The School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies at the University of Nottingham hosted the fifth annual conference in the "Innovative Language Teaching at University" series. Under the heading "Enhancing participation and collaboration" the conference, organised by Cecilia Goria, Oranna Speicher and Sascha Stollhans, took…

Describes and discusses the Rio Grande Holistic Scale (a grading scale developed at the Rio Grande Campus of Austin Community College). Notes that the scale has been so successful that it now undergirds the entire basic writing program, crystallizing student thinking about the process of writing, unifying grading criteria, informing course…

The Liberal Studies Assessment Portfolio program was instituted at San Diego State University in July 1992 in response to California's requirement that prospective elementary school teachers demonstrate subject matter competency. Since many liberal studies majors transfer to San Diego State University at the beginning of their junior year, most of…

The goal of writing assessment in the Department of Mathematics at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is to assure that students can communicate about mathematics or statistics in a manner appropriate to their future careers. A five-member writing committee, composed of mathematics faculty, assess students at three different times during…

Contributes to the knowledge of portfolio systems for writing evaluation by sharing evaluative procedures and their results. Reports on the results of a survey of students evaluated using a portfolio system. Finds that students preferred the portfolio system. (RS)

Exploring how new technologies and new pedagogies transform and are transformed by existing institutions, this book presents 14 essays that discuss network-based classrooms in which students use communications software on computer networks to converse in writing. The first part of the book discusses general themes and issues of the ENFI…

As a result of increasing communication between the student staff of the Walk-In Service and new instructors enrolled in the course entitled Teaching Writing, Cornell University (New York) has instituted the Essay Response Consultation program. Freshman Writing Seminar instructors get free, private consultation about responding to student essays.…

Stockton State College, New Jersey, recognizes that the teaching of writing is not the responsibility of the English department alone, but of the entire college faculty. Stockton's writing across the curriculum project is designed to give all faculty members general theoretical information and practical training in writing instruction and the…

A five-week tutorial minicourse offered by the Douglas/Cook College Writing Center at Rutgers University helps students develop skills in research writing. The first service the Writing Center offers is a "term paper strategy session," in which students meet with a reference librarian to examine the various reference sources available.…

Outlines a program in journal writing and self-assessment for college students. (AEA)

Outlines a team-grading program for freshman composition in which instructors collaborate to evaluate student writing holistically. Argues that while students may be the major beneficiaries of team grading, the writing program benefits by addressing problems of grade inflation and grade inconsistency, building departmental morale, and contributing…

The idea-centered freshman composition program at Belmont Abbey College in Belmont, North Carolina, functions not only to meet the immediate needs of freshmen writers, but also to promote the aims of liberal education. The program has three interrelated goals: (1) to engage freshmen writers in "college thinking," defined as giving…

One of four reports describing the basic skills programs in writing, reading, English as a second language, and mathematics at the City University of New York (CUNY), this volume describes the writing aspect of the program--including content, structure, methodology, and support services--at nine senior colleges and eight community colleges in the…

Advocates making large-scale writing assessment consistent with the view that writing is fundamentally about making and sharing meaning. Argues that this is possible through a writing portfolio system of assessment. Describes how such a portfolio program was begun at the University of Michigan to assess beginning students. (HB)

Recounts the story of how the writing faculty at Washington State University successfully reclaimed their university's writing assessment program. Argues that writing teachers should be leery of assessment programs made by others, and should create their own assessment tools. (HB)