While "transfer" has become, in recent years, a subject of great research interest to our field, we still have much to learn about how we can best use this research knowledge to inform local efforts in program development. In this profile, we describe the foundations of the Dartmouth Institute for Writing and Rhetoric and explain how…

Tells what has happened the last two years at the University of Louisville's English department. Presents a brief explanation of why the University of Louisville's English department decided to redefine their mission--moving all professorial faculty into first-year composition. Offers some general comments about what the author has learned as a…

Explains how faculty at Quinnipiac College reconceptualized developmental English and designed a new program that provides additional instructional time within the regular freshman English course. Finds that developmental students are better motivated and achieve growth in reading and writing commensurate with students who had a prior semester of…

Notes that writing across the curriculum programs have caused increasing discomfort about the role that English teachers can and should play in cross-curricular writing programs. Suggests an approach to freshman writing that can provide an effective model for a program that appropriately includes among its participants teachers of English. (HTH)

Argues that a writing-across-the-curriculum program should be designed, administered, and taught equally by all departments in a university. Stresses the importance of developing a dialogic program, with creative interaction between faculty members from various disciplines and between students and professors. (ARH)

A difficult task facing college English departments is the creation of a freshman English program that is coherent and theoretically sound and which allows instructors a certain flexibility. Recently, the English department at Francis Marion College undertook a major revision of its freshman program with these goals in mind. The result was a…

Suggests that, because English teachers are often more knowledgeable about composition theory and pedagogy, English departments should house writing-across-the-curriculum programs. (ARH)

Proposes a model for writing program administrators to use to assess the effectiveness of composition programs. Argues the need to consider local conditions, evaluate the internal coherence of programs, and consider the external relevance of programs. Describes how using this model led the Writing Center at Northern Arizona University to make…

At the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR), an urban university, students drop out of college on a regular basis. Developing a community of linked courses appears to be an effective way of reaching the university's goal of helping students stay in school past the critical first semester when many of them tend to leave. Seeking to help…

This collection of essays on Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) defines terms, presents helpful suggestions, and provides models for useful documents (everything from workshop evaluation forms to contracts for visiting consultants). After a preface by Elaine P. Maimon, the collection's 12 essays are: (1) "Writing Across the Curriculum: An…

The Introductory Writing Programs developed for freshman students at Northeastern University are described in this document. The introduction outlines the programs' philosophy, which is based on the notion that all writers are developing writers regardless of their ability. The second section looks at how students are placed in either Freshman…

An alternative curriculum for Freshman Composition, designed to help students develop cognitive skills useful for academic writing in other courses, involves eight discipline-specific assignments, building from relatively simple writing tasks such as taking lecture notes and keeping an academic journal, through book reports, essay examinations,…

The University of South Alabama addressed a rapid increase in the population of limited-English-proficient (LEP) students in its freshman composition classes by developing classes in writing in English as a Second Language (ESL). These students were having difficulty in mainstream freshman composition classes, both with the proficiency level…

Arguing that practice without theory is destructive, this books deals with the theory, philosophy, and application of a variety of subjects within the area of composition. The nine chapters of the first section of the book constitute a state-of-the-art essay and discuss such topics as J. Emig's 1971 study of the composing process and the more…

This report describes the Learning Disabled College Writer's Project, implemented at the University of Minnesota during the 1985-86 school year and designed to aid learning disabled college students master composition skills through training in the use of microcomputer word processors. Following an executive summary, an introduction states the…