This essay argues that multiculturalism-inflected composition classrooms often "flatten" or efface radical alterities with which students--and teachers--should be encouraged to grapple. The authors demonstrate some of the limitations of such pedagogies, offer examples of provocative texts that celebrate difference--not identity--as a…

A discussion based upon principles of design and pattern defined by Stephen C. Pepper in Principles of Art Appreciation." (Author/RD)

Discusses a pedagogically useful model of text structure in which text structure is mapped as a three-dimensional structure of interconnected T-units, or a discourse matrix. Illustrates and explains a sample discourse matrix and tells why matrix diagraming is more useful than other systems that represent text structure. (FL)

The structure of any and all written discourse can be described using four basic relationships (those implied by "therefore,""but,""and then," and "and") and three combined relations between sentences and clusters of sentences. (DD)

Today's paragraph is not a logical unity, and we should stop telling our students that it is. (DD)

A discussion of how one perceive YsI form versus formlessness in discourse." (Author/RD)

Provides several research questions regarding discourse theory, which can be answered by classroom teachers of writing using their students' writing. (DD)

Reports on a study of 60 undergraduates which investigated correlations between style variations (inversion, ornamentation, condensation, poor distribution, and deliberate misleadingness) and such psychological factors as reading ease, mental organization, and recall. (DD)

Written words are laid out in space and exist on the page all at once, but a reader can only read a few words at a time. For readers, written words are trapped in the medium of time. So how can we best organize writing for readers? Traditional techniques of organization tend to stress the arrangement of parts in space and certain metadiscoursal…