Considers how writing teachers can help students become more inventive writers. Gives different techniques for developing invention skills. Outlines an approach for fostering invention in writing. (HB)

Describes a writing activity in which students imagine how a certain land area can become a world-class tourist attraction. Outlines how the assignment is carried out and its impact on the development of descriptive writing skills. Provides student response to the actual activity. (HB)

Outlines a writing assignment for first-year composition students in which they choose a popular song and explicate its meaning both through prose and in a classroom presentation. Explains how to prepare students for public speaking regarding their essays. Discusses problems and argues for the assignment's usefulness. (HB)

Suggests a prewriting activity that encompasses peer questioning to help basic writing students come up with topics for papers. Contends teachers should explain their expectations to the students and gives a homework assignment to either write a letter to their "future" children or devise a "life tree." Describes questioning in…

Advocates allowing students to suggest topics for courses and to take an active role in planning the objectives and outline for a course's activities. Provides a writing exercise in which students are asked at the start of a course to select one reading from the anthology for inclusion in the course. (HB)