The purpose of this study was to measure to what extent an experimental method of teaching argument incorporating elements from both Toulmin's (2004) structural approach and Walton's (2013) dialectical approach effects first-year college students' ability to write strong arguments. This experimental instruction used critical questioning as a…

Combating the spread of misinformation is a struggle that has inspired considerable research in the fields of psychology, education, political science, and information science, among others. Such research has found that "prebunking" or "inoculation" techniques--strategies that reduce the acceptance of misinformation before one…

This study reports on how the supplementation of online resources, informed by systemic functional linguistics (SFL), impacted English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) student writers' development of critical thinking skills. Through qualitative analyses of student-teacher interactions, interviews with students, and students' written documents, the…

In first-year writing (FYW), instructors want students to understand how reading texts in particular ways affects how and what they learn and, in turn, how and what they might communicate to their own readers. Because students tend to come to FYW predisposed to notice more visual aspects (e.g., headings, bulleted lists) than verbal aspects (e.g.,…

While a thematic approach to teaching is not a novel idea, the specific needs of the developmental writer and a diverse student body can find the continuity of a theme especially beneficial, and the theme of fear has proven particularly successful. The typical developmental composition course at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University includes a…

While comics have received widespread acceptance as a literary genre, instructors and scholars in Rhetoric and Composition have been slower to adopt comics, largely because of a lingering difficulty understanding how the characteristics of the form relate to our work in the classroom. Using as guides the "WPA Outcomes Statement for First-Year…

The role of reflection in the learning process has taken on new significance in a digital environment. The potential of using innovative teaching methods to prompt first-year writing students to self-regulate learning behaviors and write more critical reflection statements when using electronic portfolios was studied over eight fall semesters.…

This study explored the use of a problem-based learning (PBL) approach for teaching information and communication technology (ICT) skills to first-year students. Two questions were posed. The first addressed the ICT skill needs of 20 students enrolled in a first-year composition course. The second focused on the use of PBL to facilitate ICT skill…

Describes the author's use of John Milton's "Paradise Lost" in a college freshman composition course. Argues that focusing on significant works of imaginative literature can revitalize and reinvigorate freshman writing courses. (MM)

Considers Richard Ohmann's argument that composition texts which instruct students to emphasize concrete details over abstract concepts encourage conformity with the dominant order. Suggests that Ohmann failed to consider the effects of teachers' and students' viewpoints. Cites methods that encourage students to use detail as a device of broader…

There are two types of literacy: mechanical literacy and critical literacy. Those who teach mechanical literacy use language to oppress, while those who teach critical literacy use language to liberate. The mechanical view of literacy oppresses because it encourages passivity and acceptance of authority, places a disproportionate emphasis on…

Suggests that incorporating popular culture into freshman composition classes can help students understand and engage in course content and can increase interest and motivation. Discusses the idea of discourse communities, or spaces in which meaning is negotiated. Reviews strategies for making students aware of different discourse communities when…

Writing teachers should employ a pragmatic-eclectic approach to help freshman students become acquainted with as many writing models as possible. To privilege one model over the many others is to ignore the student's need for self- and world-discovery. The composition classroom has become the current center of critical reading and thinking skills,…

Critical reflection plays an integral part in independent problem-solving and self-regulated learning. Metacognition, which is knowledge of a task and of the thinker's own cognitive processes, and monitoring, the ability to assess and adapt thinking when problems become apparent, are elements of reflective thinking. Research shows that experienced…

Identifies three common "channels" through which student-writers are inducted into the critical thinking practice via advanced writing courses. Argues that critical thinking is a socio-cognitive practice drawing on cultural norms shared by mainstream students, a process not open to students of English as a Second Language. (100…