One of the dilemmas that teachers frequently face is grading student papers. As a teacher, the author regularly reads research regarding instructional practices, grading, and assessment, but struggled to translate theory into practice in her own classroom. The intent of this article is to share one method of instructing and grading writing that…

This study investigated the effects of feedback providing improvement strategies and a reflection assignment on students' writing motivation, process, and performance. Students in the experimental feedback condition (n = 41) received feedback including improvement strategies, whereas students in the control feedback condition (n = 41) received…

This paper reports on the feasibility and value of an approach to teaching EAP writing in which students construct and examine their own individual, discipline-specific corpora. The approach was trialed in multidisciplinary classes of advanced-level students (mostly graduates). The course consisted of six weekly 2-h sessions. Data were collected…

Presented is a longitudinal study evaluating a Bachelor of Social Work writing program. The independent variable is a BSW curriculum in which social work courses include American Psychological Association 5th edition writing modules. In 2005, a baseline was established. From 2006 to 2010, a writing program was implemented. Using a brief rating…

Moment to moment, a writer faces a host of potential problems. How does the writer's mind coordinate this problem solving? In the original Hayes and Flower model, the authors posited a distinct process to manage this coordinating--that is, the "monitor." The monitor became responsible for executive function in writing. In two…

From penmanship, to product, to process...this article recounts 100 years of instructional practice in the US elementary writing classroom through the voices of past teaching manuals and curriculum guides. This particular tale begins at the turn of the 20th century--a time when the elementary school was firmly established in the country, and…

Although not everyone needs textbooks, they still actively serve four audiences within the discipline. The four audiences that benefit from textbooks are students, instructors, the textbook sales force, and the textbook authors themselves. With a growing number of online classes where students have less and less, or even no, face time with their…

This article is a review of 12 online writing resources and contains suggestions about how such resources might be used in a differentiated classroom with talented writers. Youth with writing talent are defined by distinguishing characteristics and the authors discuss how those characteristics can be supported and enhanced using Web 2.0 tools.…

Writing is an important life skill that all students need in order to succeed in today's society. However, proficient writing skills develop over time, requiring years of quality instruction combined with motivation, encouragement, and lots of practice. School-wide writing is an approach that provides specific writing instruction in a consistent…

A growing group of green writers are persuading people to change their thinking and their behaviors for the benefit of our planet and its inhabitants. Adding a green writing assignment, unit, or course to your curriculum, the author argues, is an excellent strategy for showing students how their writing can make a difference in their community.…

Master's programs have been absent from writing studies' scholarship on graduate education, primarily because they are not sites of disciplinary research. The MA, however, should be valued in writing studies for its demographic and curricular diversity, its responsiveness to local conditions, and its intra- and interdisciplinary flexibility.…

The contemporary art college makes a broad range of media available to students, from which writing is conventionally excluded. Writing entered the art college curriculum in the 1960s as a "frame", or means of integrating art and artists into an academic framework, rather than as a medium of potential study. Drawing on the philosophy of Vilem…

It is well known, of course, that all Windows versions except for 3.1 have a brief (four to six second) piece of music indicating that Windows is booted and ready for use. While the music may indicate Windows has booted, it bears no immediately discernable relation to the various uses we might actually put Windows to--working, gaming,…

This article argues that craft knowledge can provide a disciplinary rationale for writing studies. It draws from the ancient concepts of teche, phronesis, and the four causes of making and makes the case for a definition of disciplinary knowledge fitting for writing studies. The article concludes with a conceptual framework that can serve as a…

It's obvious that technology is reshaping students' reading and writing practices, with or without educators' intervention. The challenge is to teach students to be truly literate in two languages--those of the pre- and post-digital worlds. So how can teachers teach to two literacies at once? They must approach this task with three mind-sets.…