The process of travel can be combined with the parallel process of research by developing a writing project assignment that uses the "Travels of William Bartram," an eighteenth-century account of a naturalist's journey through the Carolinas. Students can be asked to select a point on Bartram's original itinerary and retrace his discovery…

Applies H. P. Grice's theory of conversation (the Cooperative Principle, and the Maxims of Quality, Quantity, Relation and Manner) to a method of teaching revision. Explains that viewing writing as a cooperative transaction improves students' sense of audience, purpose, and diction. Analyzes a student draft via this method. (JG)

Arguing that writing teachers can neither ignore the teaching of grammar nor expect it to succeed if taught in the traditional way, examines the methods, organization, exercises and terminology of the freshman English handbook, identifies problems, and suggests alternatives to helping students satisfactorily edit their papers. (JG)

Examines two West Virginia writing centers and finds no significant difference in the writing quality growth of students taught by individualized instruction in writing centers and those taught by conventional classroom instruction. Finds that the writing center programs achieved the same gain at one-half the instructional cost. (RS)

Argues that with the merging of old and new pedagogies in teaching writing, composition course methodology is becoming confusing. Asserts that unless composition courses become places to learn through writing, students are being shortchanged. (RAE)

Describes an historical narrative assignment that stimulates students' interest in questions of rhetoric and scholarship as it requires students to combine role-playing, research, and revision. Discusses how students' role as participant/persona in writing the story prompts an intricate multiplicity of decisions as it forces them to filter data…

Discusses the philosophical thought of Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault as it applies to writing instruction. (SRT)

Describes how computers were integrated into freshman writing classes at Middlebury College without shifting the emphasis of the class away from writing. (AEW)

This collection of essays addresses the anxieties and problems of beginning writing teachers and provides a reality check for those who expect success from "day one." Following an Introduction: "Silences in Our Teaching Stories; What Do We Leave Out and Why?" (Thomas Newkirk), essays in the collection are: (1) "Forty-Eight…

The second semester of Freshman Composition at Troy State University focuses on writing about literature and writing a traditional research paper not necessarily based on literary research. One spring, the required reading was Shirley Ann Grau's novel, "The Keeper of the House." This novel, set in an unidentified Southern state, traces the history…

The purpose of having Teaching Assistants (TAs) seems to be 3-fold: (1) to provide a system of load-relief for senior faculty who are completing research; (2) to help offset the operational costs of the administration of higher education; and (3) to regularly train a body of people who will influence the future face of academia. A positive…

At any level, good writing requires an acknowledgment of writing strengths and weaknesses by both student and instructor. The four project collaborators/writing teachers outlined six specific areas on a teacher feedback sheet to note students' writing strengths and weaknesses; the areas of purpose, audience, thesis, development, organization, and…

For one graduate student administrator at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, some examples of what she considers to be teacher apathy are: complaints by the writing laboratory director that a teaching assistant (TA) was not using the recommended readings but a Nietzsche essay to have his students explore a contemporary political issue, and…

A man professing women's studies, a male composition teacher advocating a feminist classroom, or, for that matter, a literature specialist assuming the directorship of a first-year composition program are all a "kind of cross dressing." A director of first-year composition explores the relationship among these issues in this paper. To…

A study examined the relevancy of freshman composition to writing in the workplace. Four professionals in middle management who had been out of college for a number of years were surveyed by e-mail about their writing in the workplace, college education, freshman writing classes, and importance of seven skills employers want employees to have.…