Seventy 8th-grade students (including talented writers, those with average ability, and students in need of special education services) participated in an integrated social studies and language arts unit designed to promote historical understandings and argumentative writing skills. The historical reasoning instruction lasted 12 days, and the…

This study examined faculty views on academic writing and writing instruction. Data reported in this article came from ten qualitative interviews with business and engineering faculty members. Transcripts of the interviews were analyzed inductively and recursively, and two views on academic writing and writing instruction were identified. One view…

This note explores the role of contrastive rhetoric in writing pedagogy in the context of a monolingual class, in this case a group of students from the Russian Federation studying at an English medium university in Central Europe. The study compares students' argumentative essays written before and after a short writing course, which aimed to…

This paper describes the assessment and instructional strategies used in a migrant education programme that had positive academic outcomes for a group of 11 eight-to-12-year-old Spanish/English-speaking students of Mexican descent. Students attended this four-week summer programme, jointly sponsored by the University of Illinois and the local…

Academically oriented first-year seminars can be good venues for teaching many of the concepts important to WAC programs, including extended engagement with a research topic and situated writing. A qualitative study of a first-year seminar program at the University of Calgary highlights faculty members' and students' responses.

Despite the widespread acceptance of many kinds of nonliterary texts for first-year writing courses, primary scientific communication (PSC) remains largely absent. Objections to including PSC, especially that it is not rhetorically appropriate or sufficiently rich, do not hold. We argue for including PSC and give some practical suggestions for…

This paper considers evidence from an intervention designed to raise standards in spelling and independent writing. "The Complete Spelling Programme" (McMurray and Fleming, 1998) is designed to ensure that all processes involved in learning to spell are activated and that the interaction between them is facilitated. In addition, a number…

Second language writing scholars have undertaken descriptions of English-language writing instruction in a variety of international settings, describing the role of various contextual factors in shaping English-language writing instruction. This article describes English-language writing instruction at various levels in Poland, noting how it is…

This paper documents an initiative in Continuing Professional Development, conceived and carried out by London's "Centre for Literacy in Primary Education" (CLPE). The intention was to improve the teaching and learning of writing in Years 5 and 6 of the primary school (9-11-year-olds), through working with challenging literature. This…

Two-year campuses are known for students who contend with extraordinary obstacles to get degrees and for teachers who make the efforts required to get the job done. The author contends that, because dedicated teachers and striving students deserve more than college, government, and corporate policy allow them, instructors need to raise the profile…

Using a method of topical rhetorical analysis, inspired by K. Burke, to discuss the Ebonics debate, this article demonstrates that conversations about education, particularly writing instruction, have adopted a market rhetoric that limits teachers' agency. However, reappropriation of this market rhetoric can help writing teachers to imagine and…

How do scores from writing samples generated by computerized essay scorers compare to those generated by ''untrained'' human scorers and what combination of scores, if any, is more accurate at placing students in composition courses? This study endeavored to answer this two-part question by evaluating the correspondence between writing sample…

In traveling about contemporary academia, especially the haunts of philosophy and English, one is likely to stumble upon the lair of a new monster, one that bears considerable resemblance to Hawthorne's dreamy vision. The name of this huge miscreant is Critical Thinking--a name uttered by professors and students with more awe than understanding.…

The author of this article laments the gap in knowledge that he sees in composition scholarship as it relates to teaching writing students how to be both analytical and subjective within an increasingly complex world. He observes that the theory behind teaching such critical skills often lags teaching practice by decades. Moreover he describes…

After summarizing typical criticisms of multicultural composition readers, the author draws on work in "New Literacy Studies" to point toward composition pedagogies that encourage multicultural interactions beyond selections in assigned readers. The author suggests that what is ultimately needed is a productive critical frame not only for refining…