Early, theoretically informed program assessment can be particularly beneficial for professional and technical writing programs that seek to incorporate and sustain service-learning approaches. This article adapts Burkean pentadic analysis for use as a form of institutional critique and illustrates the power of this method through a case study of its application at one state university. The method helps practitioners to understand and respond to the complex motives that drive service-learning programs within their local scenes as they extend their work beyond the university into the community.
A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric