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The essay outlines strategies for respectful interaction across generational groups in both action and scholarly discourse, emphasizing interdependence.",{"@graph":14,"@context":72},[15,34,55],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/literature/","Literature",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/generational-matters-story-lens-and-tone/599375/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/generational-matters-story-lens-and-tone/599375.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"WPS_1790064749","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-22","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":30},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",{"@type":56,"mainEntity":57},"FAQPage",[58,64,68],{"name":59,"@type":60,"acceptedAnswer":61},"What does “generation” mean as a lens in this essay?","Question",{"text":62,"@type":63},"“Generation” is presented as a productive lens for examining disciplinary studies and activities, helping analyze how individuals and groups engage across generational relations.","Answer",{"name":65,"@type":60,"acceptedAnswer":66},"How does the author connect personal, journal, and field histories?",{"text":67,"@type":63},"The essay compares parallel timelines, noting key years when major shifts occurred in the author’s career, the journal’s scope and title, and the discipline’s formation and development.",{"name":69,"@type":60,"acceptedAnswer":70},"What role does “hospitality” play in the argument?",{"text":71,"@type":63},"“Hospitality,” adapted from related scholarship, is used to frame an ethic of respectful, productive relations among generational groups that recognize interdependence while allowing diverse stances and interaction strategies.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":74,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":76,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":78,"site_id":7},599375,1792382826,{"code":4,"msg":81,"data":82},"success",[83,87,90,94,99,104,109,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":84,"show_sort_weight":85,"slug":86},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":88,"slug":89},80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":91,"show_sort_weight":92,"slug":93},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":95,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":96,"show_sort_weight":97,"slug":98},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":100,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":101,"show_sort_weight":102,"slug":103},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":105,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":106,"show_sort_weight":107,"slug":108},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":110,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":111,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":95,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":81,"data":131},{"doc_id":78,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":26,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":30,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145},3985747859154,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_276721f389ce27ea32af1340a28f341c","Generation(al) Matters: Story, Lens, and Tone  \nLouise Wetherbee Phelps  \nThis essay tells a story of how “generation” came to matter in rhetoric and  \ncomposition/writing studies; analyzes and advocates for “generation”as a lens through which to examine disciplinary studies and activities; and considers how we can productively engage in generational relations between individuals and groups. It adopts a framework of“hospitality”(adapted from Richard and Janis Haswell) to develop a concept of “cross-generational relations” as an aspirational category. An ethic of hospitality is proposed to facilitate respectful, productive relations among generational groups, which recognize and enact interdependence but allow for a wide range of stancesand strategies of interaction in action and scholarly discourse.  \nIntroduction  \nWhen pondering how to contribute to this special issue, I was startled to realize that my career, the journal’s history, and the development of the discipline—rhetoric and composition/writing studies (RCWS)—had run in parallel for 50 years. I noticed uncanny correspondences and intersections among these timelines at key moments (Table 1):  \nTable 1  \n\n| Self (LWP) | Journal (FEN→ CS) | Field (RCWS) |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| 1971-72: entered field (graduate studies) | Spring 1972: first issue of FEN published | “around 1971”: beginning of discipline formation, first generation scholars (process; rhetoric revival) |\n| 1979: finished PhD; first article published (in FEN); attended Ottawa conference | 1982: FEN broadened focus from Freshman English to the study and teaching of writing | “around 1979”: discipline emerged (Ottawa conference; founding of doctoral programs, journals; first cohort of tenuretrack hires) |\n|  | 1992: new title CS/FEN | 1990s: expansion, division, conflicts, disciplinary instability |\n\nComposition Studies 50.1 (2022): 106–126  \n\n| 1995: published article in CS/FENon reproducing field in graduate programs | Fall 1995: special issue on doctoral education\u003Cbr>1999: FEN dropped from title | 1990s-2000s: Conversations around doctoral education as center of disciplinary definition and development |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| 2009: “retired” and started post-retirement position; 2010: co-founded SIG for seniors and retirees |  | “around 2009”: wave of retirements accelerated and began to impact the field, higher education |\n| 2013-14: organized 1st cross-generational conversation (CCCC) and initiated crossgenerational project |  | 2014: CCCC cross-generational task force (2014-2018) began work, including survey of retirees |\n| 2018/2020: published work on age/literacy and seniority | Spring 2021 issue: Intergenerational Exchanges; Pinkert and Bowen on results of retiree survey | “around 2018”: seniority studies; lifespan writing studies; age/literacy studies; nextGEN group formed\u003Cbr>2020: SIG for Senior, Late Career, & Retired Professionals became CCCC standing group (SGSLR)\u003Cbr>2022: Writing and English Studies Co-organizational Collaborative (WESSC) survey of graduate students and earlycareer professionals |\n| 2021-22: 50 years in field | 2021-2022: 50 years of publication | 2021-2022: 50 years of disciplinary development |\n\nIn 1971 I went back to graduate school to study rhetoric and language, coinciding with the founding of Freshman English News (FEN) that year. Scholars like Martin Nystrand and David Fleming identify that year as the moment that a teaching practice acquired the potential to become a discipline.  \nIn 1979—the year I finished my PhD and published my first article (in FEN)—I attended the Ottawa conference, a coming-of-age event for the discipline. It capped offa decade of disciplinary growth—a Cambrian explosion of doctoral programs and journals. My microhistory of the conference depicts 1979 as the watershed year the conference (and field) crossed into a new era (Phelps,“Ottawa”). In 1982 the journal recognized this by expanding its scope to encompass the discipline’s scholarly and teachin","cbCaiuH1wqCYwRug","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiuH1wqCYwRug","pdf",197236,21,"English","# Introduction\n## Parallel Timelines and Key Moments\n## Generation Themes and Age Wave\n## Intergenerational Exchanges","[{\"question\":\"What does “generation” mean as a lens in this essay?\",\"answer\":\"“Generation” is presented as a productive lens for examining disciplinary studies and activities, helping analyze how individuals and groups engage across generational relations.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the author connect personal, journal, and field histories?\",\"answer\":\"The essay compares parallel timelines, noting key years when major shifts occurred in the author’s career, the journal’s scope and title, and the discipline’s formation and development.\"},{\"question\":\"What role does “hospitality” play in the argument?\",\"answer\":\"“Hospitality,” adapted from related scholarship, is used to frame an ethic of respectful, productive relations among generational groups that recognize interdependence while allowing diverse stances and interaction strategies.\"}]","Generation(al) Matters - Story, Lens, and Tone | PDF",1792088656,32]