He also establishes a metatheory, which he calls the “Theory of Composition” (410). This theory has four components:
- The axiological component: a value theory “about what constitutes good writing” (410-1).
- The procedural component: “a conception of how writers go about creating texts, and perhaps a conceptions of how they should go about it…[It] describes the means by which writers can reach the ends specified by the axiology” (411).
- The pedagogical component: “perspective about classroom procures and curricular designs suitable for enabling students to achieve the sorts of writing one values…This component also concerns means, but the teacher’s means rather tan the writers” (411).
- The epistemological component: “assumptions about what counts for knowledge. Moreover, writing itself requires an epistemological assumptions, so teaching writing implicitly involves teaching epistemology” (411).
“[T]hese four elements are both necessary and sufficient for a theory of composition: these four, and only these four, are required, either conscious or not, to teach writing” (411). He argues that the field is “‘axiological’ consensus’ and ‘pedagogical diversity’” (“Twenty-First Century” 655). Fulkerson states that these components are not mutually exclusive, which accounts for the variety of teaching pedagogies and theories (418). He does, however, argue, “While axiology, pedagogy, process theory, and epistemology are not a tight-wrapped package, different elements in a theory of composition can still be logically incompatible” (422).