This semester-long original teaching activity is a scaffolded writing assignment with accompanying rubrics that utilize an adapted academic publishing model (i.e. accept, revise and resubmit with minor revisions, or revise and resubmit with major revisions) to facilitate a growth mindset. This revise-and-resubmit approach to teaching and assessing…

In this program profile, we describe the development of a new track in Science Communication (SciComm) for an existing Professional Writing minor offered by an independent Writing Program. We identify the international and local exigencies for improving SciComm; the resources needed for this new track--both those already in place and those…

In response to the dearth of research on K to 6 teacher preparation for teaching writing, we investigated writing methods course instructors' course assignments. Participants' courses met the following criteria: (a) Courses taken by undergraduate elementary teacher candidates; (b) Writing methods courses; (c) Use of exemplary writing instructional…

Writing transfer research often illuminates the writing abilities, attitudes, and assumptions college writers bring to a writing assignment, but faculty members across the disciplines may not have the tools for understanding what the students in their particular classes bring to their particular writing assignments. In this proposed model,…

This article introduces a new course in the Virginia Community College System English Curriculum, "English 114: Scientific Writing." The article briefly reviews the concept of "science rhetoric," then discusses the intended audience and purpose of the course, and explains the basic goals of the course in relation to the…

This paper describes the transition that the Anisfield School of Business of Ramapo College of New Jersey made from a conventional Writing Across the Curriculum approach to a Writing Across the Business Core approach. The impetus for the change is explained as well as the creation and design of the program. The document driven program is analyzed,…

Using an experimental study design (N = 41), we examined whether participation in an informal writing assignment, specifically writing a letter to a friend about course content, improved exam scores in an undergraduate child development course. Findings indicated that participating in the writing assignment significantly improved scores on an exam…

The purpose of this interpretive case study is to explore--through a close analysis of one fifth-grade class project--teacher's scaffolding and students' use of visual and linguistic modes when composing multimodally. Using Kress and van Leeuwen's multimodal theory of communication as a framework, this case study examines why teachers, whose…

Recent scholarship in rhetoric and composition has come to identify the English teaching assistant preparation seminar as a polemic site. In general, the seminar exists for the purpose of preparing graduate students to teach first-year composition. The fuel igniting this research lies with the teaching assistants and their educators who have…

The 1,175 composition topics that appear in this special edition of the "Illinois English Bulletin" are suggested as possibilities for high school student writing assignments. After a brief statement about how secondary English teachers might use the topics in their classes, the topics are categorized by subject matter and types of composition.…

Describes and compares the major approaches to organizing a writing course, classifying them under the following four terms: traditional modes, process, epistemic, and stylistic. Discusses the basic tenets of each teaching philosophy, suggests appropriate textbooks, and identifies various ways of implementing these approaches in the classroom. (JG)

Presents an assignment sequence, based on James Moffett's sequence of narrative types, designed to teach the various points of view most often used by authors. Provides instructions, including names of model texts for students to write pieces imitating such narrative techniques as interior monologue, correspondence, dramatic monologue, diary,…

Asks what can an advanced composition course offer its students that is both new and valuable to all of them despite the diversity of students' fields and career goals? Argues that job-related writing requires special attention to audience. Suggests ways to organize course content to develop audience awareness. (JG)

Examines the debate between two approaches to teaching writing: imitation of classic models versus technical writing for the real world. Argues that, in either approach, a developmental sequence of assignments is paramount. Describes compromise course plan based on careers, in which students write research papers about vocations in which they are…

This overview of an English course, "Writing for Government, Business, and Industry" (listed as English 339 at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota), emphasizes the essential elements of audience and voice. Composition theorists' assertion that the absence of voice is symptomatic of a profound developmental deficit (suggesting an…