Effective writing skills are important for success in college, work, and for society. Although there is little argument about the importance of communication skills, there is more debate about whether or not students and graduates are actually attaining these skills. An examination of the impact of completing the college composition course on…

Two graduate students teaching a required first-year composition course at the University of Arizona designed a classroom environment in which they could explore with students the invisible rules governing black and white people's notions of what constitutes "appropriate" communication. In many ways, their efforts at this large, public…

When she began teaching, one instructor thought everything had to come from her. It took a couple of years before she understood that what students themselves bring to the experience is instrumental--even vital--in helping them connect with what happens in the classroom. In their freshman composition journals, students produced writing based on…

In fall 1992, Del Mar College (DMC), in Corpus Christi, Texas, offered for the first time a college-level composition class for students clinically diagnosed as learning disabled (LD), with the rationale that if LD students were first grouped together to learn the fundamentals of college-level writing and find success among their peers, they would…