Describes two computer applications that can enhance peer review in business-communication classes: news groups and specialized communication client software. Suggests ways to integrate these applications into such a class, including providing guidelines and topics, training students directly in the computer applications, and allotting time to…

Describes how the author's work as a consultant informs his strategies for teaching students to deal with the complexity and diversity of proposal writing in real-world business contexts: emphasizing context, complexity, and research and emphasizing the critical use of models. (SR)

Develops a structured writing effectiveness program across three junior level courses in the accounting major (tax, cost, and financial accounting) to improve the writing skills of accounting students. Provides evidence that the writing across the curriculum project significantly improved the students' writing skills. (SC)

Notes research findings showing that student-selected topics do not result in better student writing. Discusses the importance of knowledge for writers, the three sources of knowledge, and avoiding unworkable topics. Argues that the teacher's active involvement in the process of topic selection and development ensures good research writing.…

Describes three reading/writing lessons on the topics of linguistics, environmental science, and anthropology used in a discipline-based college-level English as a second language course to illustrate how to use film to teach academic writing skills. Discusses how students analyze a film to help articulate the content of an essay or a book. (SR)

Investigates whether an increased use of techniques of visual design in technical communication improves instructional materials intended for novice writers. Finds that instructional materials incorporating basic visual design principles are more effective than those that are primarily verbal, and that less-capable writers benefit most from…

Considers the "marginality" of the situation of writing centers and their directors. Explores a possible reinvention for writing centers' history and mentality, with the help of concepts from anthropology. Finds that the writing center is not a space, a pedagogy, or an academic department; it crosses all disciplines. Surveys cultural…

Argues that nontraditional students need special assistance in coming to believe that they have something valuable to say and in learning to express it with authority. Discusses the complicated nature and causes of the silences of nontraditional students, and describes numerous things that can be done to lessen fear and resistance in the writing…

Suggests that autobiography is a fertile context for students to develop a facility for reading and writing and for defining and constructing themselves within an academic setting. Discusses using autobiography in an introduction to academic discourse course for developmental college students. (RS)

Evaluated a Writing for Publication program aimed at enabling academic writers to improve their public output. Monitoring of individuals throughout the program provided evidence of success in terms of "hard" outcomes, such as journal publications and conference presentations, and "soft" outcomes, such as increased confidence and motivation,…

Uses essays from the Analytical Writing Assessment of the Graduate Management Admission Test to develop a set of analytical tools to diagnose students' potential problems in MBA (Masters of Business Administration) writing assignments. Finds students learned about problems in their writing and about ways to address these needs, as well as improved…

Presents a discussion paper reflecting on the National Literacy Strategy (NLS) after one year of operation. Argues that once the NLS becomes established it will be necessary for all teachers to engage with the research literature so that they teach from a position of professional understanding of the processes involved in reading and writing…

Examines the use of music as a springboard for writing. Provides an explanation of how basic writing students can use music-writing activities to discover meaningful topics and ideas, to develop specific supporting details, and to understand the connections between purpose and audience. (RS)

Reports on a study that explored, first, how metadiscourse can enhance college students' awareness of readers' needs and, second, how the use of metadiscourse is related to the quality of the texts that students produced. Suggests that metadiscourse produces better student writing. (TB)

Describes a very successful writing assignment the author uses with his high school English students, in which students write about a letter of the alphabet. Notes that this assignment grants freedom for exploration and voice, the raw material for shaping and can be used to teach everything from the writing of poetry to essays for college…