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The Penn State Conference on Rhetoric and Composition Future of rhetorical education is debated
Mark A. Pedreira photo by Dave Shelly University Photo/Graphics C. Jan Swearingen photo by Dave Shelly University Photo/Graphics	Scholars of rhetoric and composition from throughout the United States shared their research, ideas and concerns about rhetorical education in America during the 1999 Penn State Conference on Rhetoric and Composition.   This was the 16th Rhetoric and Composition Conference hosted by the Department of English in the College of the Liberal Arts. Participation was limited to 150 scholars to maximize opportunities for discussion, according to conference co-chairs Dr. Cheryl Glenn and Dr. Margaret Lyday, associate professors of English and women’s studies at Penn State.   Participants explored the purpose of rhetorical education in America; looked at the sites of ongoing rhetorical education outside the academy that offer education through practice, performance and observation and discussed how these communities generate different rhetorical practices; examined the impact of various cybermedia on rhetoric; and discussed the optimal rhetorical curriculum in American education and the texts and textual practices that should form the core of this curriculum.   Among the conference presenters were two scholars who conducted a session on the theme “Rhetorical Foundations: Rhetoric in Early America”: Mark A. Pedreira, University of Puerto Rico, Rio Pedras, who discussed “Putting the Illustrative Quotation in its Proper Place: Noah Webster’s Quarrel with Dr. Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language.” C. Jan Swearingen, Texas A&M University, current president of the Rhetorical Society of America, who talked about “Constituting the Human: Constitution-era Religious Rhetoric and its Discontents.”   Conference co-chairs Glenn and Lyday organized the program with assistance from Continuing Education’s Conferences and Institutes staff. The conference was held at The Nittany Lion Inn. An outreach program of the College of the Liberal Arts