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 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…

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…

Each of the four core composition units discussed in this paper presents its own set of challenges to both student and teacher. As writing teachers at mid-sized state universities, the authors offer four pedagogical approaches to exploring student identity through composition, literature, and rhetoric. One of the main goals is to allow new…

Solicits the opinions of W. Ross Winterowd, the educator/scholar who established the Rhetoric, Linguistics, and Literature Program at the University of Southern California in the early 1960s, as to the current state of the profession. (PA)

Suggests that technical writing teachers pay closer attention to how students constitute an active and demanding audience. Profiles three different, yet representative, types of technical writing students: institute of technology students, industry students, and liberal arts students. (MG)

Evaluates three computer software programs designed to help writing teachers to respond to and comment on student papers. Asserts that these programs do not actually assist teachers in writing comments, but help them to avoid writing comments. Argues that teachers expect too much of the computer as an aid to response. (PRA)

Presents three ways of understanding literacy and literacy studies: literacy as the technology of cognitive change, literacy as basic skills performance, and literacy as communicative competence. Maintains that each of these understandings suggests something very important about how society, or at least how academic society, construes the value…

Analyzes the various circumstances under which "term paper mills" get papers written, how the assignments some instructors give may facilitate this process, and how instructors can work to inhibit the ability of their students to make use of these companies. (RS)

Considers the rhetorical conventions that nonnative speakers of English often carry with them when they learn English. Stresses the need to respect students' diversity. (MG)

Presents three intertwined arguments for changed practices in the teaching of writing. Advocates storytelling as one means for monocultural teachers of writing to become multicultural teachers of their diverse student populations. (MG)

Addresses the normalization common to multicultural approaches to the teaching of writing. Focuses the investigation on a context where the imperative to adopt the normal voice is especially acute: the business writing classroom. Explores an alternative approach to teaching business writing, asking not how intercultural problems can be solved but…

Focuses on female teachers of writing to examine the relationship between female writing teachers and liberatory (critical) pedagogy. Sees a need to work toward a democratic curriculum in the teaching of writing but sees failure if women's experiences continue to be disregarded. (PA)

Argues that the pedagogical is the personal, and considers the pedagogical ethics of the personal. Claims that, regardless of what the teacher's intentions are, a personal relationship between writer and teacher is inevitable, which makes teaching writing more difficult. (HB)

Argues that writing instructors have a significant role to play in producing important computer-writing research. Asserts that the insights these instructors gain from teaching inform their research and guide their research practices by allowing them to distinguish subtle patterns and questions worthy of investigation. (PRA)