"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…

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…

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,…

Examines the pitfalls of teaching and conceiving of writing in terms of content and form. Suggests that writing instructors and their students should think in rhetorical terms: how discourse responds to other discourse or to its audience, i.e., how it most effectively gets the job done. (TB)

Traces the changes in composition theory and teaching over a period of years. (FL)

Examines how two adult students "extrapolated" on previous writing experiences in particular genres to allow them to adapt to writing in new genres in a college writing course. Bases the findings on interviews with two adult students. (TB)

Examines a range of writing textbooks. Finds that many composition textbooks trivialize or misrepresent writing as process and process pedagogy. Outlines how composition theory becomes commodified. Calls for a radical revision of textbooks, including teachers helping students create their own texts. (HB)

Discusses the advantages of conference teaching in writing labs. Provides several guidelines for conducting a teacher-student conference. (MM)

Argues that, although Peter Elbow's and David Bartholomae's pedagogies attempt in different ways to authorize students to write, both rely on the experience and resistance to language as the primary means of empowerment. Suggests that Elbow and Bartholomae must continually defer authority, keeping it suspended between experience and its…

Examines how students view their teachers' comments on their writing assignments. Reports the results of a survey on how students view comments. Offers suggestions for what teachers can do to create a shared context for commentary. (PRA)

The environment is a ready-made subject in writing classrooms, and teachers at all levels are encouraging students to write about nature and environmental issues. Environmental issues provide a equitable meeting place for students from a variety of different backgrounds, interests, and ideologies. There are also many pedagogical advantages to…

Explores various ways that linguistics may be of value to the writing instructor. Focuses on the basic distinction between descriptive and prescriptive approaches to language and between competence and performance to show how sensitivity to students' natural communicative skills and to the variation between them can increase the instructor's…

Reviews some of the theoretical and practical issues and questions that emerge when the focus turns to adults rather than traditional-age students in the writing classroom and in writing research. Looks at the writing process, textbooks, basic writing, technology, learning styles, attitudes, and voice. (TB)

Argues that the metaphor of writing as cognitive mapping can serve not as a basis for a new model or theory of writing, but as an attitudinal guide for concerns with writing and instruction. Notes that the term "cognitive mapping" suggests that the mental world can be seen metaphorically as a physical world. (RS)

Discusses the effectiveness of teacher comments on student compositions. Asserts that establishing a written dialogue between teacher and student, including reactions to the student's composition and the student's reactions to teacher's comments, helps students develop their ideas further and provides more experience in expressing those ideas in…