%% Copyright 2003 C Bradley Dilger, <dilger@nwe.ufl.edu>.
%%
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% massive hack on 25 March 2003
% hacked again 28 May 2003

For many Americans, the idea of ``ease'' shapes understanding of
complexity and difficulty.

I begin by defining ease 

With ease defined, I demonstrate that current-traditional rhetoric,
the simplified approach to writing developed in American
nineteenth-century colleges, includes a pedagogy based on
ease. Nineteenth-century composition portrays the act of writing,
writing style, and teaching writing as easy, and position writing as
the gatekeeper for the 

The connection of ease and writing established in current-traditional
rhetoric was not disrupted by the pedagogical reforms of the 1960s and
1970s. Today ease shapes the development of teaching writing using
computers and new media.