Reports on an interdisciplinary teachers' workshop procedure for collaborating on theme and essay question assignment writing. Outlines the process of examining assignments and describes the discussion of one assignment critiqued in the workshop. Emphasizes the relationship between assignment purpose and writing assessment and the students'…

Argues that writing teachers must create an organic curriculum with the language of home and community at its core. Suggests that writing teachers help students examine language features, dialects, and language attitudes in their communities. Notes that such student inquiry influences class discussions and can reshape attitudes toward students'…

Describes a study in which undergraduate college students, composition instructors, and noncomposition faculty evaluate the same student writing assignments. Reports that the three groups have very different views of what constitutes good writing. Suggests a possible need to reexamine prevailing notions of academic writing. (SG)

Describes an assignment designed to dispel prospective English teachers' dichotomous ideas about language ("right" or "wrong"); gain a sense that more than one dialect could be accepted; and understand that the variations from the handbook rules ("errors") might even be rhetorically based. (TB)