When one walks into a composition class today in America, the ghosts of Bain, Day, Hill and Hill haunt the teaching methodology, readers, and handbooks used in those classes. Composition classes stand as a unique pedagogical space made through the work of a few influential men who basically created a new discipline: composition.

Before these men existed, rhetoric had meant basically the art of speaking, and any writing was usually performed in Latin. Writing in the vernacular of English and studying literature such as Shakespeare in the vernacular were new academic occurrences.  At universities, tests were often oral in nature. Writing was a mere formality, secondary to the art of speaking. All of this was changing. These men and their works were vital in that change.

Alexander Bain, (1818-1903) the "father of composition," is  known more for his work in psychology. English Composition and Rhetoric (1866) was the most influential composition rhetoric book of its time. The Scotsman was  influenced by George Campbell. He is most famous for  his "modes of discourse," Description, Narration, and Exposition and for the  importance he placed on paragraphs. Adam Sherman Hill and others would modify his theories which would develop into such composition entities as the "topic sentence." Such ideas as unity and development come from Bain.

Henry N. Day, (1808-1890)wrote The Art of Discourse (1867); he was a Yale graduate and would expand some of George Campbell's ideas on invention.

David J. Hill, (1850-1932) who wrote The Science of Rhetoric (1866), would combine rhetorical elements of Campbell and Whately with Day and Bain.

Adam Sherman Hill, (1833-1910) who wrote The Principles of Rhetoric, (1878) was  professor of Rhetoric at Harvard; in 1885, he originated the first freshman composition courses, which have become the norm every since.  His rhetoric consisted of grammar, usage and was entirely void of invention; thus, he was largely reponsible for creating the proto-typical current-traditional composition courses.

Another important development was Elocutionary Movement.

Last Updated: 08/28/01 , History of Rhetoric II, University of Central Oklahoma. Wayne Stein wstein@ucok.edu.