Explains that the quintet or cinquain is a poetic form developed by the American poet Adelaide Crapsey. Contends that the cinquain is a particularly appropriate form for physically and cognitively disabled students to write in. Notes that for the special needs classroom, the syllabic requirements of the poem can be replaced with a specific word…

Offers a mediation on the 2003 People's Poetry Gathering. Includes two writers' thoughts on epics and ballads. Contends that the themes of epics remain relevant, yet there must always be a gap between the modern reader and the ancient epic singer. Proposes that studying folklore and finding ways to preserve and present older forms in innovative…

Notes that when introduced with care, haiku has the potential to become the virtual jack-of-all teaching tools. Describes how the author introduces haiku to her students. Suggests that haiku provides students with an uncluttered opportunity to apply alliteration to their writing. (SG)

Notes that the small group of educators who put together this theme issue stemmed from work done through a grant, the purpose of which was to provide a bridge between private and public schools, with a focus on writing. Reflects one "basic truth": teachers who want to improve student writing are most effective when they are also readers and…

Reviews work in the field of writing instruction, focusing on self-regulated strategy development (SRSD), which emphasizes the development of composition and self-regulation strategies in tandem. The six stages of SRSD are: develop and activate background knowledge, discuss the strategy, model the strategy, memorize the strategy, support the…

Turns to contemporary feminist object-relations theory to understand the efforts of students in a service learning course, to push beyond the usual subject-object, active-passive dualisms that pervade community-based literacy projects, and to compose instead complex representations in which all participants are composed as active, as knowing, and…

Demonstrates that grrrl zine editors are collectively engaged in forms of writing and writing instruction that challenge both dominant notions of the author as an individualized, bodiless space and notions of feminism as primarily an adult political project. Discusses some of the more specific transgressive or postfeminist writing sites,…

Argues for a context-sensitive understanding of plagiarism by analyzing a set of written institutional policies and suggesting ways that they might be revised. Offers examples of classroom practices to help teach a concept of plagiarism as situated in context. Concludes that plagiarism is an area where students need access to their teacher's…

Argues that the meanings that writing center staff members assign to the words "tutor" and "tutee" run directly counter to the common meanings for the terms. Suggests replacing "tutor" with "writing assistant,""writing consultant," or "writing fellow." Suggests replacing "tutoring" with "discussion" or "consulting." Suggests replacing the term…

Presents an interview with Noam Chomsky. Discusses his positions on social construction, paradigm shifts, feminist scholarship, teaching, ideology, propaganda, and indoctrination. (RS)

Suggests how autobiography defines itself as a system of voices, with the author in a dialogic relationship with the elusive nature of language. Argues that autobiography is a sophisticated form of composing, appropriate for the advanced composition class. Suggests that autobiography can create a memorable educational experience. (RS)

Presents strategies for basic business writing activities based on a model that views writing as an art of discovery, that assumes topics are developed intuitively, and that views writing as recursive and not linear. The use of current economic events as a source of writing activities is encouraged. (SK)

Offers a modest new taxonomy for rhetorical heuristics for arrangement, one of the five major divisions of classical rhetoric. Suggests schemes suitable for academic discourse, such as "obvious before remarkable,""literal before symbolic," and "explanation before complication." Supplies a limited theoretical context…

Explores Sartre's views of education as expressed in his work, "A Plea for Intellectuals." Notes that Sartre believed that capitalist educational systems attempt to instill bourgeois humanism and allow industry to control the university. Argues that writing instructors must promote social change and must encourage students to transcend…

Describes the effects of using the writing workshop approach on Scott, a student with learning disabilities, and the phenomenal progress he made. Maintains that students' giant leaps occur because students are little learning machines when they are learning what they themselves need to know. (SR)