For the past few decades, composition researchers have devoted critical attention to studying the ways that African American students employ Africanized linguistic and rhetorical patterns successfully in expository writing situations. More recently, research has focused on the use of African-based rhetorical patterns, since the use of African…

In this essay, I offer William James's notion of pragmatic belief as a framework for re-envisioning religious discourses as rhetorical resources in composition teaching. Adopting a Jamesian pragmatic framework in composition teaching, I argue, entails two pragmatic adjustments to current approaches. The first adjustment concerns the way we think…

In this article, the author offers his critiques on Downs and Wardle's course, Introduction to Writing Studies. Downs and Wardle use their course to alert students to the very misconceptions that prompt the shift from "teaching writing" to "teaching about writing"--namely the inability of first-year composition courses to make good on the pledge…

Presents an extended analogy between different styles of gardening (neat, even rows of vegetables versus scattering of flowers) and different styles of writing (academic versus personal essay). Shows that genre boundaries are as questionable as gender boundaries and that all writing is a means of creating self, not for expressing a self that…

Proposes that freshman writing instructors incorporate the form of writing practiced by the social sciences. Notes that this form constructs an intellectual bridge that leads from a limited "I"-oriented perspective to the academic discourse community. Gives three examples of writing strategies adapted from the social sciences. (RS)

Reconsiders the assumptions writing teachers make about students' literacy practices. Chooses students in the "center," neither particularly successful nor recalcitrant failures, to demonstrate a way of reading the rhetorical constructions of students' texts to understand the decisions they make in composing. Sketches implications of…

Using sample student analyses of online paper mill Web sites, student survey responses, and existing scholarship on plagiarism, authorship, and intellectual property, this article examines how the consumerist rhetoric of the online paper mills construes academic writing as a commodity for sale, and why such rhetoric appeals to students in…

Describes a project in which a college composition instructor and five students studied the relationship between general academic literacy and the content of freshman composition instruction. Concludes that the "discourse community" of the writing class differs greatly from the divergent roles of teacher and student in other…

Examines the loss of an individual's culture while learning the discourse of academia. Suggests writing topics and assignments that not only help students mediate between school and home cultures, but serve as a base for ongoing teacher research into the ways in which home and university cultures interact. (RAE)