Examines several pieces of writing (class assignments as well as writing done outside of school) by the author's 10-year-old daughter. Notes the different kinds of learning promoted in them, and maintains that school writing assignments should be as "real" as possible. (SR)

Discusses student publications (collections of student essays, commentaries, stories, poems, comments, and journals) from college writing classes--what they are, and where they come from. Pays particular attention to what teachers and students do with them in the classroom and what this says about interdisciplinary teaching. (RS)

Describes lessons learned about writers and writing from living with a fiction writer. Discusses implications for teachers of writing. (SR)

Argues for a more principled and careful consideration of composition handbooks. Discusses the values and measures used to evaluate handbooks, what constitutes the act of writing, what constitutes good writing, and who writes and why. Lists questions to serve as a guide for instructors in handbook selection. (TB)

Suggests that exploring the topic of boredom in the writing class offers an opportunity to help students become more self-conscious about aspects of their writing. Describes the process of investigation of "boredom," partly as a model and partly to indicate what was discovered. Discusses what students and professionals say about the…

Describes a writing skills program intended for pre-professional students preparing to enter Texas Wesleyan College. (FL)

Discusses the field of legal writing instruction. Describes the rationale and design of a writing program for an underserved group of legal writers: trial court judges. Reviews the demands faced by judges as writers. (HB)

Describes several encounters with a student which led a composition instructor to conclude that she had been favoring analysis of completed works over self-analysis (in the form of a writing log kept during drafting and revising) of an essay in progress. Suggests that teachers continue to hone their response skills. (RS)

Describes how microcomputers can assist in grading the work of beginning writers, especially repetitive errors, and how students respond to this practice. (FL)

Describes the Advance College Project, a cooperative program between Indiana University and high schools in Indiana wherein selected high school teachers came to campus for summer seminars, high school students applied for specific courses in English composition or other areas, and public school and university officials worked out the…

Compares two advertising assignments to demonstrate how different approaches to audience radically affect students' critical understanding of popular media texts. Argues that "audience" needs to be present in writing assignments as a cultural experience rather than a merely static rhetorical category. (TB)

Describes a method of peer review in which peers read each other's papers while writing questions to inspire invention and elaboration in their partners. Describes a four-day sequence for introducing the peer-review method. (TB)

Discusses students' resistance to a cross-listed women's studies/composition course taught by an inexperienced teacher. Notes that most of the writing assignments became disconnected from the class itself and that teaching writing got lost in the emotional shuffle of the class. Suggests that student resistance should not stop writing teachers from…

Explores one teacher-researcher's attempt to involve students in theory-building research of their own composing processes. Aims to increase involvement of rural youth in higher education, youth who have traditionally remained on the farm or gone directly to work in now-faltering rural economies. Shares an outline of the course plan. (MG)

Argues that, if writing instructors implement Howard Gardner's theories about multiple intelligences (MI), students who do not learn linguistically may develop tools for learning that improve their writing skills. Describes teaching a freshman composition class based on MI theory, discussing seven steps of implementation. Offers insights from…