Recounts an imaginary conversation between "literature" and "composition" concerning the writing-across-the-curriculum (WAC) movement. Suggests that literature instruction pays no heed to WAC and overlooks writing purposes other than literary ones. Argues that literature and composition proponents should both support a broader…

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…

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…

Describes the processes involved in developing "Writers' Bloc," an annual anthology of outstanding student writing submitted in freshman English classes at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Describes project promotion, entry judging, financing and pricing, using computer software, and recommendations about solving problems…

Explains the dynamics of the interaction between the English department and Freshman Writing at the University of Southern California (USC). Asserts that the ideal relationship between Freshman Writing and the English department would be an academic partnership that acknowledges their differing priorities but accommodates these differences by…

Discusses the separation of the Freshman Writing and English department at the University of Southern California (USC). Advocates reengaging the English department with first-year students and with writing. Suggests a move from amicable separation toward reunion, but a reunion defined as reengagement, not remarriage. (PRA)

Describes a program that gives first-year students the chance to have a small course, 15 to 20 students, taught by a full-time faculty member on a special topic conceived by the professor. Notes that their program set an implicit parallel of time and value between teaching at the most advanced and at the most introductory levels of the curriculum.…

Describes the major changes made by the English department of the University of Louisville in terms of how they define themselves and their mission. Notes that in exchange for all full-time faculty teaching at least one section of first-year composition annually, the administration allocated seven new tenure-track positions in the English…

Challenges the writing-across-the-curriculum movement's view of the university curriculum as a confederation of interpretive communities. Argues for a common domain of discourse and inquiry, grounded in the liberal arts. Calls for resistance of a rhetorical approach that requires students to learn specialized academic languages as quickly as they…

Tells what has happened the last two years at the University of Louisville's English department. Presents a brief explanation of why the University of Louisville's English department decided to redefine their mission--moving all professorial faculty into first-year composition. Offers some general comments about what the author has learned as a…

Presents the results of a survey of several freshman composition instructors who offer their opinions of teaching writing and empirical research into the writing process. Notes the problems with such research, as well as the problems of overburdened composition teachers who receive little recognition. (JC)

Asserts that responses to students' work ought to be recorded on the same sheets of paper where the students respond to the efforts of the teacher and other students. Argues that these sheets should be part of the mutual teaching process, and discusses how to create them. Relays evaluations of a first-year writing course. (PRA)

Shares thoughts about a recent teaching experience that may speak to two current and related issues of importance to English studies, those of part-time and adjunct staffing and of the full-time faculty's responsibility for and involvement in the design, supervision, and instruction of lower-division courses. Considers the reintegration of tenured…

Contrasts the traditional theory of composition with the new process theory of writing and concludes that the popularity of the new theory (with its student-centered teacher) is probably due to the compatibility of educationist theory with the unphilosophical temper of the age. (NKA)

Updates an earlier report to underscore the inadvisability of imposing large sections of freshman composition students on reluctant departments and to promote further discussion of the issues raised by the program. Discusses some of the more controversial implications raised by the program. (RS)