The language shortcuts used in text messages are becoming evident in students' academic writing assignments. This qualitative study sought to determine if the use of the shortcuts has an adverse impact on developmental students' spelling and grammar skills. This research was based on the constructivist theory, which rationalizes that students use…

Suggests assigning interview reports to students in order to avoid the problem of lack of teacher expertise on a technical topic. Discusses various formats for this kind of report and ways to implement the interview report. (SRT)

Illustrates the utility of composition classes to college juniors and seniors by having them interview someone in their future profession or career about the writing that person does on the job. (MS)

Proposes a freshman composition class writing assignment in which students plan, conduct, and write up an interview of an adult friend or relative, focusing on one stage or event in that person's life. (RL)

The "Silent Interview" provides an effective ice-breaking exercise for the first day of composition class and also triggers learning strategies toward writing effectively. At the first class meeting, students are asked to work in pairs, exchanging questions and responses in writing until six or eight questions have been asked and…

Describes a role-playing activity to help students effectively extract information from an oral source, as in an interview. (MM)

This paper describes a writing assignment given in an introductory literature class at an open-admissions university. In what can be called "the paper of many parts," students write six short pieces in which they do different things with a poem. The paper begins and ends with response statements: an initial one and one at the end that…

A longitudinal study combined Stephen Tsuchdi's Workaday activities with Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives to bridge the WAC/WID (writing across the curriculum/writing in the disciplines) divide. The researchers hoped that by combining concrete activities that can be applied across disciplines with a Bloomian conceptual framework of…

Describes an exercise in which journalism students were given living journalists to research and write about. (FL)

In a composition course, interview assignments have four key virtues: (1) they are interesting in themselves; (2) they ease students into the demands of working with other people's ideas; (3) they offer a rationale for improving rhetorical skills; and (4) they allow students to experience adult, responsible roles in a social context. In addition,…

Three types of written conversation are examined: the interview, the dialog in a comic strip, and fictional dialog. These are compared to the function of conversation in spoken language, and pedagogical indications are given for each of the types as well as in general. (AMH)

A study investigated attitudes toward and practices of plagiarism of Japanese college students writing in English. Data were drawn from two senior theses written in English and two in Japanese, 30 other student academic papers, interviews with students, and a questionnaire administered to 46 undergraduate and graduate students. In both…

Describes how technical writing teachers, by using a system of peer critiques, self evaluation, and portfolio grading, can use process activities (student literacy autobiographies, interviews with professional writers, and writing peer groups) to extend the range of activities in technical writing courses. (MM)

A study at Purdue University (Indiana) investigated three English-as-a-Second-Language students' understanding of and attitudes toward teachers' written feedback on compositions. All were enrolled in an expository prose class for non-native speakers of English, and all were freshmen of varied ages and backgrounds. Data were gathered in videotaped…

A survey of students of English as a Second Language at the University of South Florida found most ranked listening and/or speaking skills as most important to learn, and reading and writing skills much lower. They also perceived the inverse to be true of teachers. The challenge is to create a curriculum that provides for listening and speaking…