Wikipedia's gender gaps are both well-established and well-challenged, and while Wikipedia-based assignments have become more common in composition, teacher-scholars have not fully explored the opportunities for feminist pedagogy offered by the encyclopedia. This article reports on a teacher research study designed to examine the efficacy of the…

Students' successes in first-year writing courses at the university level are critical to academic success and degree completion. Fostering students' engagement in first-year writing courses has proved challenging for institutions of higher education (IHE). Utility value interventions (UV) employing social psychological intervention (SPI) methods…

This research study explores the composing practices of several first-year composition students in two English 250 classes offered at Iowa State University. The study examines and analyzes intercultural awareness students have regarding race, diversity, and life, their own and others. Using the inductive analysis research design, the research…

This article reports on a three-year investigation into how and to what extent ePortfolios sponsor teacher and student learning about audience in first-year writing classes at a mid-sized research university. Through interviews with students and instructors and detailed analysis of students' ePortfolios, we found that, more often than not, the…

This study investigates whether the type of instruction (a single face-to-face librarian-led instruction, instructor-led instruction, or an online IL course--the Online Research Lab) has an impact on student information literacy gains in a Freshman English Composition program. A performance-based assessment was carried out by analyzing…

In this article, the authors examine the role revision memos played in composition classrooms. Both authors used the memos to help students reflect on their writing and continue revising. The memos also served as guides for the instructors as they responded to their students' writing. The memos were a reminder that the instructors needed to focus…

Argues that little is known about the teaching of writing beyond what good teachers have always known: that some students learn without teachers; that some students learn if they are given simple assignments, have their papers read with respect, and are taught the few simple things that can be demonstrated simply. (RS)

Offers a supplementary approach to teaching literacy narratives that builds on the work of M. Soliday and others but is centered in student production. Outlines specific strategies for teaching the literacy narrative in the first-year composition classroom. Discusses possible benefits of teaching the student production of literacy narratives.…

This study used a five-phased, multi-modal research design to develop a pedagogical plan for collaborative learning in freshman composition classrooms, a plan intended to improve student writing within a collaborative environment and be readily adaptable to a range of teaching contexts. The five-phased project used the following methods: (1)…

Sequenced writing assignments--a series of related writing tasks--offer students frequent opportunities to write and to acquire writing skills through redundancy, progressively more complicated cognitive and rhetorical demands, and a diversity of learning activities. The most frequently identified goal of sequencing is to move students beyond…

The marriage of computer-assisted and portfolio-based approaches to freshman composition, while already in place at other institutions of higher education, is a new approach at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU). Intended as a part of the English Department's ongoing effort to improve the quality of instruction, computer-assisted,…

The book examines why college students still write poorly and why various attempts to redress such poor writing skills have failed for the most part by presenting 19 essays by leading writing professionals, English professors, educational theorists, teachers, and curriculum designers. The essays describe what students can and cannot do in the…

Describes the five major problems faced by foreign students in traditional composition classes. Presents types of tutorial activities which may prove beneficial when dealing with the major problems that ESL students have in both reading and writing in English. Discusses the effect of such tutorial activities at the University of Kentucky. (HB)

This book presents an ethnographic study which examines the ways first-year college students make sense of, engage, resist, and learn from the critical literacy approach practiced in the composition program at one Midwestern college. It argues that first-year students typically enter composition classes with an idea of writing and an understanding…

A study examined the effectiveness of a theory-based classroom instructional method for teaching the vocabulary acquisition process with college developmental reading-writing students. Subjects, 28 students in two sections of developmental freshmen composition, followed a step-by-step procedure in each of five unit plans. The objective of the…