Considers how theories of writing grounded in cultural studies and ethnographic writing have explicitly taken up questions of writing students' relations to cultures and communities outside the academy. Considers disciplinary influences in ethnographic writing. Discusses the reenvisioning of the politics of postmodern ethnography. (SG)

Expresses concern over students' weakness for hyperbole. Notes that in order to engage students in the process of exploring what they do not know, teachers need to convince them that clarity and understatement requires as much imagination as hyperbole and exaggeration. Presents a teaching exercise that encourages students to write about what they…

Notes that handwriting achievement can be assessed in degrees from being legible to being illegible. Suggests that a rubric, carefully developed and designed, may well be used to ascertain the quality of handwriting achievement. Gives a brief history of handwriting instruction. Presents 10 points for teachers to follow when teaching handwriting.…

Discusses the topic of creative nonfiction and how it is addressed throughout this special issue. Suggests that how creative nonfiction is placed does have implications for literature and writing, both creative and non. (SG)

Suggests that there is a real chance right now for letting the possibilities of creative nonfiction infuse, improve, and invigorate the teaching of composition. Concludes that when allowed to explore literary nonfiction, writing students will develop a substantial set of strengths from which to undertake other disciplinary writing challenges as…

Focuses on the need to reevaluate the teaching of grammar and mechanics. Examines how to create a meaningful, practical system for teachers and students. Defines "glossing" as a method whereby the student corrects an error identified by the teacher and then states the grammatical rule that applies. Notes that this process allows teachers…

Discusses how the eloquent "I" cultivates a deepened self-dialogue and offers students an epistemological and rhetorical discipline. Reconfigures Mikhail Bakhtin's ethics of "otherness" and his dialogic-prompted way of knowing. Discusses looking for the eloquent "I" in the writing classroom. (SG)

Tells two stories concerning the perversity of plagiarism. Discusses how one student's plagiarism was uncovered. Discusses how another student suspected of plagiarizing a personal account of anorexia denied the paper was about herself rather than admit that she was indeed anorexic. Notes that the student's journal entries indicate that she did not…

Provides six tips for teachers to help them become helpful writing coaches to their students. (MG)

Annotates articles from all issues of "The Journal of Technical Writing and Communication" (1971-89). Includes the following categories: education and pedagogy; preparation and presentation of technical information; research and theory in technical communication; and application of technology to technical communication. (MM)

Presents Martin Greenspan's four-stage (preparatory, incubation, illumination, and verification) model of the creation of new thought. Argues that this model provides a way of seeing, identifying, and understanding features of writing to learn and learning to write that other composition theories have not permitted. (RS)

Basal texts are unheard of in New Zealand. Instead, teachers choose resources suiting their students' needs and teaching methods appropriate to a given syllabus. Additionally, reading, talking, and writing are inseparably interrelated, literacy foundations are laid in the early years, reading for meaning is paramount, and diverse instructional…

Analyzes Thomas Farrell's discussion of the distinction between male and female modes of rhetoric. Discusses the linking of theory to experience and the creation of nonadversarial argument which suggests two pedagogical practices that can help overcome the dominance of current-traditional rhetoric in the writing classroom. (MG)

Offers 95 questions for writing teachers to ask themselves concerning their writing habits and the writing instruction they offer to their students. (MG)

Describes a high school advanced composition course which uses films and the metaphor of stellar constellations (a writer finding or imposing order and meaning in a chaos of ideas). Notes that most students understood this approach to criticism by the end of the course. (RS)