The impetus behind the design and implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) was to establish nationwide criteria in preparing students to be college or career ready by the end of high school. The standards require students to comprehend, analyze, and evaluate text across a wide range of disciplines. Essential to the mastery of the…

Negotiating membership within a disciplinary community is as much an exercise in rhetorical facility as it is content expertise. Where individuals reside in the hierarchy of membership is determined by not only what they talk and write about, but how. Yet, there are many factors that can impact newcomers' acculturation into a disciplinary…

In this article, we explore how teachers who make their work public through talk and texts may find their composing complicated by issues of authority. These public composing acts include drafting articles, preparing workshop presentations, authoring op-ed pieces and letters to the editor, developing book manuscripts--creating any of the spoken…

This article uses corpus methods to examine linguistic expressions of stance in over 4,000 argumentative essays written by incoming first-year university students in comparison with the writing of upper-level undergraduate students and published academics. The findings reveal linguistic stance markers shared across the first-year essays despite…

To effectively teach university lecturers or students to write a good research article (RA) abstract for publication in international journals, instructors need to know the present characteristics of abstracts written published in such journals. This study examines the discourse structure and linguistic features of RA abstracts written in English…

Studies of "transfronterizos" have highlighted the potential ways in which these students might draw on their linguistic, cultural, or knowledge capital on both sides of the border. However, because "transfronterizos" may cross borders to participate in institutional contexts, such as schooling, they can find themselves in the…

This paper examines the underlying genres of philosophy focusing especially on their pedagogical forms to emphasize the materiality and historicity of genres, texts and writing. It focuses briefly on the history of the essay and its relation to the journal within the wider history of scientific communication, and comments on the standardized forms…

This study examines the impact of "Disaggregate Instruction" on students' science learning. "Disaggregate Instruction" is the idea that science teaching and learning can be separated into conceptual and discursive components. Using randomly assigned experimental and control groups, 49 fifth-grade students received web-based…

This paper describes some aspects of essays produced by students who as writers in the United States would commonly be called "basic writers." The paper focuses primarily on the grammatical subjects in these essays and offers a view of how closely grammatical structure typical in speech correspond to those typical in writing. It reports…

Focuses on two seemingly oppositional kinds of writing, academic discourse and personal writing, and the reasons for labeling two apparently distinct modes of writing as such. Argues that these terms are not adequate for composition teachers. Considers the value of another form of writing, public discourse, for portfolio activities. (HB)

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)

Examines cognitivist approaches to writing instruction by focusing on the pedagogy of problem-solving, specifically as presented in Linda Flower's "Problem-Solving Strategies for Writing." Emphasizes the need for a language of discourse which connects rather than excludes students' discourse from academic discourse. (MM)

Discusses interdisciplinary writing as a recasting of disciplinary boundaries insofar as it negotiates the borders between the various disciplinary rhetorics involved. Explores the work of S. E. Jelliffe, a prominent physician-writer, as a prime example of a boundary rhetoric. (HB)

Argues that the college reading and learning discourse community should enlarge its support and perspective by listening to and learning from other academic communities. Explains why college composition is the perfect place to start; examines its history, associations and professional journals; discusses genre theory as an example of composition's…

An unavoidably ideological frame of reference in Writing across the Curriculum (WAC) exists and an unavoidably political job must be undertaken if Writing across the Curriculum is to escape being the handmaiden to the so-called content disciplines. Despite this, many teachers who work in the field do not see their task as emerging from a distinct…