Explores effects of electronically decentralizing writing centers. Suggests that asynchronous conferencing promises to simplify scheduling but complicate supervision, while its potential effects on workplace ethos are more difficult to predict. Explores the potential for information technology to preserve conference talk. Concludes that a writing…

Examines the rationale for making information literacy a writing center goal and suggests several possibilities for implementation. Suggests that writing centers should become more directly involved in helping students develop a more effective research process. Stresses the role that information literacy plays in determining life quality and…

Describes two word games useful in secondary writing classrooms: "illot-mollo," in which freewriters announce words they just wrote which the other members must use in their subsequent freewriting; and "secret" in which students each write a secret (usually made-up) and then put them into a hat--students then pull out a secret and write about it.…

Focuses on the role of overhearer participation in kindergarten students' learning to write. Uses E. Goffman's notion of the participation framework as a linguistic structure that organizes, and is organized by, talk and interaction in activity. Discusses how shifts in participation roles contribute to text construction using data drawn from an…

Argues that grammar instruction is important and should begin early. Lists rules for using the comma, colon, and semi-colon. Notes 10 tips for top-notch writing. Notes grammatical areas often troublesome to students. Includes a short quiz. (SR)

Presents an overview of cultural studies and composition. Shows how a Berlinian heuristic is enacted in three areas of the cultural studies/composition classroom: in the positioning of the cultural studies/composition teacher; in the revamping of the Berlinian heuristic; and in the integration of "arrangement" as a major issue in a…

Demonstrates that Paulo Freire has a view of truth as the critical disclosure of "limit-situations" that is outside of Patricia Bizzell's earlier social constructionist intellectual framework and the later framework that she calls "postmodern skepticism." Demonstrates how Mark Mathabane's "Kaffir Boy and African Women:…

Presents a transcript of a panel discussion at Colgate University in which people in various professions spoke about their writing experiences in school and on the job. Notes that these stories told by professionals about their writing experiences can be seen as part of an institutional history and part of a disciplinary history. (RS)

Argues that postmodern language theory offers useful insights into long-standing writing problems encountered by writing instructors. Discusses a postmodern view of language, how language shapes reality, the contributions of Jacques Derrida, and deconstruction and composition. Applies these ideas to two pedagogical ideologies, and suggests some…

Discusses two intriguing ways of explaining error in student writing--the work of Michel Foucault and the work of Roland Barthes. Describes in-class activities and essay assignments that use these perspectives to help students to reach improved understanding of error in writing. (SR)

Suggests that negotiation as a rhetorical strategy can help compositionists rethink the connections between the public sphere and students' writing, and that it can also be a productive way to think of classroom interaction. Brings critical pressure to bear on the concept of negotiation as it has been traditionally conceived and theorized,…

Explores whether instruction in writing style at the word and sentence level leads to improvements in the quality of students' writing in a business-communication class. Finds that informative memos written after instruction were of higher quality than those written before instruction, with students' styles changing for the better after…

Provides a guide to writing research reports in geography and the environmental sciences. Outlines some of the reasons for writing research reports and then goes on to discuss general layout and content. Concludes with some comments on matters of presentation and written expression. (DSK)

Notes the contribution of an earlier article to a geographic study of composition; extends that contribution by using concepts from postmodern geography to explore how spaces/places are socially produced through discourse and how these constructed spaces can then deny their connections to material reality or mask material conditions. Interprets…

Considers the nature of today's changing society in order to determine how writing centers can continue to be viable parts of academia. Discusses issues such as helping students integrate technology into their writing processes, and present and future demographic changes. (NH)