Collaborative learning theory points to knowledge construction as an outcome of peer interaction, justifying widespread implementation of collaborative activities (like small group discussion) that scaffold toward individual writing projects. This article offers a qualitative investigation into the process of collaborating with peers and the…

Describes a free writing exercise designed to help first-year college students confront perceptions they have of themselves as learners. (RS)

Presents teaching tips for (1) generating titles as a prewriting activity; (2) having students write a biography of a classmate; (3) asking students to determine scenarios for their business communication documents; (4) using interviewing as a method of primary research; and (5) sequencing writing assignments to help students clarify their…

Offers descriptions of three class activities involving collaboration between basic composition and freshman composition classes, involving magazine production and peer response. (SR)

Describes how the author, in 3 to 4 50-minute class sessions of an entry-level composition course, uses popular culture to help students understand and appreciate the use of irony. (SR)

A semester-long, introductory, freshman composition class (24 students) engaged in fieldwork, interviews, workshopping, a literature review, an ethnography, and a final paper allowing the student to critique their experiences with the ethnographic process. The first 2 weeks were spent familiarizing students with the ethnographic process. Through…

Describes an approach to teaching a literature-based first-year composition course that allows students to read poetry and understand it, which in turn helps them to become better writers. Outlines class activities and writing assignments that foster independent thinking and personal writing, finally leading to essays. (HB)

Describes a writing assignment in which students think about how their families celebrate their own cultures through special meals or a certain dish, find out how this dish became part of their rituals, write a brief summary of the history of the dish, and write up the recipe itself. (SR)

A first-year composition instructor designed a 3-week unit on folklore that fulfilled a requirement that students produce writing based on field research at some time during the semester. The unit begins with a discussion of the concepts of folklore, folklore genres, and the role that folklore serves in folk and ethnic groups and cultures,…

Offers seven brief descriptions of class projects and assignments used successfully in writing classes of all sorts, from first-year composition classes to business communication to computerized writing labs. (SR)

Describes a "distant service learning" unit in a first-year composition course in which students wrote for a nonprofit organization in the classroom. Discusses program activities in relation to the first-year composition curriculum, program activities and the nonprofit organization, classroom implementation and assessment (including scoring guide…

For many students, grammar represents a baffling set of capricious rules wielded by "sadistic" English teachers for the sole purpose of making their lives miserable. To combat this misconception and to dispel the mystery and empower students with the ability to use the conventions of standard written English, a series of student…

By linking a first-year writing class and an introductory chemistry class at Utica College of Syracuse University (Syracuse, New York) the instructor hoped to foster camaraderie among the students; help students see the connections between the two disciplines; and disrupt students' pattern of unquestioning acceptance of the authority of the…

This paper suggests that composition instructors must prepare their students for the ways in which the Information Superhighway affects professional and academic communication. Students must now be proficient in techniques of composing such as hypertext and the recursive writing process to perform various writing and research tasks as a…

This paper discusses the content analysis of literacy narratives written in a college composition course in the Fall, 1996. The students developed their histories during the first weeks of class, using a journal format and sharing results with the class. They then wrote a polished and completed reading and writing autobiography. Using purposive…