Harms, Keith Lawrence2014-09-042014-09-042014-07https://hdl.handle.net/11299/165413University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. July 2014. Major: Rhetoric and Scientific and Technical Communication. Advisor: Thomas J. Reynolds. 1 computer file (PDF); iv, 165 pages, appendices 1-2.This dissertation first uses Jarratt's feminist sophistic historiography as a method to read the influence of the Scottish Enlightenment on linguistic theories that carry through in current literacy education and composition classroom practice. It then traces the influence of American Imperialism at the turn of the 20th Century on the continuation of these same theories into current assessment practice. Additionally, a pilot study is conducted surveying students about their perception of assessment practices and reads these survey responses through a postcolonial lens in order to shed light on the ways that we use assessments to sort and track incoming college students based on imperialist notions of language use and development.en-USAssessmentCompositionPedagogyThesis or Dissertation