Wells, Susan. "Rogue Cops and Health Care: What Do We Want from Public Writing?" CCC 47.3 (1996): 325-341.
Abstract:
Attempts at public writing in the college composition classroom suffer from radical decontextualization, claims Wells. Fro example, a student letter to the editor on gun control inscribes a "position in a vacuum" since the public sphere does not value a student's position on such an issue in such a forum. Citing Habermas' notion of a public sphere and Weg and Kluge's complication of that sphere as contradictory and needing reconstruction, Wells argues that students must forge a rhetoric that links discourse and action, optimally by addressing national issues from the perspective of how their academic disciplines engage those issues.