Reflects on one white college educator's role as a teacher of a course entitled, Writing About African American Experience, in which she was the only white participant. Also examines her experiences at another, more diverse, university at which she taught similar courses. Describes her use of transgressive teaching (moving beyond established…

When a graduate student at the University of Rhode Island was asked to take a seminar at the University of New Hampshire, she experienced a major disjunction between her theoretical perspective and that of the other students and the professor. The seminar, "History of Rhetoric and Composition," was to evolve into a book narrating 40…

The Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) program at Guilford College, North Carolina, has actively sought troubleshooting tips to pass on to new and continuing teachers of "W" (writing intensive) courses. Tips (problem statements and solutions) are based on the analysis of six semesters' worth of students "W" course evaluations…

Fifteen upper-elementary teachers (regular and resource room) agreed to enact a new instructional model called Cognitive Strategy Instruction in Writing (CSIW). The model emphasized that teachers should model the cognitive processes of writers, scaffold dialogue with students about their writing, and create a social context in which writers…

Describes a model inservice program developed and implemented in the Bangor Township (Michigan) elementary schools, which was structured on the process approach to writing instruction. (FL)

Presents three articles that examine, through the classroom experiences of the authors, important issues of ownership, authorship, and privacy in process writing classrooms: (1) "Use of Students' Writing as Models in the Classroom" (Karyn E. Schweiker-Marra); (2) Privacy Issues Regarding Workshops" (Mary Broglie); and (3)…

Describes aspects of Linda Flower's work used by the author in devising writing technical assistance for teams writing technical reports in the United States General Accounting Office. Discusses three brief case studies describing the relationship between the work program structure (a major barrier to audience-based writing) and the writing…

Describes the debate among Australian English teachers concerning "genre-based" approaches to writing development. Notes that applying lessons learned from the Australian debate without an awareness of the assumptions driving the debate may well lead to educators in other countries needlessly covering unnecessary and largely infertile…

Suggests the challenge that genre theory presents to educators in the United Kingdom is whether to avoid it because others have reported the dangers or whether to grapple with it and discover what insights might be found. Argues that genre theory is not a method of teaching writing alone: it relates to each language activity. (RS)

Anecdotal testimony indicates that grade deflation is encouraged in many colleges and universities, especially in freshman writing courses. As a result, grading down has become a point of pride for some writing instructors. Instead of earning reputations as good, caring, committed teachers whose students do well because the teachers have worked…

A magazine writer and university instructor used interview samples, editors' comments, and other materials from his own article-then-in-progress for the "New York Times Magazine" in a university-level class in magazine writing. Students, who were creating their own in-depth magazine articles, could see the same principles and techniques…

This pamphlet describes the Kentucky Statewide Writing Program, initiated in 1986 by then-Governor Martha Layne Collins and the Kentucky General Assembly to create student and teacher interest in learning to write and developing writing skills. Following an introduction to the program and background information, the pamphlet describes the four…

It does not take a computer expert to teach students how to use word processing software to prewrite, write, revise, and edit a professional-looking paper. Just a small amount of expertise allows students to work independently as long as they have access to a computer and the necessary software. The computer also facilitates interactive learning…

This report describes a computer-assisted writing laboratory project integrating Model Curriculum Standards (teacher-developed instructional literature guides integrating the reading of core pieces of literature with the writing process), the writing process, computer hardware and software, and staff development. The report estimates that in the…

Explains how an English teacher settled into an unproductive, formulaic approach to teaching writing and how he reformed himself and his teaching through a discovery of the processes involved in writing. Describes exercises and notebooks that furthered his new "process" approach to teaching writing. (TB)