The proposition can be offered that the notion of "the plant" should be the paradigmatic metaphor for modern conceptions of the composing process. Various forms of the metaphor are found in classical and eighteenth century writings alike. A modern shift in focus from writing product to process has brought to the fore the dynamic…

Mikhail Bakhtin's concept of dialogism has applications to rhetoric and composition instruction. Dialogism, sometimes translated as intertextuality, is the term Bakhtin used to designate the relation of one utterance to other utterances. Dialogism is not dialogue in the usual sense of the word; it is the context which informs utterance, and…

Invention is a dynamic, recursive process influenced by the rhetorical situation of audience and purpose, the writer's long-term memory, and the text which has already been produced at any given moment. Most heuristics are concerned with the generation of ideas, that is, content oriented. However, the relationship of form-oriented planning to the…

Focusing on synthesis--the ability to recognize and create new ideas that subsume and relate to others--as one of the most sophisticated skills writers can attain, the articles in this journal present many ideas for teaching synthesis and a number of classroom approaches that combine the study of English with other fields. The following titles and…

To illustrate the capabilities of local area networking (LAN) and integrated software programs, this paper reviews current software programs relevant to writing instruction. It is argued that the technology exists for students sitting at one microcomputer to be able to effectively carry out all phases of the writing process from gathering online…

Containing information relevant to higher education instructors interested in better understanding the nature of the writing process and the development of students' writing abilities, this selected, annotated bibliography is comprised of two sections. The first section contains references of general interest, including research reports,…

Focusing on the issue of writing across the curriculum, this bulletin includes papers presented at the 1986 Annual Composition Conference. In his introduction, Isaiah Smithson describes writing across the curriculum as a "subversive" activity in that it entails a radical shift in the way teachers teach and learners learn. Toby Fulwiler…

Noting that universities seldom provide writing instruction at the dissertation level or, as is too often the case, at any level of graduate education, this paper provides a rationale for dissertation training at the graduate level, and explores the dissertation workshop at a west coast university. The first half of the paper discusses six…

Students dislike writing essay examinations as much as teachers dislike reading them. Perhaps no alternatives to the essay exam exist, but certainly the task can be lessened by altering the format of the essay exam. In an education class at a California university, students select in advance one essay question from a list of several, and field…

The use of word processing in composition classes provides the student with both the opportunity to experience a significant technology and the ability to improve the mechanics and style of their writing. Word processing software has many benefits over "drill and practice" programs, "dialogue" software, and "whole process" programs, since word…

The articles in this journal issue present a wide range of theoretical and practical approaches to helping students benefit from imitating products and processes of writing. The eight articles discuss the following topics: (1) imitating models, (2) summary writing as an aid to using writing models, (3) rewriting "Indian Lad" to show how to imitate…

An examination of approaches to teaching writing and how they relate to tests may help writing teachers discover some ways of improving students' scores on writing tests. George Hillocks in "Research on Written Composition," describes four instructional approaches: presentational, natural process, environmental, and individualized. The…

Although rhetoric is traditionally viewed through its relationships with law, politics, philosophy, and religion, other disciplines, such as economics, also shape contemporary rhetorics, and these rhetorics influence current writing pedagogies. "Product" and "process" theories of composition can be examined in light of the…

The major developmental challenge for children is not simply to create a unified text world but to move among multiple worlds, carrying out multiple roles and coordinating multiple space/time structures. A study observed eight primary-grade students over a 2-year period and focused on the interrelationships between children's creation of written…

A mistake is made when writing is taught as though what students learn in one discipline (usually English) can simply be carried forward unchanged to any number of different writing situations and tasks, and when linear metaphors are used to describe the processes of learning such a "basic skill" as writing. The slogan of every writing…