This paper will give a step-by-step demonstration on how to create MP4 files to video-grade undergraduate writing assignments. The process of using prepared rubrics to guide video and audio feedback will be presented and examples shown. This assessment method provides students with personalized video-feedback as a re-usable learning object. The…

An instructor of freshman composition at Ohio University always teaches a section on music in her courses because freshmen jump at the chance to discuss a part of their youth culture that they readily identify with. The problem, however, has been how to incorporate rap music successfully into these discussions with a classroom full of white…

In 1994, the situation of one writing teacher changed when she joined others at her institution to collaborate on the design and follow through of the Portfolio Composition Program for first-year writing students. Today, the collaboration continues as volunteer full-time faculty, graduate teaching assistants, and other part-time teachers try out…

Describes a first-year composition sequence of assignments using the topic of family to allow students to write essays based on their own experiences. Notes that the sequence eventually requires that students also address connected ideas and then reflect on the convergence of the personal and analytical. (PRA)

At Utica College, Anthropology 101 seeks to help students begin to detect ethnocentrism in themselves and others, to get an understanding of the varieties of cultural systems, and to see their own society as simply one example of shapes a society can take. An "ethnography project" is a useful device in advancing these goals. Students are…

What the instructor of freshman composition might reasonably hope for at the end of the semester is that his or her students have advanced sufficiently in their self-critical attitudes so as to approach future writing challenges with some sense of hope. To borrow Russell A. Hunt's metaphor, freshmen might at least learn to strive toward opening…

This paper is part of a larger project which explored the impact of writing across institutional boundaries via e-mail on freshman students enrolled in several schools and universities located in Tennessee--Bryan College, Columbia State Community College, and Middle Tennessee State University. The paper explains that in addition to their regular…

At the root of the writing problems of most college students is a lack of critical thinking. Students find analyzing an article or essay, writing a review, or arguing persuasively difficult and unpleasant because they have little practice in identifying and evaluating assumptions and reasoning. One solution to this problem, developed by a college…

The decision to organize English 112 courses around a research project entitled "A Survey of the Freshman Composition Requirement at Richmond Area Colleges and Universities" resulted from concerns as the fall of 1993 approached. English 112 emphasizes the study of literature and the production of a research paper that presents an…

The second semester of Freshman Composition at Troy State University focuses on writing about literature and writing a traditional research paper not necessarily based on literary research. One spring, the required reading was Shirley Ann Grau's novel, "The Keeper of the House." This novel, set in an unidentified Southern state, traces the history…

At any level, good writing requires an acknowledgment of writing strengths and weaknesses by both student and instructor. The four project collaborators/writing teachers outlined six specific areas on a teacher feedback sheet to note students' writing strengths and weaknesses; the areas of purpose, audience, thesis, development, organization, and…

Two graduate students teaching a required first-year composition course at the University of Arizona designed a classroom environment in which they could explore with students the invisible rules governing black and white people's notions of what constitutes "appropriate" communication. In many ways, their efforts at this large, public…

This paper describes a freshman composition course which looks at racism and sexism in science, and within which the instructor uses a 1989 "Atlantic Monthly" piece by R.J. Herrnstein, co-author with Charles Murray of "The Bell Curve." In his article, Herrnstein argues that the intelligence of the nation is declining because…

A writing teacher who teachers first-year college writing proposes a "different" approach to the teaching of academic discourse. It is an approach that includes the production of academic discourse and rhetorical analysis yet enables students to examine and often resolve their resistance against academic discourse. Through a critical…

A short story assignment incorporates creative writing into the syllabus of a freshman composition class, while erasing the misconception that creative writing is something a "regular" student cannot do. Students write a rough draft both of a personal experience essay and of a short story. Based on peer-reviews of both, students choose…