The Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) recognizes campuses around the world as fundamentally multilingual spaces, in which students and faculty bring to the acts of writing and communication a rich array of linguistic and cultural resources that enrich academic life and should be valued and supported. The aim of this…

Describes the reaction of first-year composition students to a classroom performance of John Cage's 4'33" [his most (in)famous piece] and discusses the role of silence in the composing process. (NH)

Shows how academic discourse can be taught as a site of conflict to be examined by first-year writing students. Shows that the articulation of personal experiences and beliefs by students can be the starting point for significant learning. Concludes that educators should consider their audience of first-year students and engage them in the…

Outlines strategies for teaching freshman composition courses and discusses the similarities between teaching graduate courses and teaching survey courses. Finds that (1) thinking, exploring, and testing ideas in the freshman composition classroom can provide material for research; and (2) teaching in the area of one's scholarship provides an…

Describes some of the thinking behind learning communities, how they have been defined, and considers why they can be effective. Suggests a direction that educators might go to rehabilitate the idea of learning communities because it represents something fundamentally good about human beings in their relations with one another. (SG)

Notes that new teaching assistants (TAs) and first year composition students similarly grapple with ambiguity, multiplicity, and open-endedness. Contends that new TAs' queries and early classroom experiences can provide a valuable occasion to re-balance the emphasis in a pro-seminar between teaching and learning. Presents strategies for addressing…

Examines the purposes of the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC), transformative experiences at professional conferences, and the elements of the author's literacy autobiography using a variety of common forms from first-year composition. Argues for recognition of the knowledge-building role of writing programs in two-year…

Explores theoretical and administrative tensions arising when the freshman writing program is not directed by the same faculty who teach in the graduate program. Discusses the effects of these tensions on the writing program and those who teach in it. Explores ways to resolve such conflicts. (RS)

Examines the concept of intellectual development, focusing on how differences in writing reflect different developmental models, such as those developed by Piaget and Vygotsky. Discusses the consequences of developmental models on theories of composition and the function of narrative. (MM)

Argues that standardized tests can provide limited guidance, in conjunction with student writing samples, in the decision whether students should be exempted from freshmen writing courses. Suggests that students who write well but whose performance is unstable can be affected, positively or negatively, by exemption results. Suggests that students'…

Examines the theoretical dichotomy existing between expressionists and social constructionists in the areas of writing conventions, writing teacher roles, and the positions that writers assume in their discourse. Identifies serious implications for writing instruction because of the exclusionary nature and rhetorical focus of each theory. (KEH)

Discusses ways to integrate computers effectively into the freshman English course. Addresses some objections to using computers in the composition classroom. (MM)

Focuses on a survey of 10 questions that the author gave to all tenured and tenure-track faculty members in English at the University of Louisville. Notes that the questions focused on the perceived positive and negative results of a major cultural change (faculty teaching first-year composition) for the department, the composition program, the…

Explores the place of faculty and faculty values in the process of assessing the work of higher education. Searches to find better ways to put the intellectual work of faculty and students at the center of the educational concerns and at the center of assessment models. Suggests that faculty should devote themselves to teaching the first-year…

Examines both the early and recent periods of the history as it has been written for both English education and first-year composition. Argues that those accounts show consistently converging trajectories of disciplinary practice in both areas. Proposes that writing teacher educators should actively consider reconfiguring their shared discipline…