Argues that the metaphor of writing as a tool is still used because the ideas of Kenneth Burke have not been applied comprehensively. Argues further that Burke's "A Grammar of Motives" implies a radical change in what it means to teach students to analyze and produce texts--a change leading up to and beyond Freireian pedagogy. (RS)

Examines women and the deaf/hearing impaired to develop the metaphor that the "illiterate" can neither give nor receive the language of power--they are, in effect, deaf and dumb. Argues that replacing illiteracy with literacy is eradicating something not fully understood and replacing it with something for which the definition is not…

Details a semester-long research project for freshman composition. Notes that because this project views research as a transactional process, students have more time to read, write, and think about their topic throughout the semester. Provides a project overview, sample handouts, and detailed comments on all aspects of the assignment. (MM)

Suggests the personal narrative as a writing assignment which allows students to discover that writing can be a glorious expedition into the self and into the world around them. (RAE)

Argues, from the point of view of an undergraduate engineering student, that making the pass/fail grading system mandatory for college freshman composition students will help them achieve the goal of learning to write. (SR)

Argues that one way of helping students understand "Oedipus Rex" is by presenting Oedipus as a multiple, contradictory person. Discusses methodology and assignments. (SR)

Questions whether literature should have a role in first-year composition courses. Argues that this question cannot be discussed without deciding on the objectives for such a course. Claims that first-year composition should eliminate the use of literature and focus on practicing the discourse of the academy. (HB)

Describes the use of interactive fiction (a form of writing which regularly calls upon the reader to respond in some way) in a first-year writing course on the literature of fantasy. Suggests that this form of writing helps engage students in an encounter with literature, forming a new community of critical and creative discourse. (SR)

Argues that a "woman's place is in the composition classroom" because she is likely to grasp how teachers and students have been socialized to believe that cognitive activities associated with certain professions are gender specific. Encourages students to subvert and critique the dominant system, even as they prepare to participate more…

Presents a course design of English 102: Intermediate College Composition. Describes this course as the second of two written communication courses required of undergraduates at the University of Louisville. Notes the goal of this course was to dissuade first-year writers from a limited outlook without debasing the education out of which it grew.…

Explores the quality of "voice" in writing, and how an individual's early experiences and heritage influence voice. Advocates using exploration of voice with students in freshman composition. Uses "In Praise of What Persists," a collection of essays, as models for the students and a source of writing assignments. (PA)

Notes conflicting claims among traditional and feminist theories of composing styles, and poses many questions regarding what the legitimate aims and practices of the first-year college composition course are. (SR)

Offers a narrative of the collaborative creation of a HyperCard hypertext called the E.A.R., and describes how the ideas developed in that project were adapted into a first-year composition course. Hopes to gain insight into both the larger aims of the border crossings central to bell hooks' ongoing project and the more local goals of hypertext…

Implementing deracination and the Detached Intellectual Space (D.I.S.)--components of a developing critical thinking pedagogy termed "decritique"--offer a more critically reflective alternative to classroom peer-review activities that mistakenly focus on a "notion of caring." Working within a theoretical framework drawn from Derrida and Bakhtin,…

We argue against the metaphor of the "level playing field" and its natural coercive power; in so doing, we call for an end to the invisibility that the debate over accommodations has imposed on learning disabilities in the past decade. A literature review of LD in composition shows how this invisibility has manifested itself in our field through…