Reworks the concept of genre from rhetorical, dialectical, and dialogic perspectives. Redefines genre as a stabilized-for-now site of social and ideological action. Applies this definition (in a six-month ethnographic study) to a specific literary practice--medical record keeping--evolving in a specific context--a veterinary college. (SR)

Suggests that teachers or researchers ought to slow down, trust their intuitions, and keep solutions open longer as they approach and attempt to solve educational problems. Shares, through three studies and one poem, the similarity in the thinking and writing of research problems and the composing of a poem. (MG)

Addresses the argument that private writing is not really private. Explores the role of empirical evidence. Offers arguments that acknowledge private writing as different from public or social writing. Discusses methods of researching private writing. (CR)

Explores children's working knowledge of narrative, scientific, and poetic genres. Finds that children had significantly more experience with narrative genres than either scientific or poetic genres; and possessed more knowledge of text structure than micro-level features such as cohesion markers. Contributes to theorizing genre learning as a…

Considers how the emergency medical service's run reports are important analytically because they represent the practices and interests of the multiple professions engaged in caring for critically ill or injured patients. Examines the historical evolution of a shared medical form and its impact on the professionals who use it. (SC)

Offers a fanciful dialog between Socrates and his followers to present findings about spelling development. Discusses the work of two scholars (Frank Smith and Steven Krashen); then discusses various hypotheses. Concludes that effective spellers get to be that way because they read as if they were writers; and a strong relationship exists between…

Responds to an article by Ellen Barton against negative argumentation in a prior issue of this journal. Examines how the debate on empirical versus non-empirical research is a product of different, but not mutually exclusive, historical narratives of research in and around composition. Includes a reply from Barton. (SR)

Argues against the use of negative arguments about methodological approaches in the field of composition. Suggests negative argumentation exacerbates the tension concerning the place and value of empirical studies in research; it potentially limits the field's ability to ask certain kinds of research questions; and it risks impoverishing the…

Writing researchers have developed various methods for investigating the writing process since the 1970s. The early 1980s saw the occurrence of the real-time computer-aided study of the writing process that relies on the protocols generated by recording the computer screen activities as writers compose using the word processor. This article…

This study aimed at investigating the effect of electronic dialogue journaling on Jordanian upper basic stage EFL students' writing performance. The study utilized a pretest-posttest control group experimental design. The subjects of the study consisted of fifty students enrolled in the Islamic Educational School during the first semester of the…

Social sciences research is entrenched with particular values, beliefs, norms, and practices that students, faculty, and researchers reproduce over time. In this article, the author argues for extending what counts as research within the social sciences to be more inclusive of differing methodologies and writing genres. Using personal narrative,…

This study compares rhetorical citation functions in eight high- and eight low-graded master's theses in the field of gender studies, written in English as a second language. The following rhetorical functions of citations are identified: attribution, exemplification, further reference, statement of use, application, evaluation, establishing links…

A study examined topic selection and spelling development in kindergarten students' journal writing. Subjects, 19 kindergarten students enrolled in a middle-class school, were informally interviewed about their writing. The students' writing topics were categorized and their spelling analyzed. Results indicated that the children were able to…

This paper discusses self-reference in the text, in order to examine its rhetorical intentions, and the writing strategies it offers an author. Following a brief introduction, the first section deals with definitions, and classifies self-reference "markers." The second section discusses intentions and self-reference, while the third…

A study was conducted to determine the technical writing style that scientists prefer. The respondents--l089 scientists from agricultural experiment stations, 20 station editors, and 59 editors of scientific publications--completed a questionnaire requesting biographic information and reactions to a simplified style of writing and a difficult…