Noted composition scholars such as James Berlin, Louise Wetherbee Phelps, Robert Connors, Anne Ruggles Gere, Susan Miller, and James Slevin discuss the realities of composition as a discipline in the eighteen essays presented in The Politics of Writing Instruction: Postsecondary. They survey the history of composition teaching and scholarship; the implications of feminist theory on writing programs and practices; hiring and firing in English departments; the politics of research in composition and writing program design; writing across the curriculum, writing assessment, and basic writing; and the cultural attitudes and imperatives that define and circumscribe literacy education and the teaching of writing.