English teachers, especially those in the field of basic writing, have long debated how to teach writing to students whose home language differs from the perceived norm. This thesis intervenes in that stalemated debate by re-examining "elaborated codes" and by arguing for a type of correctness in writing that includes being correct…

This dissertation examines the social identity of adjunct faculty and the implications for writing program administrators (WPAs). With the ever increasing reliance on Master's degree teachers to teach first-year composition and other writing classes, WPAs are faced with the task of attempting to bring some level of disciplinary coherence to…

Currently, two-year colleges are teaching the lion's share of college composition classes, mainly consisting of developmental writing and first-year composition courses; however, those same two-year colleges have been slow in embracing the composition theory and practices that are studied and implemented at four-year colleges. One way to…

The purpose of this study was to examine the correlation between students' scores on Academy of READING (AOR) and their performance on the Georgia End of Course Test (GEOCT) for Ninth Grade Literature and Composition. The participants were ninth grade students enrolled in Ninth Grade Literature and Composition during the 2009-2010 school year at a…

The development of graduate attributes in higher education is enjoying much attention worldwide. Employers consistently rank communication skills, in particular writing ability, among the most important skills for graduates to possess. The inclusion and development of graduate attributes in undergraduate curricula have received little attention.…

In a 2009 "Computers and Composition" article, I examined how the terms multimedia and multimodal were used in academic and industry situations. This webtext extends that argument to investigate the ways in which a variety of other terms, including digital media and new media, are defined by scholars in the fields of computers and composition and…

In 2006, New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen's blog post "The People Formerly Known as the Audience" went viral in the journalism community. In the post Rosen argues that a fundamental power shift has occurred between "Big Media" and "the people formerly known as the audience" (PFKATA), who were not only writing back, but also…

The purpose of this study was to examine a first grade teacher's instruction during interactive and independent writing times as she taught and prompted her students how to go about spelling unfamiliar words and employ various writing strategies while they were composing. I used a qualitative approach to data collection and analysis. Results of…

When providing effective reading and writing instruction, teachers need to provide explicit modeling. Modeling is particularly important when teaching students to use cognitive learning strategies. Examples of how teachers can provide specific, explicit, and flexible instructional modeling is presented in the context of two evidence-based…

Rhetoric and composition historiography has recently undergone a rapid transformation as scholars have complicated and challenged earlier narratives by examining diverse local histories and alternative rhetorical traditions. This revisionist scholarship has in turn created new research challenges, as scholars must now demonstrate connections…

Although outcomes assessment (OA) has become "common sense" in higher education, this article shows that the concept of "outcomes" tends to limit and compromise teaching and learning while serving the interests of institutional management. By contrast, the pragmatic concept of consequences tends to expand our view of teaching and learning, and…

Historically, learners with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have not had access to the general education curriculum. Current legislation mandates that "all" children, including children with ASD, have access to and make progress in the general education curriculum. This article contains a review of the literature on writing instruction for…

While reading a series of undergraduate essay drafts, ten newly appointed graduate teaching assistants consistently projected their own anxieties about academic writing onto the authors of the papers, with two exceptions: the students were imagined neither to have the teachers' compositional agency nor to feel their ambivalence about the academic…

In this article, written primarily for early childhood educators of young children who are learning English as another language, the authors discuss the use and educational benefits of Interactive Writing, an approach to beginning writing instruction appropriate for kindergarten and first grade children.

This study investigated the effect of direct and indirect comprehensive corrective feedback (CF) on second language (L2) learners' written accuracy (N = 268). The study set out to explore the value of CF as a revising tool as well as its capacity to support long-term accuracy development. In addition, we tested Truscott's (e.g., 2001, 2007) claims…