A wiki was used as part of a blended learning approach to promote collaborative learning among students in a first year university statistics class. One group of students analysed a data set and communicated the results by jointly writing a practice report using a wiki. A second group analysed the same data but communicated the results in a…

How much do specialized academic discourse communities matter to undergraduate writers? To what degree should theories of specialized discourses influence the design of undergraduate Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) programs? At the University of Iowa, where an undergraduate Writing Fellows program engages peer tutors in writing-intensive…

To help writing faculty learn the language of discourse communities across campus, we conducted faculty interviews as a first attempt to describe knowledge about disciplinary cultures, specifically with regard to writing. Based on the data received from the interviews about disciplinary definitions and characteristics of good writing and how…

Approaching reflection from the perspective of a teachable skill set implies that research may inform how to help students reflect. Employing a framework of making connections often used in reading comprehension, this study aimed to characterize how making connections between the service-learning experience (SLE) and prior experiences in similar…

The goal of writing assessment in the Department of Mathematics at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is to assure that students can communicate about mathematics or statistics in a manner appropriate to their future careers. A five-member writing committee, composed of mathematics faculty, assess students at three different times during…

Having students compile annotated bibliographies can promote collaborative learning. For example, when a class on writing across the curriculum was asked to survey the writing emphasis of courses in various departments at the University of Arizona, cooperation and collaboration were integral to the overall project. Students had individual…

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…

In-class writing assignments using such techniques as non-thought warmups, lead-sentences, completion, rewording, and wordbanks (write a paragraph using a given list of words), and debriefing can be used on a regular basis in the content areas without decreasing time spent on content and without increasing the time spent grading papers. The…

Focusing on the practical applications of content area writing, and programs using writing assignments in all areas of the college curriculum, this serial issue has three sections. The theme article, "Writing across the Curriculum," discusses the writing across the curriculum movement, and examines ways two colleges have incorporated…

Reports on an interdisciplinary teachers' workshop procedure for collaborating on theme and essay question assignment writing. Outlines the process of examining assignments and describes the discussion of one assignment critiqued in the workshop. Emphasizes the relationship between assignment purpose and writing assessment and the students'…

Contrasts the advantages and disadvantages of writing center tutors who are familiar with the subject matter in a given field or discipline with those who are not. Asserts that by being "ignorant" of the subject matter, a tutor forces students to take responsibility for their writing. (MM)

Proposes a continuum of lines of inquiry applicable to many of the human sciences. Illustrates the continuum by discussing the approaches of Sigmund Freud, Max Weber, and Emile Durkheim. Suggests uses of the continuum as an aid to invention and as a method of analysis. (RAE)

Investigates the ways sociologists perceive and evaluate student writing. Suggests that writing instructors need to examine closely the responses of academic readers to student texts in order to identify patterns of comprehension and evaluation that characterize disciplinary discourse communities. (MS)

Explores contradictory purposes for writing instruction: the business world wants writers to obtain predetermined results, yet composition theorists see writing as a way to help students learn about themselves. Suggests teachers help students analyze their potential professions by focusing on the way writing invents those professions. (MS)

Offers a research-based pedagogy for teaching writing in advanced economics courses. Argues that teachers should recognize that writing can influence their students' learning in content courses. (MS)