While prior research has illustrated the strengths of collaborative teaching between sociology and English, less has examined the potential of cross-listed courses, instead largely focusing on how to bring writing instruction into the sociology classroom. Similarly, other work has explored the possible uses of literary examples "within"…

This article examines the role English now plays in international communication and examines a number of implications of this development for the teachers of English to non-English speaking students. In particular, it critiques the teaching of English in the context of our increasingly globalised world. For many scholars, globalisation is the…

One way to merge imagination with problem-posing and problem-solving in the English classroom is by asking students to respond to "cultural and political vignettes" (CPVs). CPVs are cultural and political situations that are presented to students so that they can practice the creative and essential decision-making skills that they will need to use…

This article discusses basic writing pedagogy at a two-year tribal college, an institution type that has not been visible in the basic writing literature to date. In many tribal college contexts, socioeconomic challenges, under-resourced K-12 schools, and linguistic diversity all contribute to high student placement rates into…

The impact of the internet on the English, and global, lexicon is nothing new. It has become habitual to send e-mails or text messages in lieu of using snail-mail or calling on the phone. Many other forms of computer-mediated communication have similarly found themselves both publicly and officially recognized. In 2004, "blog" was named "Merriam…

The English teaching profession, spurred on by media and federal politics, has tended to construct aesthetic reading and political reading within a dichotomous conceptual framework (Morgan, 1997; Devine, 2004; Donnelly, 2007). The article argues that this need not be so, and that the two apparently opposed modes of reading can be performed not…

Shows how teachers can increase students' general appreciation of literature and improve students' writing skills by studying literature with legal issues and images of the law. Cites several examples of such literature, including Geoffrey Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales," William Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure," and Jonathan…

Argues that literary theory is a fact of professional life in English departments and that differences of intellectual concern will always remain. Discusses what should be the object of critical analysis, and questions whether answering such a question is even possible. (HB)

Suggests that, if politics matters to any field, it should matter to composition instruction, which faces the crisis of postmodernity along with other disciplines. Considers how a truly common knowledge might be pursued and its possible relevance for the field of composition studies. (HB)

Suggests several high school writing assignments with civic themes. Includes assignments on the Iowa caucuses, the political and economic future of Iowa, and city-administrator government. (RDS)

Maintains that one of the most difficult problems faced by English department chairpersons arises from the widely divergent theoretical or ideological positions of faculty members. Argues for faculty to stop abusing one another and illustrates departmental discord in an imaginative fiction involving "Roger" and "Rose." (HB)

Describes the activities in a high school English class aimed at bringing attention through the media to a local political issue. Outlines how teachers can initiate students into acts of social and political activism by writing letters. Narrates how one teacher got students directly involved with a local sewage-treatment problem. Includes an…

Each brief statement covers the areas of jargon, rhetoric, and humor in political language and how these may be approached in the classroom. (CRH)

Warns teachers against relying on the use of political issues in the writing classroom. Claims that writing teachers run the risk of guiding students too strongly toward certain political views at the cost of depriving them of a sense of empowerment by sharing classroom authority. (HB)

Describes a method of teaching students to identify and analyze misleading or manipulative rhetoric used in political campaigns. Provides excerpts from student-written journals based on the 1992 presidential debates. Argues that such activities are beneficial in English classes. (HB)