is knowledge acquired, passed on, or made in college/university? Are some better than others?

• A question worth answering:

• An audience who could possibly care:

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