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.…

The increasing use of digital educational technologies in higher education (HE) means that the nature of communication may be shifting. Assessments of English for academic purposes (EAP) need to be reconceptualized accordingly to reflect the new and complex ways in which language is used in HE. With a view to inform EAP assessments, our study set…

Against a Racial Real backdrop, I argue for consciously adopting a sociocultural approach to style in linguistically and racially diverse Basic Writing classrooms. To make this argument, I focus on a multilingual writer named Tejada, who reveals how she had internalized a racialized stereotypical discourse about herself as a minority--a discourse…

This mixed methods classroom research examined if accountability groups in the lower proficiency levels of a university intensive English program would improve students' language acquisition. Students were assigned partners for the study period with whom they completed assignments inside and outside of class, as well as set goals for use of…

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…

Describes an approach that can be used in a business communication course to help students identify some of the complex issues affecting in-house writing. Presents student responses to a writing assignment involving writing non-routine requests (bad news memos) to subordinates. (SG)

Describes three language-related assignments for advanced composition which focus on politics and the English language, symbols and dictionaries, and language as a combination of interpretive and manipulative devices using the techniques of new journalism. (HOD)

Describes ways in which freshman composition classes can be made more interesting, such as the use of cliche analysis. Defines cliche, and provides some appropriate examples for classroom use. (PA)

Describes how a weekly focused journal writing assessment (in which students note any use of language they find interesting, puzzling, amusing, or annoying as well as their response to it) enhances composition students' awareness of how language is used and where. Offers several different advantages of such journal writing. (SR)

Examines differences among five assignments written by both Hong Kong and United States business communication students, focusing on reader orientation, writing objective, organization, grammar, syntax, usage, and format. Finds distinct differences between students of the different cultures using the same language and performing similar…

The principle of empathic learning (involving activities that help students feel what it is to be like someone else) can be used to teach poetry, a material about which students have strong prejudices, and an activity they cannot imagine themselves ever doing or being interested in. First, students are presented with the conception that people…

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…

Offers research topics and three class activities designed to explore the implications of sexism while building reading and writing skills. (RL)

The nine modules presented in this paper are designed to guide students in a one-semester Shakespeare Course through the reading of three Shakespearean tragedies ("Hamlet,""Othello," and "Macbeth"), three comedies ("Midsummer Night's Dream,""Merchant of Venice," and "The Tempest"), and…

Students in college basic writing courses need to consider their own written language and to compare it with other students' work before they can develop a sense of the symbolic relationship between language and experience. Because of a lack of previous writing experience, basic writers have no sense that the "facts" about which they…