A Response to Gina Keplinger: Pursuing Evolution (and Revolution) Through Form

Abstract

Gina Keplinger crafts a creative, inspired appeal to traditional academic writers in her essay “Don’t Dismiss the List: The Value of Writing Extraordinary Issues Into Ordinary Forms.” Keplinger presents the list as an unconventional genre, simultaneously examining and implementing the form in a call for more accessible and interactive forms in academic writing. This response applies rhetorical genre theory to further explore the strengths and weaknesses of the list as a genre itself, as well as examines the list’s tradition in academic writing.