Discusses problems with freshman research paper assignments. Describes how one teacher has adapted cooperative learning techniques to research assignments, allowing students to work together in "base" and "expert" groups. Describes four structured writing assignments on a single subject of general public interest that lends itself to specialized…

Offers descriptions of three class activities involving collaboration between basic composition and freshman composition classes, involving magazine production and peer response. (SR)

Describes how one English teacher developed an approach to teaching writing that was based on asking students to write memoirs or personal narratives. Presents an amalgam of letters written to a newspaper and to three co-authors of an article published in "The Chronicle of Higher Education" regarding the use of personal writing in freshman…

Describes the problem of allowing students to voice their opinions in research papers. Argues that seeing this as a problem points to pedagogical problems. Shows how student hesitancy to engage their opinions reflects their own developing epistemology. (HB)

Presents a teaching strategy that bridges expressivism and social constructionism. Discusses finding the sociopolitical and the cultural in the personal and describes seven steps centered on storytelling and autobiographical writing by which students connect their cultural backgrounds, their own individual ideas and values, and those of mainstream…

Argues that, when instructors consider only the socially constructed in their classrooms, the intricacies of individuals are lost. Points out that, when teachers think students are completing assignments, the students are actually completing their own understanding of the assignment. Suggests that instructors explain repeatedly what they expect of…

Describes a method of teaching basic writing to native and nonnative students that emphasizes a regression to the most basic elements of writing. Considers what writing content, rhetorical techniques, grammar exercises, and proofreading methods are most effective for the two groups. (TB)