Writing conferences are rich pedagogical settings to explore explanations. In contrast to teachers, writing consultants are usually peer tutors, straddling the roles of instructor and fellow student (North, 1984). This creates a unique situation where consultant-writer dyads must interactionally manage questions of expertise and authority (Carino,…

This essay is about the process of discovering and trying to help an exceptional student who was grappling with issues of real-life violence and incarceration and the desire to articulate their meaning to his life through writing. It describes how this student empowered himself to reflect on and deconstruct the meaning of his incarceration and how…

One of the challenges in teaching a hybrid Basic Course in Communication is the wide variety of topics that can be covered in one semester. Two basic course instructors have found that their recently opened Basic Course computer lab gave them the opportunity to develop interdisciplinary assignments to help more efficiently address various…

"Online Writing Tutorial" (OWI) was designed and piloted in the summer of 2000 as a one to two credit writing course intended for Rensselaer Polytechnic students on co-op assignment in New York and across the country. Similar to its ancestor course, "Writing Workshop" (WW), which was a one-credit course designed to fit the…

Noting that at Saint Mary's University (where the authors teach) the issue of spirituality is in the forefront of education and is seamlessly woven into required courses throughout four years of college in an attempt to "enhance students' spiritual and personal lives," this paper positions writing centers as a place for student inquiries…

The assumption for many college professors is that academic discourse is a hallmark of the educated, a form of communication accepted and expected both academically and professionally. Typically, academic discourse entails the conventions of a particular discipline's writing form. A writing center tutor and administrator must find ways to teach…

There are several variables at work in any piece of writing and some combinations of these variables can cause serious problems for some students. The first area where two of these variables occur is in the notion of what a college education is. The subject matter to be learned is one variable in what education means, and the second variable is…

It does not take a computer expert to teach students how to use word processing software to prewrite, write, revise, and edit a professional-looking paper. Just a small amount of expertise allows students to work independently as long as they have access to a computer and the necessary software. The computer also facilitates interactive learning…

This paper explains why a comprehensive Writing across the Curriculum (WAC) program at the author/educator's university, the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia (USP), would encounter strong opposition. The paper first points out that the author, as the director of the University's Writing Center, has tried for 7 years to make a WAC program…

Described are the experiences of one teacher with the teaching of writing in college level microbiology, virology, and immunology courses. Assignments, methods, evaluation, and student responses are discussed. (CW)

Offers seven brief descriptions of class projects and assignments used successfully in writing classes of all sorts, from first-year composition classes to business communication to computerized writing labs. (SR)

Students are advised to enroll in WAC 101--a writing across the curriculum "Stretch" course--based upon SAT scores. Two types of "at risk" English composition students usually comprise a WAC 101 Stretch class. The first type are the familiar students who are underprepared for college writing courses, while the second are…

Describes a method of teaching geology and scientific writing to nonscience students that combines active integration of lecture, reading, and laboratory materials with field observations into a writing assignment on a real scientific problem. The writing assignment is completed in stages: a prospectus, a detailed report outline, a bibliography, a…

Describes an approach to introductory geology that requires students to go into the field to make observations, collect and analyze data, synthesize those data, and hypothesize about inferred geologic relationships. The product of these laboratories is a paper that requires students to test their hypothesis using specific examples from the data.…

Explains how students can learn basic petrographic techniques by using a thin-section collection prepared from the rock units in a geological area under study. Each student defines a particular problem to investigate and is responsible for collecting samples in the field, making additional thin sections, and preparing formal written and oral…