The value of generative AI tools in higher education has received considerable attention. Although there are many proponents of its value as a learning tool, many are concerned with the issues regarding academic integrity and its use by students to compose written assessments. This study evaluates and compares the output of three commonly used…

The bias against personal experience manifests in writing courses as privileging the citation of scholars, fearing emotional writing, and equating argumentation with democratic ideals. To value the lives and knowledges of marginalized students, the curricular goals, assignments, and activities for writing courses needs to be reconsidered.…

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…

This paper argues that curriculum decision-making in the South African University of Technology (UoT) environment is affected not only by industry and disciplinary demands, but also by socio-structural features and ideologies particular to this educational sector. It supports the view that recontextualisation processes are subject to multiple…

The assessment of student learning in general education courses is of critical importance in higher education. This study examines the utility of a writing assignment (application essays) in a basic communication course as an effective assessment tool. The authors conducted a content analysis of student portfolios to determine the extent to which…

This paper describes a quasi-experimental study into the impact of a blended e-learning environment on academic writing assignments in English (L2) at a Thai international college. An experimental group of 15 students used an on-line bulletin board, as well as face-to-face (F2F) communication in class, to share information for essay topics they…

This essay is about the process of discovering and trying to help an exceptional student who was grappling with issues of real-life violence and incarceration and the desire to articulate their meaning to his life through writing. It describes how this student empowered himself to reflect on and deconstruct the meaning of his incarceration and how…

Describes a writing assignment in which students write an essay employing lexical, etymological, and connotative definitions. (SR)

Argues that composition teachers should assign essay topics on writing because, by writing about writing, students can synthesize and master the material covered in class. (SR)

Explores the quality of "voice" in writing, and how an individual's early experiences and heritage influence voice. Advocates using exploration of voice with students in freshman composition. Uses "In Praise of What Persists," a collection of essays, as models for the students and a source of writing assignments. (PA)

This book features rhetorically-arranged activities and assignments that connect students' everyday lives to the writing process. The individual and group assignments in the book appeal to different student learning styles and encourage an interactive approach to writing. The text is divided into four main parts: The Narrative Essay; The…

Advocates using James Baldwin's essays to motivate high school and college students to write and think critically. Contends Baldwin is the greatest American essayist since World War II. Cites Baldwin's love of language and his carefully crafted prose. Describes assignments in which students write about their mother or father or about growing up.…

Reviews the arguments for and against teaching the traditional five-paragraph essay model. Describes a teaching approach in which students critically examine these arguments while learning the principle features of the five-paragraph essay. (SR)

In this essay, the author suggests that performance studies--a large and varied body of work that takes the fluidity of self and the relationship between word and action as its central concepts--offers theories and methodologies for writing teachers to use to help students construct discoursal identities. Although the performative screen offers…

An autobiography class at Elizabethtown College (Pennsylvania) used one of its four technique paper assignments to focus on the exploratory essay, since the concept of exploration, simply for the sake of questioning, probing, and testing, has both validity and purpose in a class or assignment focusing on autobiography. First the class brainstormed…