At the University of Rhode Island, instructors in English and other disciplines are looking critically at the writing program. At present that program offers a range of basic, intermediate and advanced undergraduate writing classes--courses that are grounded in at least two sets of assumptions that deserve scrutiny. The first set of assumptions…

Insofar as students gain clarity by writing statements of belief and meaning, the expressive mode is a vehicle for learning. By expressing in writing their reaction to a bewildering experience, a current dilemma, or a troublesome conflict, for example, they are better able to broaden their views on this personal predicament. The expressive mode…

In the past few years, a number of theorists who advocate the study of difference have been debating the purposes and priorities of this approach to educational practice. Investigating values and ethics, particularly issues of race, gender and class, should do more than encourage students to deconstruct dominant ideologies. Tensions inherent in…

A formative evaluation report documented the progress made by Westport Middle School Communications/Writing Magnet during its first year of implementing the communications/writing theme. Implementation of the theme was constrained by ongoing construction and renovation, which eliminated many classrooms from use and necessitated a separate facility…

Beliefs about distinct differences between expressive and academic discourse unnecessarily complicate the teaching of writing. A composition pedagogy which fails to attend to the complications arising from the rhetorical aspect of language leads to the promotion of reasoning as separable from context. Reasoning then becomes a skill to be learned…

A 6-month case study of one adult composing in both his native and second language was undertaken to examine the complexity of second-language composing and the relationship between processes in the two languages. Two thinking-aloud protocols were collected from the subject, who was composing in response to a writing task. The first data were…

This booklet provides Alberta (Canada) grade 9 teachers, administrators, and students with samples of the full range of students' writing that exemplify the criteria used to score students' written responses on the June 1990 Grade 9 English Language Arts Achievement Test. Commentary accompanying the students' writing samples in the booklet…

This book presents a history of writing instruction outside general composition courses in American secondary and higher education, from the founding of the public secondary school system and research universities in the 1870s through the spread of the writing-across-the-curriculum (WAC) movement in the 1980s. The book examines the ways writing…

Combining instruction in critical thinking and expository writing with the study of classic texts, this textbook was developed at Baker University (Kansas) and is designed for use in a two-semester college course that fosters careful thinking and good reasoning in students. The textbook emphasizes the pedagogical principle that critical thinking…

This study was conducted at the University of Missouri, to examine the use of portfolio assessment in the classroom. Surveys were administered to composition teachers in the Department of English who regularly use portfolios for student grading. Generally, portfolio assessment means that students work on a set of papers during the semester and…

This volume addresses issues surrounding cultural literacy through 13 essays, which suggest the range of knowledge that truly literate individuals need to possess. The following essays (most were written prior to the publishing of "Cultural Literacy" and "The Closing of the American Mind" in 1987) are presented: (1) "A Talk to Teachers" (James…

For many teachers and theorists of composition, the ingrained reluctance to use "I" came to stand as a powerful symbol of all that was alienating and disenfranchising about an institutionalized educational system that seemed more concerned with student discipline than empowerment. Consequently, the cultivation of the use of "I"…

These materials for a 16-hour class were designed to prepare shift workers, long out of school, for college courses offered via distance education in their workplace. The course outline lists the following topics: test-taking skills, writing, reading comprehension, math, and learning to learn. Materials are provided for instruction in essay…

This book is intended to provide scholars with practical advice on writing for publication. Each chapter includes suggested practical exercises as well as explanatory material. Part 1 includes two chapters outlining the philosophy behind the approach, which emphasizes scholarly writing as conversation and the value of writing as a form of…

Two instructors with different approaches to writing collaborated in the preparation of a junior-level advanced college composition course. Both instructors were concerned about the applicability of the "workshop" in teaching composition, and about the question of how to address authority in the workshops. Students were asked to respond…