Contract cheating is currently a concern for universities and the higher education (HE) sector. It has been brought into the spotlight in recent years through the growth of online essay mills, where students can easily commission and purchase written assessment responses. This study contributes to the wider literature on academic integrity in HE…

Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) are increasingly used by Higher Education Institutions to manage and enhance teaching and learning, and research. Discussion, chat, scheduling, and other collaboration tools make VLEs especially useful systems for designing and managing complex group projects. In the spring semester of 2006, students at the…

Applies three major points of American pragmatism to the development of technical writing assignments: (1) restricting the writing environment to the practical, workaday world, (2) emphasizing the complex contexts of purpose and audience, and (3) verifying the effectiveness of any piece of writing by its intentions. Offers criteria by which both…

Composition pedagogy that challenges students to reflect on their participation in discourse communities reveals an attempt by teachers to balance disciplinary concerns with the realities of students' worlds. Such a pedagogy consists of students repositioning themselves in relation to the various discourses which comprise their own ways of…

Uses the modern concept of genre to define the "case write-up" (the dominant written genre in case-based business schools). Concludes that case write-ups prepare students for classroom performance in the central event of the classroom, the oral analysis of the case. Argues that the write-up prepares students to solve problems, make decisions, and…

Two studies compared the impact of black and white audiences on black students' writing style. In the first study, eight students in an all-black intermediate composition class completed one argumentative draft addressed to black opponents and one addressed to white opponents on two different topics. The essays were examined for stylistic features…

Discusses assignments in discourse analysis and students' recurring methodological errors. (PD)

Satirical writing offers a means of encouraging students to criticize those forms of victimization and inequality that trouble them most without that overt, dogmatic indoctrination of a political agenda that many would consider an anathema to democratic teaching. The indirect, satirical jab provides students with an intellectually challenging and…

Presents a one-class-period writing exercise (including handout) which uses a short excerpt from a 1948 book called "Making Housekeeping Easy" to teach the linking of claims to evidence as well as academic citation practices. (SR)

A grid system designed to help students and other writers exploit familiar forms of discourse for better thinking and composing is outlined. The technique helps link topic and discourse form innovatively, promotes understanding of the contextual character of every writing task, and can encourage students to read in order to master writing…

A class "on" metaphor can be usefully distinguished from a class "in" metaphor. A class on metaphor concentrates on metaphor theory and function. To teach in metaphor would be to coach students in pragmatics, to guide them in the study of how key metaphors are used and help to structure discrete universes of discourse. For…

Compares the quality and syntactic complexity of 2 types of essays written by 44 college freshmen in a basic writing course. Essays dealing with group-phenomenon events (intensification) had more words per clause, but received lower quality scores than essays dealing with individually experienced events (initiation). (PAA)

Cites and annotates 79 scholarly articles in composition and rhetoric drawn from books, monographs, and periodicals published in 1985-86. Excludes reviews of individual books, textbooks, teaching guides (unless theoretically focused), historical surveys, and elementary-secondary education studies. Emphasizes writings on new approaches, theories,…

The book describes one teacher's study of student journal writing in college-level English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) instruction and explores the potential of student journals in second language teaching. It first introduces the research questions and methods guiding the study, then reviews the literature that informed the investigation of mental…

The problems encountered by native Japanese-speakers in reading English as a second language are examined. The available literature on the subject as well as firsthand experiences in teaching English, developing reading materials, and conducting research projects are discussed. The discussion focuses on five major areas: the reading process; the…