Proposes that a discussion of narrative techniques and their application helps technical writing students better understand their audience's needs and interests. Discusses point of view and sequence. (HTH)

One of the biggest complaints shared by writing teachers is that students lack a sense of self. Writing handbooks and teachers are full of advice and exercises pointed at assisting students in finding their voice, their persona as writers. One method that may assist writing students in finding that voice would introduce students to spy fiction.…

Describes an historical narrative assignment that stimulates students' interest in questions of rhetoric and scholarship as it requires students to combine role-playing, research, and revision. Discusses how students' role as participant/persona in writing the story prompts an intricate multiplicity of decisions as it forces them to filter data…

Many traditionally held academic views of personal writing have myths embedded in them. These myths include: (1) anything written in the first person singular is autobiographical; (2) personal writing can only exist in an expressionist classroom and is often uncritical and unproblematic; (3) student personal writing is a dying genre, and college…

Provides a response to an earlier article in the same issue of this journal entitled "Resistance, Revision, and Representation: Narrative in Teacher Education." Asserts the right of any teacher to tell stories and subsequently claim relevant meanings for those stories. (HB)

Analyzes the nature of the complexity of student writers of narrative in secondary schools. Focuses on the affective development and the narrative structure of student writing. Provides a framework based on structuralist theory resulting in a detailed insight into the achievements of student writers of narrative. (HB)

To bridge the gap between literature and composition, and between tradition and individual talent, teachers of literature and composition should consider how Roman rhetoricians integrated many arts into their instruction on oratory. With the perspectives of Cicero and Quintilian in hand, teachers would be inclined to stress rhetorical…

Until students have opportunities to discover the power of personal expression through writing in the narrative mode, it is dangerous to teach them writing solely in terms of institutional discourse. The goals of institutional prose, or professional writing, are not determined by the writer, and often demand an "objective" style that…

Based on a successful workshop, this book presents the basic elements of narrative and a series of exercises that offer a self-guided set of discussion topics and exercises for a writer, a small group of writers, or a class interested in the craft of narrative prose. Topics addressed in the book are: the sound of language; the narrative sentence…

Provides a report of research conducted as the authors read and analyzed preservice English teachers' writing. Studies the personal teaching metaphors composed by students upon the request of the instructors. Finds that the creation of personal teaching metaphors can illuminate preservice teachers' beliefs. (HB)

When a graduate student at the University of Rhode Island was asked to take a seminar at the University of New Hampshire, she experienced a major disjunction between her theoretical perspective and that of the other students and the professor. The seminar, "History of Rhetoric and Composition," was to evolve into a book narrating 40…

Presents two assignments that are designed to help students (at the high school and college levels) to develop a sense of place while building skills to improve their narrative writing. Includes the assignment sheet. Describes how students create a Michigan Travel Guide from their final drafts. (SR)

Basic writers can be taught to write effective expository prose if they are taught to revise, and they can make considerable progress if they are given opportunities to write narration before tackling the complexities of exposition. Narratives come easily to basic writers and allow them complete control over subject matter and language. The…

Provides an autobiographical account of the author's childhood and adolescence. Examines the experience of coming to literacy. Considers the nature of a white working-class girl's sorties into the larger white middle-class culture. (HB)

The best thinking and writing is at once personal and public, both infused with private meaning and focused upon the world beyond the self. The goal of writing teachers is to help students learn to negotiate between the two, to locate those dynamic points of connection where experience gives rise to inquiry. Notwithstanding the often eloquent…