If, as I argue, student-to-student peer review is animated by "improvement imperatives" that make peer review a form of what Lauren Berlant calls "cruel optimism," then rhetoric and composition will need to imagine theories and structures for peer review that do not repeat cruel attachments. I offer slow peer review as a…

Forty years ago, Nancy Sommers identified dissonance and the ways in which writers respond to incongruities between "intention and execution" as a core competency of revision. While still a challenge for student writers, dissonance now takes different forms, particularly for advanced student writers who embrace theories of revision but…

This essay brings to light new evidence about the relationship between revision and reflective writing in the first-year writing classroom. Based on a robust study of student work, we illuminate a variety of complex relationships between the writing knowledge that students articulate in their reflections--including how they narrate their course…

In this Symposium focused on MOOCs, this journal carries forward a tradition of attending to the technologies associated with composing and the teaching of composing. In the May 1983 issue of "College Composition and Communication," for example, most of the articles focus on composing and include a mix of inquiries, from Jack Selzer's on the…

Our pedagogical histories lean on textbooks, institutional records, and the words of famous teachers. Students rarely appear in situ. Here, the voices of two very different Progressive Era students cast spotlights on the shadows of long-ago classroom practices--offering a liveliness that is difficult to recover, but worth seeking. (Contains 5…

I use Burkean analysis to show how neoliberalism undermines faculty assessment expertise and underwrites testing industry expertise in the current assessment scene. Contending that we cannot extricate ourselves from our limited agency in this scene until we abandon the familiar "stakeholder" theory of power, I propose a rewriting of the…

This article compares essays written in response to the ACT Essay prompt and a locally developed prompt used for placement. The two writing situations differ by time and genre: the ACT Essay is timed and argumentative; the locally developed is untimed and explanatory. The article analyzes the differences in student performance and predictive…

Visual rhetoric fuels composition as rhetors refinish filmed moments to show others what they "see" in them. My work examines projects that model strategic discourse in public spaces. It offers ideas for achieving full and guarded disclosure when clarity is but one of several communicative goals. (Contains 30 notes.)

When examined rhetorically, Savannah River Site Community Preparedness Information calendars from 1994, 2004, and 2008 represent living rhetorical practices aimed at changing the public mind. My technical communication classroom at USC Aiken is uniquely situated for us to examine documents constantly generated by the site's Public Affairs…

Offers a heuristic for writers to appraise the relative value of information in texts as an aid to revising. Uses the example of noun strings versus prepositional phrases. (SR)

Examines research on using word processors for writing and writing instruction. Argues that research can mislead and discourage teachers from using computers in their classrooms. Asserts that word processing encourages students to have fun while guiding them through the revision process. (MM)

Explores the use of topical structure analysis as a way to understand some textual cues that may prompt revision and as a way to describe the effects of revision. Describes the methodology, results, and implications of a study of some of the textual causes and effects of revision. (HTH)

Describes a method of teaching writing that asks students to locate a proper epigraph for their completed essays. Discusses the function of epigraphs, especially as poetic expression. Shows how some students revised their work according to the content of their epigraphs. (HB)

Describes a case study of the composing strategies used by a professional writer, Donald Murray, concentrating on his planning and revision processes. (FL)

Provides a rationale for and description of daily student journal writing, peer evaluation, and revision, which provide students with necessary writing practice without overloading the instructor. (HTH)