In this article, we provide a theoretical framework for understanding how written peer critique can be used successfully to develop authority in students' writing in the disciplines. We suggest that having students respond to their peers in writing rather than orally and positioning students to write their critiques from a strong knowledge base…

Students enter composition classrooms in the twenty-first century with various levels of computer proficiency and comfort with technology and digital media. Instructors often make assumptions that their students' are familiar with technology, even though students may be hesitant to use technology in the classroom. This dissertation gathers data…

In this book, the author provides teachers with detailed strategies and lesson plans, along with real student writing samples. He describes effective routines of formative self-assessment, and shows teachers how to form a professional learning team with their colleagues using the 6-session professional learning guide. Contents include: (1)…

The Focused Practice Instructional Approach (FPIA) was based on the Environmental Mode of instruction established by George Hillocks' 1986 meta-analysis for writing instruction. The purpose of this study was to clearly define the FPIA approach using the original studies and test if it was significantly effective in fourth grade classrooms using…

Writing effectively is academically and professionally crucial for students, and helping them attain that skill is a major goal for writing instruction. The social networking site Ning offers a variety of Web 2.0 tools that can help students learn to write as well as write to learn. In this article, the authors describe their personal experiment…

The demand that public school students, especially at the high school level, write under time pressure has been the subject of debate for at least the last seventy-five years. As state after state has added timed writing component to its testing apparatus in recent years, the debate has intensified. Those teachers who are alumni of the National…

The author discusses his experience in a university project that led to the creation of a first-year writing text based on interviews with members of a local neighborhood. In particular, he analyzes the negative reaction that many of the community's residents expressed toward the text's portrayals of them. From the tensions that developed, the…

Writing assistance systems, from simple spelling checkers to more complex grammar and readability analyzers, can be helpful aids to nonnative writers of English. However, many writing assistance systems have two disadvantages. First, they are not designed to encourage skills learning and independence in their users; instead, users may begin to use…

People are writing as never before--in blogs and text messages and on MySpace and Facebook and Twitter. Teenagers do a good deal of this writing, and in some composing environments--for example, the text-messaging space of a cell phone--they are ahead of adults in their invention of new writing practices and new genres. At the same time, teenagers…

The indigenous rhetoric of the Plateau Indians continues to exert a discursive influence on student writing in reservation schools today. Plateau students score low on state-mandated tests and on college writing assignments, in large part because the pervasive personalization of Plateau rhetoric runs counter to the depersonalization of academic…

In this article, Boldt considers decisions teachers must make about the value of children's writing as a form of play in primary classrooms. She offers a brief history of the framing of this question at 1966 Dartmouth Conference on English, focusing particularly on the perspective of Jimmy Britton. She highlights the relationship between Britton's…

Young children benefit from having their stories written down and shared with others. The authors highlight two strategies for supporting young writers: taking dictation and translating "kid writing." They explain why both are important in introducing the purpose of writing and the functions of printed language. The article offers tips to teachers…

This article describes a cognitive argumentation schema for written arguments and presents three empirical studies on the "myside" bias--the tendency to ignore or exclude evidence against one's position. Study 1 examined the consequences of conceding, rebutting, and denying other-side information. Rebuttal led to higher ratings of…

This paper details an assignment sequence that requires graduate students in an applied communication program to identify problems that clients may not be aware of. Good writing and good problem-solving are "inextricably linked to [a student's] ability to frame an issue, gather, and analyze information, and to structure a helpful response" (Musso,…

In this article, I discuss research on the use of technology to support the writing of students with learning disabilities. Struggling writers can benefit from a wide range of computer applications for writing. Word processing, spelling checkers, word prediction, and speech recognition offer support for transcription and revision. Word processing…