Argues that reference to the term "real world" among technical writing professionals damages the field's pedagogical, political, and intellectual credibility. Supports replacing "real" with a more accurately descriptive term like "practical" to eliminate the pejorative meanings of the present usage. (MM)

Argues that diminishing the distinctions between oral and written text-making will harm students trying to transform oral to written text. Applies dialogic theory to the science essay, a genre that is a staple in cross-curricular writing courses. Presents five basic teaching strategies that balance oral and written conventions. (RS)

Suggests alternatives to marginal comments on students' papers as a way to encourage them to think more about the revision process. Recommends that teachers make no marks on the student's paper (only on a separate sheet), and ask leading questions in conference to guide the student to a focus. (RAE)

Describes how the author changed his pedagogical stance to address students' interests and concerns in a college composition course. Argues that this approach helps explore students' educational values and improves the quality of their writing. (MM)

Explores the writing process from a child's perspective. (MM)

Describes a prewriting activity in which students form questions about their classmates' research topics. Notes that this activity provides students with multiple questions concerning their topics, and conveys the message that they will be writing for a real audience of peers. (MM)

Discusses two ways of organizing writing: "imitative" or "natural" order, which reflects either chronology or spatiality; and "imposed" order, in which topical materials have been restructured in a significant way. Argues that all rhetorical alternatives should be considered when teaching writing. (MM)

Discusses reasons for the lack of ongoing exchange among university colleagues. Suggests how writing programs can foster this exchange through various collaborative projects for writing faculty, including peer advising, composition seminars, and interactive observation. (MM)

Describes how writing news releases can teach technical writing students audience analysis, formatting, conciseness, clarity, objectivity, editing, and style. (MM)

Discusses the historical significance of letters to the editor. Suggests guidelines to teach students the skill of writing letters to the editor as a constructive method of sharing views. Asserts that this kind of letter writing encourages participation in the democratic process. (MS)

Describes the author's poet-in-residency at Salmon, Idaho, through a series of letters and journal entries. Describes her planning and orientation; her experiences teaching poetry writing to students at all levels; the organization of a public reading; and her return to distribute an anthology of her students' work. (MM)

The authors present a checklist for evaluating student use of critical thinking skills in writing assignments. The checklist covers (1) purpose, (2) audience analysis, (3) coherence/logic, (4) sentence logic, (5) parallel features, and (6) subordination features. (CH)

Describes a study of the differences between eight experienced writers who describe themselves as either one- or multi-draft writers. Considers advantages and disadvantages of their differences, including the point at which they begin writing, option-exploring behavior, attitudes toward closure, and writer-based versus reader-based early drafts.…

Offers several brief creative writing activities that are quick, convenient, and encourage students to enjoy and play with words and ideas. Presents these ideas in a calendar format, one for the primary level and one for the intermediate level. (SR)

Offers a heuristic for writers to appraise the relative value of information in texts as an aid to revising. Uses the example of noun strings versus prepositional phrases. (SR)