Present-Process: The Composition of Change

<p>Because the writing-process movement has been deemed our field's founding "paradigm"—at least since Hairston's 1982 essay declared it so—"process" has remained stuck in the philosophical and historical assumptions of a "paradigm." The paradigm theory, has, from its first associations with composition, offered a view of change wholly unsuited to work in writing. Today, as we face monumental changes in public higher education, thinking in paradigms is even more useless, if not paralyzing. This essay traces the history of the link between process theory and paradigms, argues why the pairing of process to paradigms sold process short, and, finally, resurrects the term "process" as a term that helps characterize innovative approaches to disciplinary and writing program change. By drawing on theories of "process" from a range of fields and by connecting these theories to a case study of one new WAC/BW program, I offer "present-process" as a productive, workable perspective for our field.</p>