Kinneavy, James L. “The Basic Aims of Discourse.” Cross-Talk in Comp Theory, edited by Victor Villanueva and Kristin L. Arola, National Council of Teachers of English, 2011, pp. 129-139.

In the article,”The Basic Aims of Discourse,” James L. Kinneavy observes that “most of us make implicit assumptions about the aims of discourse when we loosely distinguish expository writing from literature or creative writing . . . But it may be that this simple distinction is too simple and that other aims of discourse ought to be given some consideration” (129). Kinneavy supports this observation by giving evidence from different literary theorists and how they have approached the aims of discourse, as well as corresponding charts to show the different systems of aims of discourse and the purposes of composition. His purpose is to show that the teaching of the aims of discourse is an important part of teaching composition in order to preserve liberal arts education with composition as a main component. His argument is aimed at fellow teachers. As a student and a possible future teacher, I found Kinneavy’s observations to be confusing. I wasn’t always sure what he meant. The conclusion is where I found the most clarity.