Offers a writing pedagogy maintaining that the content of any particular knowledge is largely a function of the language in which that content is expressed. Argues that each of the many languages available within a given language is representative of an approach to knowledge. Discusses the theoretical base for the pedagogy. Offers a sequence of…

Relates the self-determination principles underlying the Outward Bound wilderness program to one teacher's writing instruction objectives. Describes two of the writing assignments resulting from this application. (HTH)

Recommends assigning a short research essay as a productive alternative to the large research project in the freshman writing class. (JL)

Proposes a freshman composition class writing assignment in which students plan, conduct, and write up an interview of an adult friend or relative, focusing on one stage or event in that person's life. (RL)

Describes an initial writing assignment given to college freshmen that asks them to describe their experiences as writers. Argues that responses give the instructor preliminary information concerning students' assumptions, values, and attitudes about writing. Includes excerpts from a questionnaire that helps students recall their previous writing…

Argues that reintroducing the classical principle of imitation based upon single, model sentences can be highly beneficial by allowing the student to practice handling the sentence, directing attention to grammatical constructions, enlarging vocabulary, improving spelling, and filling the mind with mature standards of prose. (RS)

Recommends ways teachers can help students write better research papers. (JL)

Notes that the ability to move from the general to the specific and back again is one of the schemas that basic writers lack. Argues that this schema can be developed through carefully composed writing assignments that employ all of the arts of language--reading, writing, speaking, and listening. (RS)

Questions whether a writing classroom which deals with enthymemes (arguments in which underlying premises or assumptions are unexpressed) reproduces patriarchal social relations, providing men with greater opportunities for success. Concludes that using enthymemes to structure writing classes can illuminate the complex relation of discourse to…

Argues that paragraph form congruent with the patterns and habits of thinking develops from the writer's sensitivity to the impact of visual images on the reader's mind. (MM)

Describes a research paper assignment in which students choose a controversial news event reported by six to eight newspapers and arrive at a thesis by comparing the accounts. Notes that students become truly engaged with the assignment and that engagement shows itself strongly in the intelligence and life of the papers. (RS)

Describes a writing assignment designed to help students incorporate into a single essay Moffett's writer-subject progressions: dramatization, narration, exposition, and logical argumentation. Describes one student's progress through successive drafts to arrive at this goal, and how discussions of her draft helped the other students. (HTH)

Emphasizes that composition teachers can create exercises fitted to the current psychological or process perspective on learning (freewriting, drafting, revision) by adding to classical or product perspective (copying, summarizing, paraphrasing, translating, amplifying) the elements of rhetorical purpose and sense of context and community. (RS)

Proposes incorporating a wide variety of texts from a variety of academic disciplines into the freshman writing course. Offers two sample text-based, process-oriented writing assignments. (HTH)

Discusses how the works of Joyce, "Dubliners" and "Ulysses" specifically, can be used to help developing writers learn about the process of writing and as material for writing exercises. (SRT)