A study described college student writers as they constructed arguments, creating a picture of school-based argument drawn not from ideal models of arguments as envisioned by educators, but from experiences of students themselves. A three-part framework that synthesizes rhetorical perspectives on argument with a social-cognitive view of the…

Ernest Hemingway was wrong. It is not necessary to leave home and go out and experience "Life" in capital letters to have "stuff" about which to write. The daughter of a kindergarten teacher, Louisa May Alcott wrote a book about her family life which became one of the most popular children's classics, "Little Women."…

This handbook, first published 50 years ago, is designed to teach individuals how to write more effectively. It offers step-by-step techniques and exercises to write simply, clearly, and correctly. New features in this edition of the handbook include contemporary examples, and guidelines for computer assisted research and writing and for…

This study focused on four students and a professor from a mathematics education doctoral program at a research university. Participant observation, informal interviews, and document collection were used to collect data on students' discourse competency development. Two overarching categories emerged during data analysis: (1) what students had to…

This paper discusses, from a personal point of view, the process of writing a poem, from inception through revision to the final product. The intention is instructional for any person who wishes to explore the nature of creative, directed expression in language. Because it is a personal account, however, it is idiosyncratic in nature and possibly…

The narrative of personal experience is considered in this paper as a canonical discourse genre from which various forms of expository patterns can be derived in a move towards decontextualized academic discourse. More specifically, the paper analyzes the multi-draft transition from a narrative of personal experience to a classification. The…

This handbook is designed to take aspiring novelists from the concept of that first novel all the way through to completion, including the crucial step of marketing. The handbook discusses shortcuts to help save time, traps all new writers must avoid, inspiration to get a novel done, and checklists to guide every step. The chapters in the handbook…

Writing processes and writing skills are highly compatible, but only if "writing skills" are defined as genuinely helpful learning strategies rather than prescriptive techniques or isolated forms and rules. Increased skill is a product of meaningful practice, not prescriptive instructions or isolated drills. In the present context, the…

A study of 10 freshman composition argumentative textbooks shows that there is a common core, grounded in but not dependent on classical rhetoric (Aristotelian rhetoric in particular). A cursory glance--which is all that many teachers can afford to give such books--might suggest they are all clones. But such is not the case. The authors forefront…

In 1990, Warner Brothers Television made a bold decision to recruit new, young writers from outside the Los Angeles (California) area. The method they first chose was a contest for East-coast Baltimore (Maryland) area. The writers with the reward of an opportunity to receive additional training in Los Angeles. Since this approach was expensive,…

A study of 24 composition anthologies that reprinted E. B. White's "Once More to the Lake" reveals a number of disturbing assumptions among the editors of these anthologies. Four areas of examinations were concentrated on: (1) classifications of White's essay; (2) thematic categories; (3) suggestions for writing; (4) study apparatuses;…

Combining the practical lessons of clinical practice and the literature of the disciplines of composition theory and psychology, this book merges what writers say about writing with what researchers and scholars say in a way that helps both experienced and inexperienced writers at the writing desk. The writers depicted in the book are comprised of…

This collection of articles deals with research on writing, didactics, mother-tongue writing (sociocognitive perspectives, writing profiles, writing strategies), and foreign language writing (a survey of empirical studies, an outline of different teaching methods, and a consideration of writing as a thinking tool). Following an introduction by the…

"Genre" has become the keyword in a movement to create a more dynamic, dialectical, contextual conception of "dispositio," of structure as a factor in psychological and social processes of writing. A dynamic conception of genre as social process in symbolic action can be reached by combining Kenneth Burke's technique of…

Over the years, a composition instructor has watched the metaphor of the writing center as a spider web unfold on three different college campuses, all of which have a culturally diverse student body. As a junior college peer tutor, a graduate student tutor, and a faculty member trying to get out of doing some committee work, the instructor has…