Contrasts the presentational mode of industrial writing--its strategies and techniques--with the reflective mode of traditional academic essay writing. Details industrial writing techniques and the organizational reasons for such techniques. (SR)

Argues that fragmentation of American culture has resulted in communication role reversal, making interpretation the primary task of speakers and writers and text construction the primary task of audiences. Suggests audiences must be provided with dense, truncated fragments which cue them to produce a finished discourse in their minds. (KEH)

Examines autobiographical narratives of three scientists from the wartime Los Alamos Laboratory. Finds an organizational structure manifest in ideological discourses for nuclear practice and sensemaking, permitting rationalization for working identities and labor objectives. Considers implications for the critical study of organizational…

Argues for an activity-based theory of genre knowledge. Provides data from case study research concerning "insider knowledge" about genres of academic cultures. Proposes five general principles as a basis for a theory of genre. (HB)

Presents a study in which children in four grade 2 classrooms learned about transformational geometry and symmetry by designing quilts, while their four teachers participated in professional development focused on understanding children's thinking in arithmetic, and two of the teachers participated in additional workshops on students' thinking…

Early views considered computer-mediated discussions (CMDs) to be ideal forums for fostering dialogue because women and other marginalized groups could be equal participants. However, such optimistic views have been tempered by research that found CMD to be dominated by a few individuals, often men, and discourse that is sometimes abusive. The…

Students received a personalized or nonpersonalized version of a narrated animation explaining how the human respiratory system works. The narration for the nonpersonalized version was in formal style, whereas the narration for the personalized version was in conversational style in which "the" was changed to "your" in 12 places. In 3 experiments,…

The study set out to investigate the impact of interactive whiteboards (IWBs) on teacher--pupil interaction at Key Stage 2 in the teaching of literacy and numeracy. As part of the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies, IWBs have been made widely available as a pedagogic tool for promoting interactive whole class teaching. In order to…

This study provides a theory-driven account of community building in a bilingual telecollaborative chat setting. A symmetrical arrangement of 70 L1 English learners of Spanish and L1 Spanish learners of English engaged in weekly Internet chat sessions in small groups. The learning metaphors of community and participation serve as the theoretical…

There is a continuing need to investigate how contemporary students in schools are writing the word, and their world, beyond modernist parameters of the page. This article explores the online writing of a senior English world literature class, located in a Western Canadian city, as examined through a recent qualitative case study. Borrowing a 17th…

Examining two very different contexts, a non-pastoral Quaker meeting and an AIDS hospice, offers insight into the complex nature of writing and literacy in spiritual contexts. Such a program is unapologetically comparative, seeking not the "right" view of spirituality but rather a view of how spirituality is expressed through language.…

Intellectuals lament the disappearance of community, a nostalgia for the small town that has supposedly given way to the anonymous crowds of the city. Likewise, scholars have talked about "discourse communities" in romantic terms, referring to a place where all share the same values. However, a more urban view of social life, in which…

In writing, as in conversation, there are implicit boundaries which separate various modes of communication, and these boundaries cause exclusion, discomfort, and misunderstanding. The existence of these boundaries results in a number of issues, such as the categorization of texts, the differences between writing for English classes and writing in…

The concept of genre should not be limited to literary genres, but should be expanded to include all types of texts, including those traditionally considered to be nonliterary. Essentially, many things about writing work the way they do because of genre, and a better understanding of genre can give us a better understanding of writing, reading and…

College students, when writing essays in writing courses, are generally called upon to show that they have an ability to organize the essay according to an established pattern which includes an introduction, the body of the text, and a conclusion. This pattern of discourse, called "Essayist Literacy," is most favored by mainstream…