In reacting to a review article by Foley, points out that microethnographers have agreed that it is necessary to consider sociological, historical, and economic contexts. Suggests that theories that are based on stratification models or on psychological characteristics can be strengthened with the appropriate use of sociolinguistics. Investigating…

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)

Criticizes the stereotypes projected by rap music to both Black youth and non-Black Americans. Argues that rap's images of sexually suggestive dancing, its pervasive use of bad English, and its implications of an easy way out of poverty diminish the value of the collective ethnic victories of the civil rights movement. (FMW)

Argues that interpretation is not only an essential mode for understanding the construction of rhetorical texts, but that interpretation is itself an important source of invention and, therefore, of social critique in postmodern culture. (KEH)

Reviews 12 doctoral dissertations currently in progress or completed during 1992 that may be of interest to those in the school library media field. Topics fall into four main categories: literary analysis, use of technology, the librarian as practitioner, and student thinking processes. (LRW)

Criticisms of teacher evaluation as it is practiced are analyzed, and new directions are proposed for realizing the potential of teacher evaluation in improving instruction. Failure to provide feedback accompanied by substantive and practical suggestions has prevented improvement and reduced teachers' internal motivation. (SLD)

Examines evolutionary trends, specifically trends in size, complexity, and fitness. Notes that documentation of these trends consists of either long lists of cases, or descriptions of a small number of salient cases. Proposes the use of random samples to avoid this "saliency bias." (SR)

Discusses the poststructural impulse to displace authority over texts and their meanings from the author. Questions whether poststructuralists practice an anti-intentionalist impersonalism regarding their own writings. Describes the reactions of Jacques Derrida to readings of his own work by other critics. (HB)

Considers the recent flood of anthologies of literary criticism and theory as exemplifications of the confluence of pedagogical concerns, economics of publishing, and other historical factors. Looks specifically at how these anthologies present theory. Cites problems with their formatting theory and proposes alternative ways of organizing theory…

Examines two works, "Pnin" (1957) and "Pale Fire" (1962), by writer Vladimir Nabokov, a polyglot with strong metalinguistic awareness. Shows how Nabokov used a polylinguistic matrix to create a subtext partially accessible to monoglots but only fully comprehensible to those who know several languages, literatures and histories.…

Sketches a picture of recent scholarship in English studies that features moral earnestness, enthusiasm, and the desire for change. Describes literature as a social fact. Considers the effect of treating literature as something other than social fact--as an unsocial construction. (HB)

Proposes that English studies is not a privileged route to addressing and redressing social ills. Questions whether literary studies is now or has ever been a "serious" enterprise or whether those who engage in it are overly self-serious. (HB)

Discusses the Renaissance idea of "copia," a rhetorical and literary term indicating enthralling richness in terms of detail, variation, and figures of speech, which might now be termed "copias thinking." Offers examples from Erasmus, Rabelais, Montaigne, and Shakespeare. Discusses the uses for copias thinking. (SR)

Discusses interdisciplinary writing as a recasting of disciplinary boundaries insofar as it negotiates the borders between the various disciplinary rhetorics involved. Explores the work of S. E. Jelliffe, a prominent physician-writer, as a prime example of a boundary rhetoric. (HB)

Explains the use of a modification of an approach known as the Line of Reasoning (LOR) model to critique science news articles. Argues that popular press articles lack scientific evidence to support the claims made and instead focus on evidence-based inference. (DDR)