This study synthesised previous literature focused on college English for Academic Purposes (EAP) programmes for writing. A meta-analysis of identified longitudinal studies (14 samples; 175 effect sizes; N = 602) revealed that the students improved their English writing through EAP programmes (d = 0.45, SE = 0.07, p < 0.001). By computing…

This article defines research centers as associative enterprises for solving scholarly and societal problems that cannot be adequately addressed by individuals. The authors identify more than fifty research centers in rhetoric and writing, past and present, and argue that they function as change agents by emphasizing collaboration and conducting…

Assesses empirically whether the goals of writing across the curriculum are being met at Oglethorpe University. Finds that the program (incorporating writing-intensive courses across the curriculum and composition classes linked to base courses in the disciplines) has been successful in helping students improve their academic performance within…

Examines faculty attitudes toward student writing. Finds a number of positive changes in faculty attitudes about writing after the implementation of an interdisciplinary program designed to improve students' communication skills. (RS)

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…

Drawing upon information gathered in a survey of eight two-year colleges and one four-year college, this paper discusses the status of writing within the two-year college system. Following introductory remarks, the paper gives a brief profile of one two-year college, Casper College in Wyoming, including data about its background, curriculum,…

Reports the results of a series of long-range studies that demonstrate that participants in short courses improve their communication skills as much as students enrolled in semester-long college classes. (AEA)

Outlines four ways the basic writing enterprise has failed: by giving insufficient attention to public relations; by allowing itself to be co-opted by traditional academic politics; by not unraveling the confusion of legitimate differences of dialect with "bad grammar"; and by not taking a more critical and enterprising approach to research. (SR)

Despite their success at improving writing, learning, writing in the disciplines, and teaching, writing-across-the-curriculum (WAC) programs are seen by several researchers to be in difficulty. Increasingly, one of the most pressing questions for WAC advocates is how to keep such programs going in the face of numerous difficulties. Case histories…

Draws from date collected in a study of effective college composition instruction to discover six instructional patterns: (1) the literature approach, (2) the peer workshop approach, (3) the individualized workshop approach, (4) the text-based modes approach, (5) the basic skills approach, and (6) the service course approach. (FL)

Recognizing the need to assess the long term effects of composition instruction, a study was conducted to determine whether students could remember significant aspects of a writing course up to two years later, to discern their assessment of the effects of the course on their subsequent writing attitudes, and to solicit suggestions based on…

In six parts, this research panel report focuses on numerous aspects of an institutionally-supported project in Writing and Problem Solving across Disciplines conducted by four teachers at Central Oregon Community College in Bend, Oregon. The report's first section, "Introduction," is descriptive and gives some background on the research…

College freshmen practicing rhetorically based sentence combining for a semester proved superior to conventionally trained students in both quality and syntactic maturity of writing. After 28 months, on a post test, intergroup differences were no longer statistically significant. (This study report includes a research review and experimental and…

Describes a summer technical writing course that incorporated the use of an "electronic textbook," a computer disk filled with examples of technical writing. Evaluates the class for the electronic textbook's viability, ratio of lecture to lab time, amount of information presented, student learning of the writing process, and student motivation.…

This study was conducted during the spring of 1999 school semester to examine the implementation of the University-Middle School E-mail Buddy Project. This project gave eighth grade and college students the opportunity to pair up electronically via e-mail and exchange discourse that focused on such issues as language arts activities and…