Reconceptualizing Response

Reconceptualizing Response reframes instructor feedback, one of the most consequential practices in rhetoric and writing studies, as a site of linguistic justice. Instructor response is not merely technical commentary; it is contested terrain where students' identities, experiences, and language varieties must be named, supported, and celebrated.

Contributors represent a wide range of institutional contexts--including two-year colleges, four-year universities, HBCUs, HSIs, SLACs, and PWIs--and write from diverse positionalities, amplifying current debates and productive tensions in the field. Organized around four key moves--looking back, looking within, looking up, and looking around--the book invites readers to critically examine the ideologies underlying feedback practices; recognize how instructors' positionality, values, and beliefs are communicated through feedback; align feedback with students' needs; and reconsider the broader classroom ecology required for justice. Bridging linguistic justice and feedback studies, this collection provides concrete tools and frameworks, as well as sample rubrics, course policies, and fresh approaches to assessment.

Ideal for graduate students, writing program administrators, faculty teaching future writing instructors, and anyone seeking to transform classroom practice, Reconceptualizing Response offers guiding questions for reflection and practical strategies for change. This volume reimagines instructor response as a catalyst for equity, consciousness-raising, and transformation, calling instructors not only to comment on writing but also to use feedback to dismantle oppressive logics and foster linguistic justice.