This research project examines students' reactions to in-class discussion as an instructional technique by investigating the effect of participation practices on communication-based skill development. The findings provide evidence that active preparation and participation in class discussion can be linked to students' reports of improved oral and…

Despite high levels of disengagement in urban literacy classrooms, few teachers have seen fit to explore spoken word--the performance of poetry--as a tool to engage students in literacy. Spoken word poetry serves as a powerful means of self-representation for youth that are traditionally portrayed as threatening, menaces to society that do not…

In this study we examine how university plagiarism policies interact with international graduate students' academic writing in English as they develop identities as authors and students. The study is informed by the sociocultural theoretical perspective [Vygotsky, L. (1978). "Mind in society: The development of higher mental processes." Cambridge,…

Much of Michael Pressley's work during the past decade focused on the nature of highly effective, engaging literacy instruction. Michael Pressley believed that studying effective teachers and schools had the potential to influence more engaging and effective teaching, especially in underresourced schools. First, we describe the grounded…

Over the past 15 years, a growing number of composition scholars and teachers have urged that their colleagues view writing as a social practice. Social factors in some way condition, shape, influence, or determine writers, writing events, and texts. It should be noted, however, that this latter statement already frames a kind of analysis: one…

At this time when feminist criticism is working its way into the field of composition and cultural studies, three issues call for discussion. First of all, composition because it is a "feminized" field as it has historically been defined as "women's work," it is a radically different terrain from cultural studies. A close…

Two collaborative authors have found that discussions about collaborative writing are hard to come by. Despite years of research into collaborative learning, the collaborative nature of knowledge, and many examples of collaborative work by great writers, the notion of solitary authorship is hard to overcome. These authors found that few of the…

Good writing is good sentences. It is a simple truth that many in the business of teaching writing have strayed from. Good writing is a first sentence that makes a reader want to read the second sentence, a second sentence that makes a reader want to read the third, and so on. Erika Lindemann suggests that certain types of sentence instruction can…

This paper discusses the dynamics of Paulo Freire's "true perception" and the importance of language awareness, and even style, to that "interdependence" which makes possible the perception and transformation of reality. Freire calls for a critical intervention to transform reality, and because this intervention simultaneously…

Intended for teachers at all levels, but especially the junior high and high school levels, this book offers a rationale and practical ideas for teaching grammar not in isolation but in the context of writing. Chapters in the book are: (1) Grammar and the Teaching of Grammar: An Introduction; (2) Teaching Grammar: Reasons for, Evidence Against;…

In his 1976 article, "Grammars of Style: New Options in Composition," Winston Weathers calls for a Grammar B, an alternate set of conventions which govern the construction of whole compositions. He urges compositionists to look beyond the "well-made box" and consider other options for compositional patterns and discourse…

In "Frames of Mind," Howard Gardner replaces the standard view of intelligence with the idea that human beings have several distinct intelligences. Using an elaborate set of criteria, including evidence from studies of brain damage, prodigies, developmental patterns, cross-cultural comparisons, and various kinds of tests, Gardner…

Gopher and World Wide Web (WWW) are two useful Internet technologies for the composition and rhetoric classroom. Gopher software makes available a wide variety of text-based information in the Internet. A Gopher at Bowling Green State University offers many types of information. The World Wide Web, using a fairly simple markup language, is also…

The turmoil that students feel when their values are challenged is directly tied to their fear of annihilation--of death. Both are a matter of identity and the "self" for the reason that the ability to reason, invent, and separate and defend is that faculty which protects them from natural forces. So the connection between the rhetoric…

Being a teacher of writing carries certain ideological implications, not the least of which is the fact that the teacher must participate in and perpetuate an educational system which works effects in and upon society that are repugnant. Overall, teachers work to maintain a status quo that shrugs its shoulders at many inequalities and injustices…