Teachers who have participated in Summer Institutes of the National Writing Project (NWP) have often claimed "it changed my life." What do teachers mean when they say this? What does it mean to "transform" in a professional development setting, and what might researchers and professional development providers gain from an…

Discusses the ongoing dialogs concerning paradigm shifts in education, especially with regard to English instruction. Describes one teacher's experiences with the issue of paradigm shift in the form of a blues song. Shows how teachers can move beyond the questions of paradigms. (HB)

Examines the effects on writing of involving students in using strategies of defining as inquiry, versus the effects of their analyzing and initiating model definitions. (HOD)

Discusses how the notion of genre has recently been reconceived by theorists. Questions whether the explicit teaching of genre features and rules enhance the acquisition of such genres by students. Provides tentative responses to this question. Argues for more focused research of this question. (HB)

Responds to Aviva Freedman's article on explicit instruction of genre in the same issue of the journal. Reviews Freedman's argument. Disagrees with Freedman's conclusion that explicit instruction is not useful. Argues that research indicates that explicit instruction of genres can be beneficial to students. (HB)

Responds to two critiques of her own article published in the same issue of the journal. (HB)

Examines, using grounded theory methods, an interactive, televised writing course taught via Teletechnet, a distance-education program at Old Dominion University. Shows how technology affects a writing classroom and influences the construction of students as writers. Suggests that institutional contexts are reconfigured in televised instruction as…

Provides a description of writing instruction in the classrooms of eight elementary school teachers that was developed through the procedure of progressive coding. Calls into question some common assumptions about writing instruction and the present institutional ways of supporting it. (HOD)

Discusses how English instruction has changed in recent decades, and questions whether the changes constitute a real "paradigm shift." Outlines the historical discussion regarding the changes as paradigm shift. Shows how paradigms have often come into sharp opposition through cultural exchanges. Advocates a constructivist paradigm. (HB)

Examined whether instruction on a single structure (the relative clause, the appositive, and the infinitive nominal) would alter frequency of use or global syntactic complexity and whether this instruction lasted beyond the immediate posttest. (HOD)

Concludes that extrinsically motivated students tend to view writing as unimportant, that they would not take a composition course if it were not required, and that they do not enjoy writing. (FL)

Investigates the differential effects of ownership opportunities and instructional support on the writing-task engagement of high school students reporting low-, mid-, and high-levels of writing self-efficacy. (RAE)

Investigates whether more frequent revising throughout composing interferes with the constructive processes of composition of eighth graders. Finds that the effects of word processors interact with individual student differences. Suggests that researchers and writing teachers need to consider these potential differences when prescribing word…

Examines whether accelerated college writing courses are an effective alternative to regular courses in developing writing skills. Finds that accelerated courses were less effective than the regular courses with respect to writing attitudes and percentages of student essays judged competent. (PRA)

Responds to Aviva Freedman's article on explicit instruction of genre in the same issue of the journal. Questions Freedman's conclusions by asking how "explicit instruction" and "genre" should be defined. Considers how craft, as opposed to a body of knowledge, can be learned. (HB)