"Process and Intention: A Bridge from Theory to Classroom" is rooted in a time when intuitive, experience-based awareness that we should "Teach Writing as a Process Not Product" (Murray 3) was bolstered by systematic research into the complexity of writing. Lots of years have passed since those days, so as a reminder, the author mentions five…

It hardly bears noting that when writing instructors teach professional writing they focus on helping students learn to analyze complex communication scenarios, conduct careful research to support their position, and to responsibly and succinctly apply the process of writing any number of supporting documents. Developing these skills are essential…

It is well known, of course, that all Windows versions except for 3.1 have a brief (four to six second) piece of music indicating that Windows is booted and ready for use. While the music may indicate Windows has booted, it bears no immediately discernable relation to the various uses we might actually put Windows to--working, gaming,…

This article focuses on one aspect of rhetorical training that writing instructors have an opportunity--if not an obligation--to inculcate (or at least introduce) in students studying to be entrepreneurs and taking their writing classes. Specifically, through the use of an open source Content Management System (CMS) (e.g., Drupal or Moodle),…

Because video on the web has spread almost virally, video crafted out of an amateur aesthetic has contributed to a disruption of professional communication economies as it prompts us to ask: Can we use digital video to make work-related communication cool? Professional writing pedagogies are beginning to respond to new student expectations about…

Developing community writing projects that effectively benefit students, the community, and the goals of the writing program is a tricky task. Drawing from recent scholarship and the author's own challenges with integrating meaningful civic engagement into the professional writing classes at her university, she examines limitations of single…

The use of peer groups to respond to student papers is a long-established practice in the composition classroom, so well entrenched, that they may sometimes employ peer response without thoroughly evaluating underlying assumptions and beliefs about how such groups operate. As a central tenet of the writing process movement, peer response was…

In this article, we provide a theoretical framework for understanding how written peer critique can be used successfully to develop authority in students' writing in the disciplines. We suggest that having students respond to their peers in writing rather than orally and positioning students to write their critiques from a strong knowledge base…

This article reports on a study designed to explore whether and in what ways individual students' technological literacies might impact collaborative teams. For the collaborative team discussed in this article, technological literacy--specifically, limited repertoires for solving technical problems, clashes between document management strategies,…

Stasis theory is a powerful tool for rhetorical analysis, recently under fresh consideration by rhetorical theorists (e.g. Gross) and scholars who identify its utility in the writing classroom (e.g. Carroll). In this study, the author applies stasis theory to a paleontological argument involving a controversial fossil, "Protoavis texensis."…

This essay proposes that in light of what has been called the "new economy," writing instructors need to rethink some of the pedagogical approaches and theories they use to professionalize their students. While at one time the concept of experiential or situated learning was useful for maximizing educational possibilities, everyone has moved into…

This roundtable explores several different composition-related questions and topics. It raises two questions: (1) What theory from composition studies do you believe is important to include in classes for future elementary and/or secondary writing teachers? (2) What are the knowledge, background, traits, and abilities of a successful writing…

In this article, the author argues that the computer/artificial intelligence (AI) metaphor dominates current thinking about the operation of the mind among educators and the public, and that the metaphor limits one's understanding of how the mind really works to detrimental effect. In particular, the author posits that ideas about literacy are…

Writing in 1995 for the "Harvard Business Review" audience of executive managers, Harvard business professor Clayton Christensen coined the term "disruptive technologies" to describe innovations that improve a product, service, or operation in ways wholly unanticipated by leaders of existing markets. Christensen's economic theory offers a launch…

In the summer of 2002, the authors' university offered an online course, titled "Swims with Words: Reading, Writing, and Teaching Creative Nonfiction" (referred to as "CNF"). "Swims with Words" is a seven-week online writing course that immersed students in reading and writing nonfiction texts so they could explore nonfiction's value and its…