Plain and Ordinary Things revisions the space of student writing in classrooms from a number of disciplinary and theoretical perspectives: Feminist, literary, anthropological, and phenomenological. It actualizes the relationships among reading and writing, the songs of pre-literate people, nineteenth and twentieth century literary history, feminist theories about gender and language, and women's writing and pedagogy.

The book explores the relations between private and public selves and women's roles as teachers and writers. Dooley also examines the authenticity of women's voices with which they speak to their students, their colleagues, and themselves.

1. The discussion of reading, writing, and teaching in the book is informed by several premises. The most important of these is that writing and teaching are reproductive acts that gather up past experience, providing a ground for the expression and transformation of identity and that understanding this changes pedagogical theory and practice. The book also focuses on reading the writing of three twentieth century women authors: Virginia Woolf, Joanna Field (nee Marion Milner), and Adrienne Rich.