To challenge resistance to required literature courses, instructors quiz students regularly on the readings; they also require examinations that ask students to define key terms, to answer background questions focused on authors and dates, to identify key passages by author/title/speaker, and to explain the thematic significance of each quotation.…

Since writing in the disciplines (WID) is focused on learning how to write formal documents of a professional register, it is important to note that each field or discipline has its own style, structure, and format when it comes to writing, and most composition courses seldom facilitate the transfer of these specialized skills in the classroom.…

In a world that is fraught with a troubling political climate, Lu believes it is especially important that teachers provide guidance to students not only for their academic endeavors but also for their understanding of the complexities in language and the social implications of language varieties. With such belief in mind, she asks: How can…

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…

This article presents an effective model for a manageable interdisciplinary project that shows students the connections among art, English, and other disciplines; gives composition students an external audience for their writing; and emphasizes the importance of research in the process of creating arguments and art. This interdisciplinary project…

This essay describes a method of teaching a very challenging anthology piece: Laura Kipnis's "Love's Labors" (chapter 1 of her 2003 "Against Love: A Polemic"). The method, although designed for a critical thinking course, should also provide resources for those who teach Kipnis's work in writing courses. Using…

In this article, the author explains how a writing center can be a potential host for housing writing instruction across the disciplines. She recommends writing centers act as hosts for various faculty development opportunities throughout the semester, and states that these centers can also hold faculty development resources and collaborative…

"Primary research counts, but we don't teach it." This was the sentiment, if these were not the actual words, of Lynee Lewis Gaillet in her critique of the traditional composition curriculum at the spring 2011 annual meeting of the College English Association in St. Petersburg. Gaillet proposes an alternative to furthering students' sometimes…

In this article, I demonstrate how the use of reflective writing assignments in first-year composition facilitated students' understanding of their own writing process strategies. I first discuss the theoretical roots from which reflective practice among student writers grows. Next, I employ my students' voices to demonstrate that reflection…

Integrating writing instruction into the content-area classroom poses a variety of challenges for instructors at all levels. Beyond the need to embrace a new skill set involving writing instruction, there is the resistance of students (and faculty) who find a disconnection between content-area and literacy learning. Developing a method for…

My experience working with first year writers in courses designed to teach critical thinking and composition has introduced me to a mass of young adults who are anxious when it comes to effective written communication in a college classroom. Not only are they troubled about how to write to an audience of college professors, but they are also…

As my colleagues have indicated, the thrill and value of qualitative assessment is that it let us loose to speak and dig into the questions that we had to keep silenced during rubric-based assessment. It allowed us to value our many questions about student writing and pedagogy. As we voiced our questions and discussed them vigorously we began to…

During the fourth year of Amy Phillips' teaching assistantship in the spring semester of 2008, she was asked to teach a 300-level advanced writing course in which she was given the creative freedom to design the syllabus, choose the textbooks, craft all assignments, and organize the course content. However, there was one stipulation: the course,…

Although arguments about the personal essay in the writing classroom have been taking place since before composition studies even existed as an academic field, the author thinks that in light of a renewed interest in autobiographical writing in the academy and in popular culture, it is important to take another look at this type of writing.…

Much of Debra Matthews' teaching experience has been with apprehensive writers, and while teaching freshman English to primarily nontraditional students, she found that the students were often nervous about the writing process. The students acknowledged that they felt threatened by the evaluation process, and some were intimidated by the writing…