The first-year composition requirement at Murray State University was revised in 2008 from a 6-credit-hour, two-semester sequence to a 4-credit-hour, one-semester course. The revision overtly emphasizes critical reading, writing, and inquiry, while addressing the realities of the institution's resources for teaching first-year composition. This…

This article presents follow-up information to a previous publication regarding ways to increase emphasis on research skills in undergraduate Technical Communication curricula. We detail the ways our undergraduate program highlights research by requiring majors to complete senior thesis projects that culminate in submission to an online…

Since its emergence in the 1960s, critics and instructors alike have lauded the benefits of peer collaboration in the college composition classroom, and more specifically, the value of peer editing. However, the benefits of peer editing are not necessarily realized in traditional entry level writing classes. A consultation of both quantitative and…

The present study compares the discourse organization in compositions by senior high school students in Taiwan in their Chinese and English classes and explores the influence of their teachers' writing instruction in order to extend the current understanding of students' discourse organization in the school context. The researcher collected data…

This article considers the influence of the U.S. accountability- and standards-driven context on the writing experiences of multilingual writers in "New Mainstream" linguistically diverse high school classrooms. Qualitative data from 12 ninth grade subject-matter classes were examined to note how uses of writing in subject-matter classrooms…

This essay describes my design and implementation of a composition course focused on the Native American rhetorical device of survivance at work in debates on Indian removal and U.S.-Indian relations in general. Using a contact zone approach, I found that the course improved writing and thinking skills by pushing students out of their ideological…

Deaf students are attending mainstream postsecondary institutions in increasing numbers. This study attempts to fill a gap in the literature regarding deaf students' writing tutorials with hearing tutors and interpreters. It consists of observation of tutoring sessions, interviews, and collection and grounded theory analysis of relevant documents…

Rubrics are scoring guides, consisting of specific pre-established performance criteria, used in evaluating student work. iRubric is a comprehensive rubric development, assessment, and sharing tool. It shows the major skills and sub skills to be mastered, the different mastery levels, and marks allocated to each level. Rubrics can be…

Effective writing is a learned skill, required to advance many forms of learning both in classroom contexts, and in job and career contexts. Previous research (Graham & Perin, 2007) has identified many strategies that promote improvements in students' writing through a meta-analysis of research studies and previous meta-analyses. Other authors…

The Major in Writing Studies (with emphases in Professional Writing and in Journalism) at the University of Minnesota Duluth marks a curricular innovation. This profile traces the intellectual arguments that created space for a Department and Major in Writing Studies at UMD. Those arguments included a differentiation from the contested spaces of…

By analyzing the shortcomings of the traditional approach and the drawbacks of the modern approach, the author attempts to explore a better way for the teaching of intermediate-level writing skills to EFL students. Taking into account all of the factors which are involved in good writing, the author puts forward a balanced approach to such…

My experience working with first year writers in courses designed to teach critical thinking and composition has introduced me to a mass of young adults who are anxious when it comes to effective written communication in a college classroom. Not only are they troubled about how to write to an audience of college professors, but they are also…

The ability to write well is often critical for effective work performance. Although basic writing courses provide a foundation for college and university students, discipline-specific writing tasks and methods are frequently learned indirectly. Incorporating occupational writing skills in course curriculum better prepares students for future…

This dissertation is an auto-ethnographic account of my curriculum in first-year writing that promotes institutional literacy and examines student responses to it. I frame my research with New Literacy Studies (NLS) in order to highlight the connections between the literate practices of students and larger social, cultural, economic, and…

This definitive book presents the newest research linking graphic narratives and literacy learning, as well as the tools teachers will need to make comic book projects a success in their classrooms. The Comic Book Project (www.comicbookproject.org) is an internationally celebrated initiative where children plan, write, design, and publish original…