The writing across the curriculum movement has rightfully gained recognition as a transformative force in how teachers conceive of, use, and assign writing in their classes throughout various disciplines. Drawing on data from the first three years of an ongoing study of faculty "WAC fellows" at a large, comprehensive state university,…

Discusses the rationale for experimenting with diverse discourse alternatives in writing classrooms. Offers examples of the readings that inspire the author and her students, as well as samples of student essays. (SR)

Discusses the experiences in working with the basic writing curriculum presented in "Facts, Artifacts and Counterfacts: Theory and Methods for a Reading and Writing Course." Discusses reasons for selecting "Facts" as a model for the basic writing program and the rationale for making modifications that renders it more applicable…

Content area teachers interested in using writing to learn activities need to be well informed about the learning promoted by certain writing tasks before assigning them. Writing assignments should not be thoughtlessly and arbitrarily assigned with the expectation that learning, somewhat miraculously or mysteriously, will occur. Although writing…

An intensive college English Literature course provided a special learning opportunity through its innovative reading and writing assignments. From the beginning, students learned by individually selecting, finding, and reading texts and writing descriptive reports intended for class sharing and interaction. The final project involved a formal…

Presents a one-class-period writing exercise (including handout) which uses a short excerpt from a 1948 book called "Making Housekeeping Easy" to teach the linking of claims to evidence as well as academic citation practices. (SR)

This digest considers the one thing that all English teachers do--make reading and writing assignments. It addresses 4 questions whose answers should determine the nature of the reading and writing assignments given by teachers: (1) who are the students? (2) why are the students in college? (3) what is the nature of the course in which the…

Discusses results of a survey of undergraduates' television watching and reading habits, revealing startling numbers of nonreaders or minimal readers. Describes assignments used in journalism classes to promote the reading habit. (SR)

Introduces a four-step process of clustering to help students integrate their reading and writing skills to produce better papers in their college courses. Provides students writing samples from before and after clustering. (MG)

Bringing popular culture into the composition classroom is useful not because it erases the conflict between student and academic discourses, but rather because it serves to heighten this already extant conflict, thereby allowing it to become one of the subjects of study. Writing samples by two students early in the semester and class discussion…

The library can assist in grounding college student writing in reading and inquiry rather than in the mere retrieval of information Fundamental rhetorical goals can best by met by getting students into the library to ask questions, analyze sources, and evaluate claims so they can react to and incorporate the work of other writers into their own…

Reorganized and revised, the second edition of this book provides the latest theoretical and practical materials that instructors across the disciplines will need to help students build strong writing skills. It offers suggestions about how to develop effective writing assignments; and it evaluates various methods of assessing student writing,…

In a freshman composition course, the teacher attempted to motivate student interest in writing by assigning biographical readings and fiction that felt like real life. In reading the books, students found topics for writing about their own lives. During the first class session, students were given the topic "The Story of My Life: A…

Describes how a college professor incorporates "commonplace books" into his courses, with reading and writing the focal practices in curriculum studies classrooms. He defines commonplace books as collecting places for various writings related to the courses. The books represent fragments of a variety of experiences in a variety of…

Describes a teacher's experiments with improving students' writing in the geography classroom using peer editing exercises. Discusses the development and gives examples of the editing exercises and style sheets. Briefly reviews the theory of audience-centered communication. (MJP)