Presents a criticism of Evan Carton's description of a writing assignment, noting the contradiction between the assignment's real purpose and the rigid writing restrictions inherent in the assignment that preclude the purpose. Presents Carton's response. (HTH)

Argues that the conventional method of teaching the generic research paper as a separately designated activity is ineffective and misleads students as to the nature of genuine research. (JL)

Advocates modeling as an appropriate approach to teaching composition, provided teachers select models carefully and present them as paradigms of dynamic processes and as hints leading to avenues of discovery. Uses N. Scott Momaday's "The Way to Rainy Mountain" to illustrate how such a model can be used to assist student invention. (RBW)

Explores how Stephen Toulmin's "layout" for arguments might be usefully adapted to the teaching of "argumentative" sentence-combining exercises. (JL)

Prescribes steps that can be taken to overcome the problems of teaching the research paper. (JL)

Describes problem definition in academic writing as existing on a continuum, with literary interpretation near one end and scientific writing near the other. Examines the consequences of this for undergraduate literature and composition assignments. (SRT)

Suggests a possible unified theory of reading, interpretation, and composition based on recent research in composition combined with the theoretical contributions of reader response critics in literature. Describes a pedagogical program based on this theoretical model that uses students' responses to texts as the center of the course. (JL)

Argues in favor of teaching thesis and the forms of exposition by means of assignments such as personal narrative, autobiography, and observation out of direct experience. Describes one such assignment. (RL)