Using software and a coding system developed by the author, the text of all spoken and written discourse was analyzed from four face-to-face (FTF) courses and two courses taught via computer-mediated communication (CMC). Results indicated that interaction patterns in the CMC courses resembled discussion, whereas patterns in the FTF courses…

Describes the planning, implementation, and results of an experiment at Brooklyn Law School (New York) to teach legal writing skills by a simulation activity which integrates client interviewing skills with the process of composing the client-advice letter. Experience with this approach over three years is recounted. (DB)

Suggests that it is appropriate to view the community college as a discourse community in its own right, and as a part of the larger discourse community of higher education. Argues that this shift in judgment might increase perceptions of community college competence, thus moving them into positions of legitimate power. (Contains 14 references.)…

Over the years, substantial shifts in theory, belief, and practice have occurred in the teaching of language, specifically vocabulary, grammar, or their combination in lexicogrammatical features of a language as part of the writing class or curriculum (Paltridge, 2004; Reid, 1993, 2006). Much of the instruction in L2 writing for adult learners who…

The potential for writing across the curriculum programs to oppress or to liberate students lies in the dualistic approach to such programs: (1) highlighting humanism, where writing is seen as enhancing the learning process in all academic disciplines, and (2) teaching the conventions of different communities. Few scholars would object to the…

The International Media section of the proceedings contains the following 13 papers: "Text and Context: A Case Study of International News Discourse" (Shujen Wang); "The Future of Public Service Broadcasting in Japan and the U.K.: A Comparative Analysis" (Roya Akhavan-Majid); "Reinventing Freedom of the Press: The Search…

As suggested by current work being done in narrative inquiry, modern environmental educators participate in numerous stories by which they construct and reconstruct their personal and professional worlds. Modernist discourses have cultivated stories of the earth in which the earth is depicted as an object of instrumental value, a machine, rather…

Peter Elbow's expressionist approach to rhetoric lacks the critical position that feminism requires. Expressionist rhetoric's focus on the personal does not make it a feminist rhetoric because its conception of the personal as well as its conception of itself as a rhetoric is uncritical and ignores the social context that subject positions,…

Because poetic writing as a method of discourse and as a tool for learning plays a significant role in many theoretical models of writing but is rarely used in practice, a study was conducted to examine the effects on 70 college students in an introductory psychology class of a mixture of poetic and transactional assignments on the subject of…

At Southerland Institute (a pseudonym), in spite of the teacher's strong statements in favor of encouraging students to think for themselves and to work together, the writing program Southerland's teachers outline is formulaic with its required modes, prescribed five-paragraph-like essay form, and bell-curve grading practices. A new rhetorician…

Rhetoric textbooks continue to proliferate while writing teachers continue to grow more skeptical of their usefulness. The key question educators need to answer is whether all available composition textbooks are ineffective in the sense of being based on false notions about the composing process, or whether they are "intrinsically" ineffective.…

This study investigates contextualization processes in two psychiatric interviews. Specifically, it analyses how different analytical tools--frame and narrative--work to clarify contextual embeddings and story bits. Frame analysis provides a way of looking at local and larger social contexts in talk. Specifically it provides a way of understanding…

Discusses the results of a study in which 130 college composition textbooks were examined in order to determine the role that expressive discourse plays in the teaching of writing at the college level. (DF)

Composition instructors are particularly interested in the fact that hypertext, as the mode of discourse that computers promote and prefer, introduces a new problematic for those concerned with teaching critical thinking. What kind of discourse is hypertext, and to what extent does it encourage, enable and demand critical thinking? The issue is…

Analyzes the use of graphic aids in electronic texts by using four conceptual differences distinguishing printed and electronic texts. Proposes that these four differences can act as a theoretical framework informing the use of such graphic aids. Discusses the need for and the ramifications of such a theoretical model. (HB)