Part-time instructors make up an increasingly large percentage of college faculty. In English departments, part-time instructors take on the least prestigious and most demanding work--the teaching of writing--for low wages and without job security or professional recognition. This unfair treatment stems from the belief that the study and teaching…

An introduction to using word processing in writing instruction, this report first describes the basic terms and tools used in word processing and then lists the four characteristics of a good word processing program. They are the options to: (1) edit and insert; (2) cut and paste; (3) find and correct; and (4) store and save documents of between…

The approach to computer-based instruction for third and fourth grade elementary students which is sketched teaches component placement, capitalization, and punctuation skills of addressing envelopes within the context of a simulated envelope. Part of a larger design for a complete program of composition instruction, this program comprises a set…

One challenge faced by many writing teachers is meeting the needs of students with varying skill and confidence levels. This article describes strategies used in a Composition and Rhetoric I course to meet the needs of basic and college-level writers. Sample assignments focusing on the theme of literacy and learning are provided, including an…

The "Longman Bibliography of Composition and Rhetoric" is an annual, annotated, descriptive bibliography of work in rhetoric and composition. Its first volume contains 3,853 citations for titles appearing in 1984 and 1985. The bibliographers received assistance from important authors and editors of publications in rhetoric, who stressed…

To enhance activities and programs directed toward improving the teaching of reading, writing, and thinking skills in the southwest region, this document, part of a series of papers on this issue is presented. A new look at student achievement is necessary because the information age is making new demands. There has been a shift in education away…

The word processor helps teachers to use the process approach to writing. In using the word processor, the teacher can create tasks on the computer to assist students during each step of the writing process, i.e., prewriting or idea processing, drafting or writing, revising/rewriting or editing, and the publishing process or communicating. Ideas…

A discussion of journal writing in an English composition class at a Japanese university focuses on how, why, and with what results students were assigned the writing of a lengthy journal as a course requirement. The first part of the discussion presents the rationale behind the decision to give students the assignment. The second part describes…

Of the many women who have contributed to the making of knowledge in composition, three theorists in particular are excellent representatives of a feminine rhetoric that is changing the rhetorical tradition from hierarchy and authoritative achievement to a relational, collaborative, and integrated process. Mina Shaughnessy is the quintessential…

Creative writers have moved into the mainstream of English departments without understanding or reviewing their own history, and without reconceptualizing graduate and undergraduate creative writing programs. Such a history can be constructed from sources in three areas: institutional history, creative writing history, and rhetorical history. An…

This longitudinal study examined the development of the semantic "strand" (the relationship between drawing and writing, differentiation of literary genres, influence of literature, coherence, and part-whole coordination) of children's writing development over a 5-year period. Subjects, eight girls and nine boys enrolled in a small,…

Ideas and techniques are presented to make the instructional task of teaching writing in a large geography class easier and more effective. One technique is to allow students to engage in pre-topic and post-topic writing. Before a new topic is discussed, the teacher asks the students to write for ten minutes on anything they know about the topic.…

Aimed at teachers interested in implementing student journals in their classrooms, this guide offers subjects students can write about and ideas for how to use journal writing as a classroom activity, and justifies writing across curriculum lines. The first section of the guide, entitled Mirrors, suggests that students can benefit from writing in…

Intended for teachers of college composition, this history of major and minor developments in the teaching of writing in twentieth-century American colleges employs a taxonomy of theories based on the three epistemological categories (objective, subjective, and transactional) dominating rhetorical theory and practice. The first section of the book…

The recent influx of computer programs to aid students in writing has created some confusion between the linear, directed process of problem-solving and the less directed, more chaotic process of putting words down on paper. Though problem-solving and writing-as-process have some points in common, they cannot be taken as equivalent, because…