Recounts the experiences of two different night hikes by junior high students in central Ohio which focused on writing a group poem and exploring the mysteries of the "unlit" world. Discusses imagery and features excerpts from "night" poetry, both that written by the students and readings from published poets. (PA)

Describes a group activity for writing and evaluating poetry on "pi." Notes that the activity worked well in a high-school geometry class and that the students in the class had fun with it. (RS)

Reviews the benefits of library work (and some cautions) before describing four assignments that exploit library resources: a business report assignment; a professional journal assignment; a style manual format assignment; and an international business communication assignment. (SG)

Discusses the "Report in a Can" research process that focuses on the successful gathering of data, and outlines its four major steps. Argues for engaging primary students in well-planned research assignments. Describes how to create a "Report in a Can." (SG)

Notes that a difficulty with the multigenre paper assignment is that educators assume that students are familiar enough with the various genres to write skillfully in the genres they select. Suggests that multigenre assignments can be improved by changing forms and format; changing perspectives; and changing boundaries. Concludes that multigenre…

Interviews Nancy Larson. Notes that in 1976, Nancy Larson joined the staff of the Teachers and Writers Collaborative and later became its director. Discusses in this interview insights gained from teaching and reflections on educational trends, writing movements, and visionary teachers. (PM)

Illustrates how significant numbers of college students are "lost": they are unsituated in academic space. Suggests a rigorous exploration of the changing academic space outside of school offices and off campuses. Presents 4 assignments that provide a conceptual place (a topic) while also prompting students to make meaning out of the people-places…

Techniques are discussed for encouraging students to write thoughtful papers about field trips. Greater student involvement can be achieved by cultivating a sense of ownership of the writing. Topics for before, during, and after the trip are suggested in such functional writing areas as instrumental, regulatory, interactional, personal, heuristic,…

Describes a group writing assignment in which high school seniors voice their most common concerns in an open letter to their parents. (KEH)

Describes nine prewriting activities using supermarket tabloids as the model for producing a newspaper on mythology. (RS)

Reports a successful application of writing across the curriculum theory and practice at the introductory accounting level. Discusses the advantages of informal and formal writing assignments. Presents a number of suggestions designed to facilitate the use of writing across the curriculum techniques and to help ensure their successful application.…

Presents an approach used in high school English classes to connect students with the world outside high school. Encourages students to take risks by selecting a project topic, choosing and inviting a guest speaker, preparing for the visit, reading and writing on related topics, and doing a follow-up project. (SR)

Describes a research paper course that takes its topics from the popular culture of the 1930s. Reports that focusing on the 1930s has produced successful--and satisfied--research paper writers. (RS)

Analyzed 17 personal attributes of 160 undergraduate students who wrote reports on a computer or by hand, and compared differences in the quality of computer and handwritten reports with each student's personal attributes. Concludes that some attributes do relate to computer writing quality. (JMV)

Draws on Gerald Graff's work on conflicts over canonicity, pedagogy, and academic institutional structures to investigate ways of handling teacher-student tension over the use of popular songs in the classroom. Discusses two versions of a writing assignment dealing with such tension and what each assignment implies about the course's underlying…