Ann E. Berthoff

Ann E. Berthoff died in her home on November 26, 2022 at the age of 98.

Berthoff also promoted the study of Paulo Freire's work in composition studies. In addition to publishing a review of Freire's The Politics of Education: Culture, Power, and Liberation she also wrote a foreword to his Literacy: Reading the Word and the World. When Freire visited Boston in 1985, Berthoff introduced him to the audience. Freire wrote a blurb for the 1988 edition of Berthoff's Forming, Thinking, Writing. When Freire was unable to attend the Conference on College Composition and Communication due to illness, Berthoff was asked to lecture in his place.

In 1971, Berthoff critiqued Janice Lauer's approach to heuristics in her article "The Problem of Problem Solving." Berthoff took this opportunity to promote a semiotic approach to meaning-making using the work of I.A. Richards. Lauer and Berthoff debated approaches to heuristics in the journal College Composition and Communication. Berthoff further developed her theory of imagination's role in composition in articles such as "From Problem-solving to a Theory of Imagination," "Reclaiming the Imagination," and "Toward a Pedagogy of Knowing." Her major textbook, Forming, Thinking, Writing: The Composing Imagination was first published in 1978. In this textbook, Berthoff introduces the concept of the dialectical notebook, a tool for teaching response to reading. This textbook was adopted by Marquette University in 1984 and a revised edition was issued in 1988.

Berthoff published her book Resolved Soul: A Study of Marvell's Major Poems in 1970. This book explores the philosophy of the English metaphysical poet Andrew Marvell.

From 1951 to 1962, Berthoff taught at Bryn Mawr College. In 1965, she taught at both Swarthmore College and Haverford College. She began as a lecturer at the University of Massachusetts Boston in 1969, where she was promoted to associate professor in 1970 and full professor in 1978. Berthoff led a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar entitled "Philosophy and the Composing Process." She retired from the University of Massachusetts Boston in 1987. A festschrift edited collection was published in her honor the next year. Berthoff was the 1997 CCCC Exemplar Awardee. She also won the Robert B. Heilman Prize from The Sewanee Review in 2007.

Ann Rhys Evans was born in New York. From 1941-43 she attended Birmingham-Southern College, where she wrote for the student newspaper The Quad. She completed her undergraduate studies at Cornell College in 1945, and obtained her masters degree from Radcliffe College in 1948. She began working as an English instructor at Bradford Junior College the same year. In 1949, she married Warner Berthoff, a scholar of American Renaissance literature.

Berthoff argued for the importance of I.A Richards' work to composition studies, especially his understanding of C.S. Peirce's triadicity. Her articles "I.A. Richards and the Philosophy of Rhetoric," "I.A. Richards and the Audit of Meaning," and "Problem-Dissolving by Triadic Means" are examples of this line of work. She also briefly corresponded with Richards before his death. She published a collection of Richard's essays with special attention to rhetoric and composition titled Richards on Rhetoric: I.A. Richards Selected Essays 1929-1974 (1990).

Ann E. Berthoff (born February 13, 1924 - November 26, 2022) was a scholar of composition who promoted the study of I.A. Richards and Paulo Freire and the value of their work for writing studies.