Discusses what empowerment means to students at three academically elite and socially privileged colleges (Claremont McKenna College, Harvey Mudd College, and Scripps College) who already feel at home both in the "academy" and in the privileged world. Argues that writing teachers in such academies should help students understand their…

Describes a freshman composition course which employs problem-solving exercises as a writing improvement technique. Notes that sharing ideas while solving problems builds new writers' openness and trust, whereas thinking aloud prepares students to benefit from other writers' thinking protocol methods. Suggests that brainstorming can help students…

Presents the findings and pedagogical implications of a study that focused on intellectual orientation and multiple-source writing. Suggests that first-year college students who write from multiple sources can approach divergent points of view from a variety of intellectual orientations. (MG)

Examines the impact of culturally conditioned conversational strategies on student-teacher interactions. Contrasts conversational patterns with patterns demanded by the essay form. Notes that teachers should view a student's work as a process of translation from the student's conception of everyday conversation toward academic discourse. (MM)

Analyzes the distinction between utterance and writing to determine why students have difficulty using specific details to explore their generalizations. Describes successful strategies and assignments to encourage student awareness of text and concrete expression. (KEH)

Notes that the ability to move from the general to the specific and back again is one of the schemas that basic writers lack. Argues that this schema can be developed through carefully composed writing assignments that employ all of the arts of language--reading, writing, speaking, and listening. (RS)

Questions whether a writing classroom which deals with enthymemes (arguments in which underlying premises or assumptions are unexpressed) reproduces patriarchal social relations, providing men with greater opportunities for success. Concludes that using enthymemes to structure writing classes can illuminate the complex relation of discourse to…

Explores the application of social construction theory to the college composition classroom. Suggests that writing instructors should (1) examine the interpretive communities they seek to create; and (2) question what is meant by introducing students to college-level discourse. Argues that the entire university system must address this issue. (KEH)

Describes an exercise designed to help student writers expand beyond writer-based prose by having them write for a particular magazine or newspaper audience. (MM)

Focuses on the debate about the role of literature in the freshman composition course. Argues that literary works are suitable for these courses because they hold multiple points of view and are by nature multidisciplinary. (HB)

Focuses on the debate regarding the use of literary texts in freshman composition courses. Questions the assumptions embedded in the framing of the debate itself. Asserts the blurring of genre lines. Proposes a way to reframe the debate in more fruitful terms. (HB)

Discusses briefly obstacles to offering in-depth library research instruction to undergraduates. Describes a highly successful library research skills component of a freshman composition course developed collaboratively by bibliographic instruction librarians and composition instructors. (SR)

Investigates effects of training for peer response in freshman composition classes during one semester. States that students in the experimental group were trained via teacher-student conferences where teachers met with students to practice peer response strategies, while students in the control group received no systematic training. Finds that…

Describes how one English teacher used Thomas Bell's "Out of This Furnace" to motivate student interest and writing in a freshman composition class. (HB)

Reflects on a thematic section on "The Status of Women" taught in a freshmen writing class. Discusses the resistance of the author and students and the angered and impassioned writing that arises when texts challenge the ideologies of readers. (MG)