Outlines the technical writing tutorial (TWT) that precedes an advanced English as a second language (ESL) writing course for students of English Philology at the Jagiellonian University, Poland. Finds a statistically significant increase in the performance of the students who had taken the TWT. Indicates that technical writing books and journals…

Maintains that the author's authentic voice as a writer is "constructed more than it is gushed." Describes how, when the author tinkers with words, when he shifts, cuts, changes, and arranges them to achieve certain effects, it isn't the writing only that he crafts: he is also crafting an identity. Notes how this applies to teaching…

Explores thoughts about what teachers owe young writers in helping them learn to spell. Considers the variety of ideas in the educational community on this topic, discussing briefly invented spelling, spelling in the writing process, word lists, and spelling patterns. (SR)

Presents and discusses a speller's bill of rights, consisting of nine items to guide a spelling curriculum and ensure that children leave elementary school able to express themselves strongly and effectively in writing, including the ability to ensure that words in their writing are spelled appropriately without spending hours on proofreading. (SR)

Establishes that there are different ways of conceiving of time and that they are class-based. Illustrates in part the history of one working-class student struggling to make sense of middle-class affiliations with academic discourse and middle-class understandings of time. Proposes that writing teachers make more explicit the ways that narrative…

Argues for what the author calls "just multiculturalism," which holds justice rather than tolerance or difference as multiculturalism's first principle, as one path to consider a way out of the relativist trap. Notes that in the classroom, just multiculturalism encourages students to engage in cross-cultural understanding, judgment,…

Considers how helping one to imagine himself or herself a writer is much more complex than nurturing a more stable grasp of sentence clarity or spelling. Notes that it involves the ability to nurture the personal introspection and cultural scrutiny that makes writing a source for reflection and transformation. (SG)

Considers how issues related to technological literacy can provide a useful frame for thinking critically about computer-based instruction in technical communication. Identifies issues of technological literacy related to performance, contextual factors, and linguistic activities in order for students to identify and analyze a range of…

Describes literacy autobiographies gathered from 55 professional communicators participating on the Techwr-l listserv, focusing on the large-scale trends that these autobiographies reveal. Supplements findings with case studies of a faculty member, a professional communicator, and two students of different backgrounds majoring in technical…

Makes the case that inner growth or learning takes place in solitude. Argues that educators have failed to teach solitude and provides examples of accomplishing this by teaching the humanities as arts. (Contains 23 references.) (SK)

Uses the lens of postcolonial theory to reflect on the author's uses of a varied series of writing pedagogies in cross-cultural classrooms at an international college. Suggests that a pedagogy constructed against the backdrop of postcolonial theory might provide both students and their teacher in such a cross-cultural setting with a more complex…

Illustrates key features of visual rhetoric as they operate in two professional academic hypertexts and student work designed for the World Wide Web. Considers how by looking at features like audience stance, transparency, and hybridity, writing teachers can teach visual rhetoric as a transformative process of design. (SG)

Notes that Ron Cramer is a distinguished professor of reading and language arts at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan and his special interest is in the teaching of writing. Presents an interview with him. Considers how he is particularly passionate about the idea of teachers as exemplars of literate behaviors. (SG)

Considers whether dramatic play with toys would be as important for beginning readers and whether it could be used to support their story writing. Discusses the introduction of toys to the writers' workshop. Considers how to reflect on the physical world as a source for story ideas. (SG)

Defines the ballad as the link between the written and the sung. Explains that ballad meter is made of quatrains that alternate between four-stress and three-stress lines, and contain an "abcb" or "abab" rhyme scheme. Notes that ballads are mnemonic devices and tell stories. Discusses modern balladeers and describes ballad writing assignments. (PM)