Eckerd College in Florida has instituted portfolio assessment in writing classes, a method which invites students to engage in learning on a variety of levels. Portfolios encourage students to consider the responses of various readers in their revision processes, claim ownership of their writing, review the papers they have written in college,…

Effective writing is nearly impossible without engagement with the material. The informal journal may be the only place in the composition class which clearly respects and encourages students' individuality, and which cannot be accused of trying to force them into an academic straitjacket of a sometimes loose, sometimes tight, fit. At the same…

Effective informational writing assignments show students that creativity and imagination are essential to the generation of new ideas in all content areas. A collection of these assignments has been arranged into five categories of increasing complexity based on the following criteria: whether the point of view is assigned as self-selected;…

The article tabulates data and discusses a study exploring the effects of delays in returning students' assignments in Independent/Correspondence study courses. The hypothesis, that no basic differences would emerge in the students' final grade, was proven. (MW)

To arrive at an equitable teaching load policy, the percentage of load allotted to each course should be identified. In addition, a table of appropriate basic class sizes should be designed so that unusual class sizes can be quantified and caculated into the percentage of load assigned for each course. (DC)

How changing purposes of faculty workload studies have changed the type of data gathered and the techniques for gathering them. (Editor)

In their recent article, "Materiality and Genre in the Study of Discourse Communities," Devitt, Bawarshi, and Reiff maintain that genre analysis can enable outsiders to a discourse community "to connect what community members know and do with what they say and how they say it--their language practices" (542). Genre analysis,…

In this essay, the author suggests that recent developments in English studies and popular culture create an opportune moment for writing teachers to welcome such literature in composition curricula. The author describes how studying stories by John Edgar Wideman enabled first-year composition students to engage political and interpersonal issues…

There are several variables at work in any piece of writing and some combinations of these variables can cause serious problems for some students. The first area where two of these variables occur is in the notion of what a college education is. The subject matter to be learned is one variable in what education means, and the second variable is…

Advertising educators have a responsibility to make students aware of the importance of the mature market (older people) and to teach them methods to reach this group. An assignment in a copywriting class asked students to write and design ads to promote blue jeans to adults over 50. The assignment accomplished three things: (1) helped students…

When reading science texts, students often do not know what they know. Prereading activities can help students build bridges from the known to the unknown. Brainstorming will help students recognize their own prior knowledge on the subject and learn from hearing each other's responses. An anticipation guide is a teacher-generated list of questions…

The process of writing a research paper must be broken into manageable units while at the same time retaining the recursive characteristic of the writing process. One approach does this by means of a series of assignments that also allow students to accumulate and practice the skills needed to write the final paper. These assignments are (1)…

Reading can and should be a more widely used foreign language skill, and visual literacy in a foreign language goes beyond comprehension of basal reading materials. Authentic, real-life reading need not wait for foreign language mastery, but can begin at an early level if materials geared to the students' prior knowledge and interest are chosen.…

Recognizing that no single evaluation instrument or procedure could provide a genuine measure of teaching effectiveness, the University of Southern Mississippi devised an evaluation system specifically designed for composition that consists of four components: student evaluation, observation of classroom activity, evaluation of a set of marked…

A college-level course about the effects of television on children and the process of social policy formation is described in terms of pedagogical goals, strategies, and perspectives. The proposed course of instruction focuses on three primary areas of study: (1) child-related issues; (2) television-related issues; and (3) policy-related issues.…