Describes a writing assignment useful for high school and college students in which students ponder, discuss, and write about collecting, collectors, and the human impulse to collect. Includes some samples of student writing. (SR)

Describes how a short exercise in designing greeting cards for a "Teacher Appreciation Day" helps student identify and analyze the four components of rhetoric--purpose, content, persona, and audience. Includes samples of students' greeting card messages. (MM)

Discusses a technique for helping students see the value of revision by using a previously written and revised composition as an illustration. (TJ)

Presents a three-part exercise that deals with poetic excess: heightened exaggeration of deliberately conflicting ideas. States that part 1 deals with hyperbole, part 2 with paradox, and part 3 with combining hyperbole and paradox in a single poem. Gives examples of students' poems using the technique. (PA)

Describes an autobiographical writing assignment in which preservice teachers reflect on their past language experiences in order to examine the important elements of language development. Presents samples from student essays demonstrating that the factors influencing language development are varied and yet consistent. (RS)

Describes an activity that develops student writers' individual voices, even when collaborating closely in a writing workshop. Notes that the writing workshop allows students access to each other's writing processes and encourages consensus on revision directions. (MM)

This book explores the implications and consequences, both theoretically and practically, of four propositions: (1) discourse is produced in context; (2) discourse is primarily a reaction to a precedent action; (3) social interactions in which language is used to construct reality are performed in a variety of roles; and (4) the features of…

"Doodlefunking" is a useful method for motivating students to produce creative language products: "doodle" suggests aimless drawing directed by the unconscious while the conscious is attending to other matters, and "funking" connotes moving into a mental state in which the conscious mind is shut off while the…

The theories of cognitive development put forth by William Perry and by Jean Piaget are helpful in understanding the writing choices students made in responding to an assignment involving writing a persuasive essay. Some students were looking for the "Right Answer" and when they found it, they assumed that everyone would agree with them.…

Common approaches to composition teaching are satirized. (JH)

Argues for using and creating negative examples to teach writing. Includes ideas for the following areas: (1) the worst grammar; (2) terrible leads; (3) the worst possible article; (4) the awful two-page spread; and (5) rules for breaking the rules. (MS)

Describes a research paper assignment in which students choose a controversial news event reported by six to eight newspapers and arrive at a thesis by comparing the accounts. Notes that students become truly engaged with the assignment and that engagement shows itself strongly in the intelligence and life of the papers. (RS)

Describes an activity in which students write guided-imagery scripts that are related to works of literature. (MM)

Describes a pre-writing dialogue prompt, a word association activity, and a writing assignment that draw upon students' memories of saying good-bye. (MM)