In this article, the author offers her experience of modeling mistakes and writing spontaneously in the computer classroom to get students' attention and elicit their editorial response. She describes how she taught her class about major sentence errors--comma splices, run-ons, and fragments--through her Sentence Meditation exercise, a rendition…

The use of humorous texts in the writing class can help students improve skills in effective writing while encouraging critical thinking and an increased range in expression. In addition, because of the accessible nature of humor and the focus on purpose and audience that is necessary when writing it, students show a natural inclination toward…

The Toulmin model of argument was introduced in 1958 by British philosopher Stephen Toulmin in "The Uses of Argument" and adapted by compositionists in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Consisting of six parts--claim, support, warrant, backing, rebuttal, and qualifiers--the model provides a means for composition students "to describe the process by…

Humor in the classroom can be effective in maintaining student attention, providing mnemonic examples, and aiding the relationship between teachers and students. (HOD)

Offers five strategies from teachers regarding self-evaluation of student writing, teaching sentence construction, research paper notetaking, using humor in the writing classroom, and student use of transparencies. (PRA)

Shows how faculty can survive by going along with the university's bureaucratic structure. (EL)

Uses the form of a Socratic dialogue to discuss the advantages of writers' workshops for students. Suggests classroom strategies and grading procedures. (EL)

Discusses diverse examples of literary devices by comparing metaphor and humor. Defines and illustrates paronomasia, paradox, oxymoron, anacoluthon, zeugma, parody, jargon, satire, conceit, anachronism, hyperbole, cacography, understatement, and doggerel. A humorous appendix contrasts errors with rhetorical devices. (NKA)

Details (facetiously) a study that examines why English students do not turn their work in on time. Concludes that numerous distractions, such as "Dear Abby," are responsible for sidetracking students doing research. (NKA)