This action research case study on a Common Read Program (CRP) includes analysis of learning management system-mediated student writing and research writing connected to a Common Read selection in First-Year Writing courses. A priori codes drawn from the literature on desired learning goals and outcomes for CRPs and Writing Program Administrators…

This study explores the pedagogical effectiveness of assignments developed for a first-year composition course to encourage reflexive reading habits that can aid students in the writing process. Students in this course were asked to articulate the connections they found between multimodal texts of their own choosing and texts assigned by their…

People need to critically comprehend information across multiple sources that express contradictory viewpoints to make decisions on relevant everyday-life issues and participate in the democratic discourse. However, the processing of multiple documents depends on readers' prior beliefs. The present study investigated the moderating effect of…

In this article, the authors report on a study designed to explore college students' experiences in two writing environments, or ecologies: a media-free, silent zone and a media-saturated zone. Participants shared varying reactions to both environments. Some individuals found media distracting while writing, and others found it to be an energy…

This article argues that writing teachers should allow, and even encourage, students to code-mesh in community college classrooms. By looking at and analyzing code-meshed writing produced by three students in an English 101 class, the author argues that code-meshing provides students with both a craft-wise approach to writing and a way to address…

This qualitative study focused on at-risk college freshmen's ability to read and write expository text using game-like, online expository writing activities. These activities required participants to write descriptions of a target object so that peers could guess what the object was, after which they were given the results of those guesses as…

Learning community (LC) programs continue to proliferate across college campuses as a strategy to engage and retain students. Although evidence exists to suggest increased levels of social engagement among LC participants, there is an ongoing debate about the impact on student academic engagement and intellectual development. This article…

Not too many years ago, right about the start of the new millennium, the TAMU-CC Writing Center began to pull away from the model of a center that focuses mostly on individual consultations and began to build a greater sense of the place of the Writing Center in the larger university Writing Community. In this article, we share how we have built…

Teaching mathematics in real-word contexts is a strategy to make math relevant for undergraduate students. However, very little research exists on students' methods of integrating contextual and mathematical knowledge through writing. This study uses an interdisciplinary writing assignment to investigate the relationship between students' written…

Reports on an experimental enterprise in which a writing course and a mathematics course were linked together so that writing was incorporated into mathematics instruction and problem solving was emphasized in writing instruction. Describes two writing assignments and two mathematic assignments. Contains student responses to the assignments. (TB)

Contends that the process of photography can contribute to a better understanding of thinking. Finds that, because the camera's lens often reveals nuances and detail commonly overlooked, it can promote critical thinking, particularly constructing, identifying, and assessing the dimensions of an issue; appreciating point-of-view; and weighing…