Focusing on synthesis--the ability to recognize and create new ideas that subsume and relate to others--as one of the most sophisticated skills writers can attain, the articles in this journal present many ideas for teaching synthesis and a number of classroom approaches that combine the study of English with other fields. The following titles and…

If students are first taught writing as experience, then become aware of the intellectual and imaginative operations they use to shape that experience, they will be better able to manage the thinking and writing tasks of the various academic disciplines and of the world of work. This is the purpose of a proposed upper-level writing course that…

Rhetoric and mathematics have much in common that can help explain the composing process. Common elements of rhetoric and mathematics important to the teaching of writing are (1) relationships between syntax and semantics, (2) practices of representation, and (3) focus on problem solving. Recent emphasis on "repair processes" in mathematics is…

Recent developments in such fields as linguistics, logic, information theory, computer science, speech act theory, and psychology can lead to a greater interdisciplinary understanding of the process of writing (defined as purposeful activity involving language use in special modes). Purposes for writing, which may be correlated with the many…

Discusses the inadequacies of standard conceptions of the writing process by relating the experiences of one child in a writing class. Proposes alternative ways to expand the concept of the writing process by incorporating related activities in reading, art, and drama. (MS)

An argument is put forth for restructuring the community college curriculum around recurring constructs common to all disciplines. First, introductory comments review various perceptions of essential learning, offering support for the position of constructivists and proponents of writing across the curriculum that learning is an activity and a…

Critical thinking skills were taught to students in a lower-track freshman English class through the use of cross-disciplinary subject matter. Given a set of three transmission electron micrographs, or photographs of magnified tissue used in histology and pathology, students were asked to support their conclusions on which two of micrographs A, B,…