"Unraveling Braid" analyzes how unconventional, non-linear narrative fiction can help explain the ways in which video games signify. Specifically, this essay looks at the links between the semiotic features of Jonathan Blow's 2008 puzzle-platform video game Braid and similar elements in Georges Perec's 1978 novel "Life A User's Manual," as well as…

Regrettably, the sciences are not untouched by the plagiarism affliction that threatens the integrity of budding professionals in classrooms around the world. My research, however, suggests that plagiarism training can improve students' recognition of plagiarism. I found that 148 undergraduate ecology students successfully identified plagiarized…

Elementary writing instruction is often limited, mainly focused on personal narratives. Informed by Systemic Functional Linguistics, this article reports on the writing of grade 3-5 bilingual children in a variety of genres. Analysis of their use of first, second, and third person provides insight into their understanding of genre and audience.…

This article describes a project in poetry and visual art that leads students to explore metaphor in generative and novel ways. The author shares what she and her teaching partner Ronna Pritikin have learned about fostering brave and joyful student artist and poets. "Be an Artist With Your Words" is a twelve-session residency, in which the author…

Three writing development initiatives carried out at King's College London UK are discussed in this article to illustrate the need to draw on different theoretical models to create effective methods of teaching academic writing. The sequence of initiatives resembles a journey: the destination is to develop academic writing programmes suitable for…

Writing activities are a sure way to assess and enhance students' science literacy. Sometimes the author's students use technical writing to communicate their lab experiences, just as practicing scientists do. Other times, they use creative writing to make connections to the topics they're learning. This article describes both types of writing…

As the population of international--and particularly Chinese--students grows in US academic institutions, it is critical that writing center tutors be able to address these students' needs. However, whereas writing tutors at the author's institution are often taught to be indirect and focus on higher order concerns, such strategies are not always…

Writers who do not speak English as a native language perennially have presented unique challenges to the writing center, for these writers, who study English as a second language (ESL), or even as a third or fourth foreign language (EFL), may also be unacquainted with American academic discourse. ESL/EFL writers may face unfamiliarity with…

This paper illustrates how a freely available online corpus has been exploited in a module on teaching business letters covering the following four speech acts (functions) commonly found in business letters: invitations, requests, complaints and refusals. It is proposed that different strategies are required for teaching potentially…

While "transfer" has become, in recent years, a subject of great research interest to our field, we still have much to learn about how we can best use this research knowledge to inform local efforts in program development. In this profile, we describe the foundations of the Dartmouth Institute for Writing and Rhetoric and explain how…

To become a successful participant in the community of their academic discipline, students must learn this community's communicative currency: the norms, standards, procedures, and linguistic forms that constitute academic discourse. However, it is rare for a discipline's expectations and requirements to be overtly discussed or taught, despite the…

Perceptions and judgments on plagiarism or acceptable use of source texts are contingent on one's interpretations and experiences in reading and writing academic texts in a specific disciplinary context. The lack of consensus on what is acceptable textual appropriation in student writing has led to the scholarship on perceptions of textual…

Is it possible to teach people to write fiction? A more important and helpful question is: "how" do we teach creative writing? And "who" are the teachers? A published writer is not necessarily qualified to teach creative writing. To helpfully share their declarative knowledge with students, a writer must embrace the art and…

Coherence is considered one of the characteristics of effective writing. Topical structure analysis (TSA) has been taught to students as a revision strategy to raise their awareness of importance of textual coherence and helps them clearly understand its concept. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of TSA instruction in improving…

A US sample (N = 360) of psychology educators assessed 73 writing skills and competencies with regard to (a) the importance of each and (b) the typical performance of the top half of local psychology majors. An analysis of gap scores yielded results showing that specific skills, such as supporting claims with citations and proofreading ability,…