As current scholarship in composition is becoming increasingly influenced by post-structuralist theories of discourse, two approaches to teaching freshman composition compete with one another. At the heart of the controversy lies the question of the place of academic discourse in this pedagogy. The social constructionist approach (supported by…

Proposes a different theoretical approach to the concept of implicitness and makes some practical suggestions for teaching implicitness to students. (MS)

Discusses three perspectives on audience awareness as used in the classroom; rhetorical, informational, and social. Finds that the social perspective, with its emphasis on the transactional nature of writing, is the most productive way of dealing with audience in the composition classroom. (RS)

Presents the findings and pedagogical implications of a study that focused on intellectual orientation and multiple-source writing. Suggests that first-year college students who write from multiple sources can approach divergent points of view from a variety of intellectual orientations. (MG)

Relates the experiences of a group of five teachers of freshman English who formed a group to discuss their teaching. Considers both teaching composition and talking about teaching composition. Traces the way this project allowed the participants to rethink what their circumstances were and what framed their own ways of seeing themselves. (SR)

Laments the lack of knowledge college-level English instructors have about the bond between reading and writing, as revealed in a survey. Reviews the history of the separation of the teaching of reading and writing and the theory and research on their connections. Suggests classroom applications using these connections. (SD)

Describes a composition teacher's experiences in maintaining a flexible approach to classroom pedagogy. Argues that pedagogical theories are a helpful foundation on which to build a teaching strategy, but that they can only provide a framework over which the teacher must stretch the fabric of personal style. (RS)

Offers a strategy for having composition students write a clear, complete set of instructions for performing some task, while eliminating the possibility for plagiarism and collaboration. (JC)

A glance at new textbooks or at ads in composition journals will show that besides "writing" and "reading," the word "process" appears more often than any other word. Composition has followed other theoretical notions in the air and turned from analyzing finished essays to examining the processes which produced them.…

Criticizes views of literacy represented by Hirsch, Farrell, and others for assuming (1) the priority of alphabetic literacy over the social uses of orthographies; (2) a stable external world; (3) that literacy can be taught by skills instruction; and (4) that teachers are the centers of authority. Argues with reference to theoretical linguistics,…

Given that the task of freshman composition is to initiate students into the multidisciplinary academic discourse community, English teachers can speed up the novice's introduction more effectively than can specialists in those disciplines by having students observe, analyze, and produce the salient features of a discourse community's…

Intended for college-level basic writers, this booklet integrates training in selected oral communication activities with writing instruction in order to improve students' academic writing. The first section discusses oral communication theory, emphasizing the underlying rhetorical abilities of invention, audience adaptation, and argumentation, to…

The implicit assumption behind personal writing assignments given at the beginning of a writing course is that personal essays eliminate the writing apprehension of having nothing to say. However, college freshmen find it very difficult to write about themselves and their own opinions because this writing involves abstract mental processes and…

Assigned to teach a freshman composition course with a history and reading co-requisite, a New York college instructor developed a course in which students would begin to see history--through their reading, writing, and thinking--as a series of events intricately connected with their own lives and ways of looking at the world, rather than…

Suggests an alternative understanding of imitation, according to which a student learns by imitating another person, rather than a text or process. Proposes that composition teaching works when it effectively models an identity which students can accept. (MS)