Argues that female students, especially those in cultures expecting women to be humble and nonassertive, often need a special venue for developing their writing voices. Describes a teaching method for writing instructors that encourages females to develop their voices and audience awareness. (HB)

Discusses a role-playing scenario designed to introduce the concepts of audience and purpose to business and technical communication students. Notes that, although the scenario has reduced the frequency of the question "Did I miss anything important?" from absentee students, the scenario has not helped the instructor to understand why…

Argues that an anthology of professional essays (because of its intellectual demands) can impede rather than facilitate mastery of basic writing skills. Suggests that the main criterion in selecting readings should be a good match between the audience assumed by the chosen texts and the actual audience in the classroom. (SR)

Investigates elementary children's knowledge of the situational, procedural, and functional aspects of writing across grade levels. Finds that children come to understand the purpose of each step in the writing process as they are engaged in it; children need to write for different audiences and purposes; and children shift their focus from…

Describes three primary parts of the Tenderloin Reflection and Education Center's writing workshop for women: workshop, performance, and publication. Discusses how this program helped to break down isolation, empower participants, and challenge social oppression. (MG)

Describes an assignment for a business writing course which helps students learn to focus on the reader in persuasive writing. (SR)

Discusses, in poetic form, the writing of the play "Salvador" from the perspective of the author. Explains her thoughts about writing for children, including didactic relationships with children, didactic functions of art, and how adults teachers try to create a sterilized, lifeless, good-thinking, and artificial world for children when they are…

Offers a case study describing how the rhetorical expertise of a young woman (at the lowest professional level in a male-dominated bureaucratic organization) gave her the power to revise the processes by which her organization did its work, to rewrite the job descriptions of the managers within the organization, and to create a unique role for…

Considers how the book "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"'s achievement of the status of a modern classic provides evidence that children's collective voices can sometimes cause the walls erected by the field's adult gatekeepers to come tumbling down. Discusses reasons for the popularity and controversy surrounding the book. (SC)

Considers how teachers engage children in character education and analyzes core values in books winning the Scott O'Dell Historical Fiction Award. Finds that these books are rich sources for examples of core values that are common features of character-education programs. Observes many teachers using short stories and picture books to insert…

Describes how one teacher of a business writing course uses a car recall notice to address business writing principles of purpose, readers, information, organization, and style in relation to a specific example; and then has students revise it into the type of letter they would like to receive as car owners. Includes two examples of such…

Discusses the writing of Joan Lowery Nixon, award-winning author of young adult mystery novels. Discusses telling a good story, narrative form, characterization, stereotypes, social commentary, classroom implications, and caring for an audience. (SR)

Examines the use of music as a springboard for writing. Provides an explanation of how basic writing students can use music-writing activities to discover meaningful topics and ideas, to develop specific supporting details, and to understand the connections between purpose and audience. (RS)

Reports on a study that explored, first, how metadiscourse can enhance college students' awareness of readers' needs and, second, how the use of metadiscourse is related to the quality of the texts that students produced. Suggests that metadiscourse produces better student writing. (TB)

Notes new Internet writing environments differ significantly from print forms: they allow texts to evolve--to change their purpose and audience over time. Suggests they allow for new forms of collaboration--texts organize themselves without an omniscient editor shaping them. Concludes that, as a profession, composition instructors need to…