ENG 7980: History and Theories of Composition (HTC) is a course required for all MA and PhD students in rhetoric and composition at Ohio University. This section of HTC was designed with two specific goals in mind. The first was to introduce students to multiple theories of composition, and the second was to not only teach but also to facilitate…

In this article, the author discusses a graphic narrative or comic book writing assignment in greater detail to demonstrate the pedagogical benefits of teaching comics in the writing classroom. She argues that by assigning students a comic book project, writing instructors can promote competence in academic discourse by helping students learn and…

The Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) incorporates challenging literacy standards into middle grades and high school content areas within a variety of academic disciplines, not just English/language arts courses. The Mathematics Design Collaborative (MDC) provides schools with instructional tools needed to help teachers understand and implement…

For several years a number of instructors at the University of Cincinnati have experimented with the concept of problem-based learning (PBL) in their composition courses. The concept, rooted as it is in Socratic method and the hands-on problem-solving advocated by John Dewey, is not new, and though some of its applications may call for adjustments…

Using popular culture in my developmental writing course has prompted me to reconsider what it means to create successful developmental writing assignments. Having slipped into the questionable habit of assuming that removing complexity makes an assignment appropriate for developing writers, I pared down a fairly open-ended "media…

Recounts the experiences of two different night hikes by junior high students in central Ohio which focused on writing a group poem and exploring the mysteries of the "unlit" world. Discusses imagery and features excerpts from "night" poetry, both that written by the students and readings from published poets. (PA)