Details a semester-long research project for freshman composition. Notes that because this project views research as a transactional process, students have more time to read, write, and think about their topic throughout the semester. Provides a project overview, sample handouts, and detailed comments on all aspects of the assignment. (MM)

Shows that while student humor has definite pedagogical usefulness in teaching the conventional academic modes of discourse and language, it also can become a vehicle of subversion. (TB)

Describes the author's approach to student-centered learning through writing workshops. Focuses on a series of class assignments in which students read, write about, and discuss "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" to encourage them to accept responsibility for their own learning. (JAD)

Distinguishes between monitoring and evaluating student writing, discusses the rationale for monitoring, demonstrates monitoring procedures, and summarizes major considerations to remember when monitoring writing. (JAD)

Cites essays by Joan Didion, John Berryman, and Martin Luther King in arguing that the essay, no matter how serious, can be considered as a fiction and a playful, exploratory and deeply interesting rhetorical game. Describes how these works were used to teach students that the essay is a living document calling for interaction. (SG)

Arguing that writing teachers can neither ignore the teaching of grammar nor expect it to succeed if taught in the traditional way, examines the methods, organization, exercises and terminology of the freshman English handbook, identifies problems, and suggests alternatives to helping students satisfactorily edit their papers. (JG)

Relates the experiences of a group of five teachers of freshman English who formed a group to discuss their teaching. Considers both teaching composition and talking about teaching composition. Traces the way this project allowed the participants to rethink what their circumstances were and what framed their own ways of seeing themselves. (SR)

Looks at how the theories of William Perry and Jean Piaget explain choices students made in writing persuasive essays. Examines the implications of their theories for teaching persuasion to eighteen-year olds. (SR)

Explains that rhetorical invention can be viewed as an invitation to openness, whereas structure can be a closure. Describes a writing instruction method in which students write replies to the instructor's weekly letters, providing a genuine need that must be genuinely answered. Argues that rhetoric can enhance and enrich life. (SG)

Argues that since students often articulate their meaning in speaking better than they can in writing, teachers should improve their awareness of speech and writing connections. Describes such relationships and suggests teaching strategies using speech to improve writing. Covers group composition, reading aloud, transcribing prewriting…

Discusses revision as a growth-through-change process occurring continuously through all stages of drafting. Describes several ways in which word processing facilitates invention, substitution, reordering, adding, cutting and other aspects of this kind of composing. Offers guidelines for using computers in the writing classroom. (JG)

Describes a teaching strategy using Apple IIe computers in a sequence of individual conferences. Includes asking questions while scrolling through the paper, showing students how to elaborate ideas by entering suggested changes and prompts in capital letters during the conference, and using a spelling checker to prompt revision (e.g., by compiling…

Identifies student misunderstanding of teacher criticism and a lack of context for that criticism as problems in composition classes. Describes how an instructor provided taped comments on student papers to make criticisms clearer to students. Details how the procedure was used in guiding one student's successive drafts. (SG)