Teaching reading in terms of its connections to writing can motivate students to read and increase the likelihood that they find success in both activities. It can lead students to value reading as an integral aspect of learning to write. It can help students develop their understanding of writerly strategies and techniques. Drawing on qualitative…

Describes a method of writing instruction that uses several different writing textbooks, and asks students to analyze and compare what each says about various writing concerns. (MS)

Describes the use of "Harper's" magazine "Index" column of statistical facts as an essay prompt in freshman composition classes. Lists specific instructions for the writing assignment. Reports that students generally produce impressive, sophisticated, thoughtful, and well-written essays for this exercise. (SG)

Suggests the personal narrative as a writing assignment which allows students to discover that writing can be a glorious expedition into the self and into the world around them. (RAE)

Argues that students can be made more aware of language used in the "real" world by introducing them to figures of speech. (MS)

Explores the apparent conflict in writing instruction between an emphasis on general versus local (specific) knowledge. Explains that the general knowledge focus is based upon cognitive rhetoric, whereas the local knowledge perspective comes from social theories of knowledge. Argues for a pluralistic theory of expertise which incorporates both…

Argues the benefits of introducing S. I. Hayakawa's "abstraction ladder" to students. Discusses its implications for developing good writing and thinking skills and ways to use it with students. (RAE)

Discusses problematic elements in the theoretical correspondence between composition teaching and psychoanalysis. Goes on to explore ways psychoanalysis can illuminate teaching and help composition teachers do their work. (JAD)

Describes an approach to encourage freshman writing students to think about rhetorical situations in economic terms (as a transaction between interested parties), leading to a clearer understanding of the rhetoric behind writing. (SR)

Describes the use in the classroom of students' phone messages and casual notes to illustrate the relationship between composition class and writing in students' daily lives, that writing defines itself according to the purpose and audience of each task, and that they already know a great deal about writing. (SR)

Presents six essays (resulting from a feminist pedagogy research group to pursue the relationship between feminism and composition teaching) which offer individual teaching narratives from the first-year composition classroom. Focuses on two key problematics: difference and authority. (SR)

Argues that students need to learn how to articulate their thinking in a public arena and that the English classroom is a useful place for such public interaction. Describes a "town meeting" method of including public speech into writing courses that provides help toward reaching these objectives. (HB)

Discusses how freshman English separated from other courses. Considers many different points of view regarding the development of freshman English versus composition and communication. Ponders what composition would be like in the last half century had it incorporated communication. Concludes that when freshman English won the "Turf…

Discusses Ron Smith's article, "The Composition Requirement Today: A Report on a Nationwide Survey of Four-Year Colleges and Universities" (published in this journal in 1974) that presented survey findings gathered about the state of the writing requirement in United States four-year colleges and universities. Determines whether the status of…

Argues that journal writing expands students' discoveries about themselves as writers, and extends their abilities to take charge of writing assignments in both English and non-English courses. (MS)