Voice is a key component of interpersonal meaning that denotes a writer's value judgement or personal feelings. An important aspect of voice in informational writing is epistemic stance, which indicates a writer's judgement of the information presented. This exploratory study examined adolescents' use of hedges and boosters to convey epistemic…

Many studies have demonstrated the facilitating role of rhetorical devices in text comprehension, but there are also studies where rhetorical devices have not shown such effect. The present study sets out to explore whether readers' knowledge of rhetorical devices (that is, rhetorical competence) moderates their effectiveness beyond general…

In this article, we draw on the work of Michel Foucault to analyze one student's subject development in an expository writing classroom. James, the participant, was embarking on the project of becoming a good student, as he understood it, after struggling and leaving school previously. Drawing on interviews, classroom observations and written…

Recent scholarship on Chinese students' English expository essays tends to blur or mitigate the differences between English and Chinese writings. This alleged convergence of English and Chinese rhetorical norms gives rise to a view that rhetorical aspects in second language writing instruction and research in China should be de-emphasized. Drawing…

This article examines the influence of context on student writing and discusses how the author used one methodology, problem-based learning, to foster more contextualized writing practice in ninth-grade English classes. Both research and practical experience suggest that students can benefit from writing practice contextualized within specific,…

This article describes the complex cognitive and linguistic challenges of summarizing expository text at vocabulary, syntactic, and rhetorical levels. It then outlines activities to help ABE/ESL learners develop corresponding skills.

Many young readers fail to construct a proper mental text representation, often due to a lack of higher-order skills such as making integrative and inferential links. In an eye-tracking experiment among 141 Dutch eighth graders, we tested whether coherence markers (moreover, after, because) improve students' online processing and their off-line…

This article details how we integrate Jody Shipka's approach to creativity and rhetorical awareness into a Professional Writing, Rhetoric, and Technology major at the University of South Florida. We situate Shipka's pedagogy alongside postpedagogy, differentiating the latter from postcomposition. In short, we argue that postpedagogy echoes…

For the past few decades, composition researchers have devoted critical attention to studying the ways that African American students employ Africanized linguistic and rhetorical patterns successfully in expository writing situations. More recently, research has focused on the use of African-based rhetorical patterns, since the use of African…

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) create new common ground for high school-college collaborations through emphasis on expository writing in English language arts (ELA) and writing in content areas across the curriculum. This article, written collaboratively by a composition-rhetoric scholar and a secondary education leadership scholar who…

Empower students to take ownership of their reading and learning with "Teaching Students to Read Like Detectives." In this comprehensive guide, the authors explore the relationship between text, learner, and learning through discussion and rhetorical writing at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. Prompt students to become the…

This contrastive study is concerned with relations between rhetoric and ethnicity in second language (L2) writing. It investigates the influence of Chinese rhetoric on expository writing in English by three groups: the majority Chinese Han group, and two ethnic minorities, Tibetan and Mongolian. Relying on a contrastive text analysis of 30…

A symposium in the November 2006 issue of "College English" addresses the question, "What should college English be?" In this article, the author presents his answer to this question--it should be a functional approach to English studies. By English studies he means everything that is done in English departments. Most English departments teach…

A college-level course in technical writing can provide a unique opportunity for the nontechnical student to become acquainted with many facets of the technical world. Such knowledge is especially important to the liberal arts major because the number, scope, and impact of technological developments increase daily. Such a course would be based on…

Argues that to improve students' writing in upper level business communication courses they must be exposed to the thesis that it is impossible to put together any piece of exposition, specifically letters, memoranda, and reports, without using one, or a combination of, rhetorical techniques arranged logically. (FL)